Living overseas the past two football seasons has led me to do some thorough investigation into ways to watch both NCAA football and the NFL online while living abroad. There is a ton of information and possibilities available on the web but much of it leads to a dead end. There are both free and paid “satellite to PC” services out there that people have tried with varying success. I’ve attempted some of them not expecting much and the results have been disappointing even with somewhat well known sites such as justin.tv
My conclusion, if you don’t want to be disappointed when trying to watch American football online, you have to pony up and pay for one of the following reliable solutions.
NFL Game Pass:
At one time the NFL and NBC streamed every Sunday night game online for free. This is no longer the case. The good news however is that you can now watch EVERY NFL game online. The bad news is that, like every other free thing that is good, eventually you have to pay. NFL Game Passes can be ordered and watched by the week, by the month, for a specific team’s games or unlimited access for an entire year. A great resource but it can be a bit expensive. To get the entire NFL season, it’ll set you back $280. And when the season is over, you’ve got nothing to show for it but memories.
Get the NFL Game Pass here:
Keep in mind that this service is only available outside the USA, Mexico and US territories. This is due to the fact that the NFL has sold the broadcasting rights to television stations such as NBC and ESPN.
BigTenTicket:
As far as NCAA football goes, you’ll have to check to see how the conference handles streaming of games. For example, the Big Ten Network has something called the BigTenTicket where you can watch all the Big Ten Network televised football (basketball also included) games. The only problem is that if a game is licensed to a different network such as ABC or ESPN, than you are out of luck.
You can find more information about the Big Ten Ticket here:
Television Streaming Devices:
This is my recommended method to watch NFL games, NCAA games and anything else that is on TV or stored on a DVR. Television streaming devices are hardware devices that you connect to a cable or satellite source in the United States. The device is then connected to a broadband connection. Once this is done, software can be installed on a PC, laptop or even a smart phone such as an iPhone that communicates with the streaming hardware. The PC user can then use the software to stream the television stream in real-time over the Internet. If you are abroad but have a home that has cable/satellite and a high-speed Internet connection, it’s simple to set these devices up. The most popular television streaming device is the Slingbox. You can purchase the Slingbox on Amazon by clicking this the image:
There are also other companies that offer streaming hardware. One of them, called HAVA is said to provide the highest quality HD picture while being streamed. If you insist on the best quality picture than the HAVA might be the streaming device for you. This device can be ordered on Amazon by clicking on the image:
Either one of these tv to PC streaming devices gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility. The only issue is that you need to have a cable/satellite connection within the USA. Also keep in mind that you will only be able to see games that that cable/satellite package offer. For example, if you hook up a Slingbox in Atlanta GA, don’t expect to be able to watch too many PAC-10 NCAA games because the local stations will be showing more local SEC games.
That being said, the streaming devices work very well. Early last year I successfully watched several NCAA bowl games using a Slingbox that was installed in Chicago. The streaming picture and audio was clear and smooth even while I was on the other side of the planet watching in Thailand.
The bottom line is, try the “free” and cheap streaming websites if you are in a bind. Maybe you’ll get lucky. But if you want to watch sports this football season with out missing a minute, use one of the reliable methods listed above. A few hundred dollars is a small price to pay to watch your favorite teams this year. Time to bite the bullet and buy because there really is no decent free alternative.
Article first published as How to Reliably Watch Football Online on Technorati.
