Getting Live Sports without a Cable Bill
It’s not easy. Often enough, those intrepid explorers who are looking to dump their pricey cable package in favor of the choices offered by the internet are stymied by the low availability of live sports. Thankfully, there are a few ways you can fill that gap.
- OTA Broadcasts – Over The Air means getting an antenna, mileage may vary depending on your location
- Free/paid first-party streams – Streams available online from ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, etc
- Free third-party streams – Streams made available by other users
- XBMC Add-ons that use those streams
Over The Air – Antenna
Using an antenna means physically mounting an antenna on your house, or mounting a smaller one on/near your TV. Either antenna will have a coaxial cable that you then plug directly into the corresponding jack on the back of your TV. Since you’re not paying for any service (the only thing you should have paid for is the antenna itself), there’s no one you can complain to if you don’t get the channels you expected. Also, a fair amount of other issues come in to play:
- Antennas should be placed where they have a clear view to the sky as few trees in the way as possible
- The closer to a major-metropolitan area you place your antenna, the better selection of channels you’ll get
- Outdoor antennas can be damaged by wind, rain and lightening
- Indoor antennas can be damaged by children or pets
- Both are often thought of as eyesores, and your local home owners association may not allow outdoor antennas of a certain size
However, the large majority of professional sports will be on channels that you can often pick up with an antenna (NBC, ABC, Fox). To get an estimate on what kind of antenna you’ll need and what channels you’ll be able to pick up, check out AntennaWeb. They’ll walk you through a quick process to determine your location and what stations you can reach. When purchasing, you should look for an antenna that is digital and HD capable and picks up the proper spectrum that was recommended to you at AntennaWeb.
Free/Paid First Party Streams
Generally streams right from the league or licensed broadcast partners.
In this section I’m just going to give some links, the sports they carry, the carrier and whether it’s free or paid. Please let me know in the comments what I’m missing anything.
- NHL games, blackout rules apply – ($20.99/mo OR $169) NHL GameCenterLive
- MLB games, blackout rules apply – ($various paid) mlb.tv
- MLS games, blackout rules apply – (no rates for 2012 yet, probably $40) MLS Matchday live
- NBA games, blackout rules apply – ($29.95/mo OR $169) NBA League Pass
- US College hockey – (Free, with a cable/internet subscription from any of these providers) ESPN3
- US College basketball – (Free, with a cable/internet subscription from any of these providers) ESPN3
- Some MLS, some EPL, most international soccer, some NASCAR and F1, other sports – (Free, with a cable/internet subscription from any of these providers) ESPN3
- Sunday Night Football/Some NFL Postseason/Pro Bowl/Super Bowl 2012 – (Free) NBCSports
- UFC Live/On Demand – (Paid, prices can be per event or subscription) UFC.tv
Free Third Party Streams
Quality is not always as good, but there are generally a few streams to choose from for any giving sporting event. The ads on these sites can sometimes be vicious and this author advises the use of Adblock.
- Most sports, around the world, including USA pro leagues – (free) FirstRowSports.tv
- Most sports, around the world, including USA pro leagues – (free) VIPbox.tv
XBMC Streaming Sports Add-Ons
XBMC has a few add-ons that help to get our sport content onto our HTPC, without the need for an external browser. I can recommend the use of two that I use on a regular basis, but I’m sure others are out there:
- SportsDevil – compiles a bunch of streaming sites (including firstrowsports.tv) into one add-on, most of them work
- ESPN3 – Just pulls the streams from ESPN3 into XBMC
If you have any other ideas, please let me know in the comments!
Any chance you could make a script for vipbox? their streams have been excellent recently
Their streams have been quite good. Sorry though, I’ve never really tried my hand at making XBMC add-ons. If you post in the XBMC forums though, someone might be able to help you.
Any ideas on how to get NHL playoffs? NHL Gamecenter won’t carry them because most games are broadcast on national channels so they’re blacked out. And I don’t have even basic cable nor do I want to pay for it.
I’ve been looking into the Mohu Leaf and wondering if it will be able to get NBC Sports. Do you know much about that? Most games are being played on NBC Sports so that’s the big channel I’m trying to get.
Not sure about Mohu Leaf, but I’m going to look into it. I catch most sports on vipbox.tv when I can’t find them in the SportsDevil XBMC add-on.
FirstRowSportsHD.COM
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