The National Football League and its broadcasting partners keep expanding how much gridiron content you can stream live online. Most North American football fans aren’t eligible for NFL Gamepass, the live-streaming pigskin bonanza available to international customers, but depending on your cable subscription you may be eligible to stream some NFL games on Fox this season.
Fox Sports recently announced that it will stream 97 regular season games via Fox Sports GO, albeit with a slew of caveats.
First, as mentioned, the streaming will only be available as a perk to select cable subscribers. Second, viewers will only be able to check out the games broadcast in their local market—sorry, displaced Giants fans living in Dallas, but you’ll still be stuck watching the Cowboys. Live streams are available on tablets via the Fox Sports Go app or on the desktop via FoxSportsGo.com. Smartphones, however, are out of luck as league restrictions (read: exclusive deal with Verizon) don’t allow you to get Fox Sports Go on devices like the iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy S5.
Read TechHive’s complete guide to watching NFL Football anywhere.
In addition to the regular season, Fox will also stream four NFC playoff games including one wildcard game (similar to previous NFL seasons) on Sunday, January 4; the divisional playoffs the next weekend; and the NFC championship game on Sunday, January 18.
Taking a quick count of Fox’s 2014 NFL broadcast schedule the network is set to show 99 regular season games, which means only six of those games won’t be available online for home market subscribers. It’s not clear which six won’t be shown online.
On top of the regular season games, sports fans will also get to stream Fox NFL Sunday, the network’s pregame show that starts at noon Eastern/9 AM Pacific.
Fox isn’t the only way North American fans can grab their weekly football fix online. This season, Verizon wireless subscribers will have an expanded set of games they can stream to their smartphones, including CBS and Fox Sunday afternoon games being broadcast in their home market, as well as the playoffs—including the Super Bowl.
Whew! NFL live streaming within North America sure has come a long way since the NFL and NBC started experimenting with online audiences in 2008 during NFL Sunday Night Football.