Cord-cutters who love sports not totally out of luck – The San Diego Union-Tribune
Last week, I challenged you would-be cord-cutters out there to go without cable for a full week.
And I pointed you to some great, totally free apps to temporarily fill the void. That was intended to gauge your readiness to let go of old-fashioned viewing habits that may or may not be satisfying your entertainment needs.
But, here’s the thing: I kind of glossed over the sports genre.
Not this time.
First, as a reminder, this weekly column is for would-be cord-cutters or anyone curious about the changing landscape of broadcast television. So far, I’ve gone over the basics for becoming a cord-cutter, introduced you to different streaming sticks and boxes, and showed you how to watch free stuff.
Now, let’s talk about sports. I’m going to be frank with you. Because of complex licensing agreements and the perceived value to the copyright owners, sports are often a challenge to watch in streaming environments.
Don’t forget, however, that you can get broadcast network affiliates’ sports coverage in HD, and totally free. How? With a TV antenna, of course. Depending on your location, you should be able to tune into local affiliates such as ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX.
As for streaming options, sports are not impossible to get, but your selection is extremely limited if you wish to watch live and do so legally. If you’re not worried about violating copyright law, then that’s an entirely different story. Just Google “free sports” and see where that search takes you. Or you can dabble in the gray area of free TV add-ons available through Kodi.
As for the legit stuff, you do have options, especially if you’re willing to pay (I’ll delve more into the streaming cable alternatives that offer sports programming in a future installment).
This time around, though, I’d like to introduce you to a couple of streaming freebies. A few apps, or channels as they’re also called, come to mind here: CBS Sports, NBC Sports and WatchESPN.
With the CBS Sports app you can watch some PGA Tour events and college basketball games completely free. No login necessary. You will have to put up with ads, as is typical with free apps. CBS wouldn’t provide a complete list of the sporting events they broadcast through the streaming app, so you’ll probably need to take a trial and error approach when it comes to locating events to watch.
The app is loaded with other freebies, including a variety of clips and highlights across many different sporting disciplines. And you can get some of the network’s shows free on demand. That includes “Pro Football Rundown” and “College Football Rundown.”
The NBC Sports app is another option, albeit primarily for sports highlights and the occasional full event replay. Otherwise, here’s the list of things you can watch free:
- Alpine sports events throughout the winter
- Formula practices that don’t air on TV (two per race week)
- Notre Dame college hockey games
- A handful of rugby matches
Most everything else requires a pay TV login.
As for the WatchESPN app, I don’t love it, as it primarily caters to pay TV customers. However, if you want to watch more obscure sporting events or college-level matches outside of basketball and football, then you might have some luck. Specifically, you’ll want to navigate to the ESPN 3 section and poke around there for things like college volleyball and baseball matches.
Here’s something else to note, sports fans: Verizon post-paid customers do get 100 percent free access to the NFL Mobile app, and that includes the NFL Network. The caveat is that you can only stream live NFL games on a smartphone or tablet, and not on your TV.
Ultimately, live sports are tricky to stream without a pay TV subscription. But things are changing quickly. Facebook and Twitter, for instance, are experimenting with live broadcasts of select major sporting events.
Twitter streamed Thursday night NFL games this past season. Facebook, meanwhile, just landed a deal with Univision to air 46 Mexican soccer matches this year. The social networking giant is also said to be working to acquire the streaming rights to digitally broadcast one Major League Baseball game per week.
What’s more, Facebook’s massive audience (1.86 billion people globally) and the pending release of its TV app for streaming sticks and boxes, mean the company will force copyright holders to think outside the TV box.
So keep your eye on this ball. Pun intended.
jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin
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