Access to regional sports networks may make or break your decision for sports streaming, so check with each provider to see if they offer the selection for the teams you want to watch.
On-demand streaming services cost less than live options, but they may be limited when it comes to live sports. However, a cheaper platform may meet your needs, depending on what you want to watch. Choose a subscription that aligns with your budget, and when considering costs, review the channel selection, RSN availability, cloud DVR, add-on prices and how many devices you can stream on simultaneously.
Live TV streaming services may offer different packages and sports add-ons for viewers, but you want to be sure you can watch your local channels along with major networks and on-demand videos. Not every service provides access to local programming (ABC or CBS) and channels you'd typically find on cable and satellite TV. Compare channel lineups before choosing for sports.
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Watching sports in the streaming era can be a fractured and frustrating experience for fans. Leagues have found it immensely lucrative to slice up their schedules and sell portions off to the various streaming services, each of which is desperate for live sports programming. This leaves most fans without a single subscription that covers all the games they want to watch. Instead, you need to cobble together a collection of services and then remember which games are on which service on which nights.
Take the NFL, for example, where this past season you could watch most games with a cable or live TV streaming service, but you also needed Prime Video for the Thursday night games, Netflix for a pair of Christmas Day games and Peacock for a game back in Week 1. It’s worse for NBA fans, who must subscribe to three streaming services in order to be able to watch nationally televised games on any given night this season.
If you're more of a diehard fan of your local NBA, NHL or MLB team and care more about watching its games than catching national broadcasts -- say, Knicks fans in New York, Avalanche fans in Colorado or Cubs fans in Chicago -- you’ll need a regional sports network. And options are limited for cord-cutters. Fubo and DirecTV are the only live TV streaming services that offer a wide selection of RSNs.
This winter, you have more than hockey and basketball to get you through the cold, dark months. The Winter Olympics start Friday , so you’ll probably want to sign up for a month of Peacock for full coverage of all the action from Italy. You’ll be able to watch a lot of the Olympics on NBC (and CNBC and USA Network) with a live TV streaming service, but many events will stream exclusively on Peacock. You can also watch the Super Bowl on NBC or Peacock this Sunday.
Read more: Best TVs deals for the Super Bowl
Given the range of sports and sports fans, it’s impossible to point to one streaming service as the single solution for your sports-watching needs. Most likely, you will need to mix and match. But I do have some good news to share for frustrated fans.
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