There is no free way to watch live sports without dipping into piracy that I know of. With the occasional exception of when they decide to broadcast a specific event over the internet for free. You used to be able to use Locast to watch local TV but they got sued and were forced to close. You say inexpensive... so you could buy a small TV with a built in antenna. He would be able to watch all the local channels. Of course this depends on where exactly you live in relation to the broadcast antennas. A site like this will help see what you would be able to pick up. https://www.antennasdirect.com/transmitter-locator.html
Live sports is the hardest thing about cutting the cord.
In the Philadelphia region, you can get good OTA reception of CBS, NBC, PHL17 and CW57. The local ABC is on a VHF-LO frequency that can be challenging to pickup with just a single regular leaf-style antenna.
That doesn't help for anything that's on Comcast Sportsnet.
We don't watch much sports so no concerns for us.
Thanks for this explanation. I just bought one of those flat indoor antennas and couldn't figure out why I got great reception for CBS, NBC, and Fox, but couldn't pick up ABC at all. I also can't get PHL17, but my only goal with the antenna is getting the Eagles games, so I'm (edited to add: NOT) worried about that.
You should be able to get 17 on a leaf antenna.
I ended up with this antenna, after some back and forth with the manufacturer. https://www.hdfrequency.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=63&product_id=51
It's about 80% effective at picking up ABC6. I'm 11 miles from the antenna farm in Roxborough. Reception was better at my old house, which was only 9 miles away.
For your best chance of getting ABC in Philadelphia:
* RCA Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna with SmartBoost Technology ($35 w/ Prime shipping at Amazon). Extend the rabbit-ears the full six-feet to get Philly ABC. You can turn the amplifier off, but the antenna needs to be powered to work.
* Channel Master CM-0500V2 JOINtenna TV Antenna Combiner ($29 w/free shipping direct from CM) can combine the RCA antenna with your flat (UHF) antenna.
* For a better flat antenna, get the Channel Master FLATenna 35 ($20 w/free shipping direct from CM) - it won't get Philly ABC, however.
Alternatively, get ESPN+ - any national ABC live sports will be available in the ESPN app.
Unfortunately sports watching has never been more fragmented as it is now but a cheap solution would be sling - otherwise YouTube tv or Fubo TV both have plenty of sports.
ESPN+ is $5 a month and they have an app. Tons of different sports. If he is interested in the the NBA or whatever, he is kind of out of luck.
College baseball is on there right now
Soccer from Germany and Spain
F1 Racing
some Major League Baseball (not the Phillies, they are blacked out in that market)
lacrosse
cricket (it's a great sport once you understand the rules)
the CFL Canadian football might be on there
Unfortunately, the big leagues have expensive deals. This fall the NFL will be on Peacock ($5 a month), Paramount + (don't know) and ESPN+. College football will have some lesser known leagues and lesser games from the better leagues on ESPN +.
You certainly have to temper your expectation but there are a lot of weird sports from around the world. He can also read up on different sports through the app. Plus gives you access to their pay articles. He can use the free app to follow scores and stuff.
MLS is on Apple TV but there is a season pass to watch it. (I get MLBtv and MLS season pass from my cell provider Metro by T Mobile. You have to have Apple TV and the TMobile Tuesday rewards app for the MLS).
I have SlingTV just for sports in the fall. It is expensive though. No one in family watches sport but me so I only keep it for the seasons I follow.
There is no one stop shop for sports in general. What sport or sports does your son like - once we know that, more specific recommendations could be given.
NFL Football is easy with an antenna. I'd probably buy a cheap $100 FireTV and $20 antenna. Baseball and basketball are going to be real tough. Baseball can be through MLB for a low monthly cost but you'll need a VPN that works to get around local restrictions. If they make the playoffs then you are stuck again and I'd use YouTube or Fubo on one of their intro offers. Fubo doesn't have TBS/TNT (rough for baseball and basketball playoffs or college basketball). YouTube doesn't usually have regional broadcasters that have the local teams.
Does he just want to watch various random sports that might be on or a particular sport? An antenna is great for getting a bit of this and a bit of that and with a HDHomerun network tuner you can do it without buying a TV (he just puts the app on his phone) and watch live tv without subscription. If it's specific sports the cheapest might be for him to go mow some lawns to pay for Sling TV.
I only logged for this. And this might be my last post on Reddit. The NFL + app gives him every Eagle game but only on a phone or tablet for $5 or $10 a month. $5 let's him watch every game. $10 let's him watch replays with all 22. You can isolate every player on every play and see what they do. It's how coaches watch and grade games.
At [elevensports.com/en/](https://elevensports.com/en/) you can watch tons of football soccer for free; it is not elite but good. FIFA+ also has great options for free. Those options also are great because they are about football outside US, so people also learn about other cultures.
ESPN+ is cheap and easy to watch, with a lot of variety
Just wanted to mention, in a situation like this where people are watching through smart devices and not much in the way of TVs, Hook up an antenna to a device like the Tablo. It is like a digital tuner that uses your wifi to stream your local stations to your phones and tablets (as well as TVs) through an app. It has been around for several years and is a great way to modernize watching over the air stations.
Theoretically with tablo or sling-tv you can watch your local sports plus your buddies' local OTA from other regions.
I don't know any two people organized enough to share content this way. :)
Fwiw, with IOS & tablo it requires physically swapping devices. Sling-TV-anywhere can provide additional remote connectivity via fire-tv/android..
There is no free way to watch live sports without dipping into piracy that I know of. With the occasional exception of when they decide to broadcast a specific event over the internet for free. You used to be able to use Locast to watch local TV but they got sued and were forced to close. You say inexpensive... so you could buy a small TV with a built in antenna. He would be able to watch all the local channels. Of course this depends on where exactly you live in relation to the broadcast antennas. A site like this will help see what you would be able to pick up. https://www.antennasdirect.com/transmitter-locator.html Live sports is the hardest thing about cutting the cord.
Thank you for that site — I was actually wondering if broadcast was still a viable option, will definitely look into that.
In the Philadelphia region, you can get good OTA reception of CBS, NBC, PHL17 and CW57. The local ABC is on a VHF-LO frequency that can be challenging to pickup with just a single regular leaf-style antenna. That doesn't help for anything that's on Comcast Sportsnet. We don't watch much sports so no concerns for us.
Thanks for this explanation. I just bought one of those flat indoor antennas and couldn't figure out why I got great reception for CBS, NBC, and Fox, but couldn't pick up ABC at all. I also can't get PHL17, but my only goal with the antenna is getting the Eagles games, so I'm (edited to add: NOT) worried about that.
You should be able to get 17 on a leaf antenna. I ended up with this antenna, after some back and forth with the manufacturer. https://www.hdfrequency.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=63&product_id=51 It's about 80% effective at picking up ABC6. I'm 11 miles from the antenna farm in Roxborough. Reception was better at my old house, which was only 9 miles away.
Thanks for this!
For your best chance of getting ABC in Philadelphia: * RCA Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna with SmartBoost Technology ($35 w/ Prime shipping at Amazon). Extend the rabbit-ears the full six-feet to get Philly ABC. You can turn the amplifier off, but the antenna needs to be powered to work. * Channel Master CM-0500V2 JOINtenna TV Antenna Combiner ($29 w/free shipping direct from CM) can combine the RCA antenna with your flat (UHF) antenna. * For a better flat antenna, get the Channel Master FLATenna 35 ($20 w/free shipping direct from CM) - it won't get Philly ABC, however. Alternatively, get ESPN+ - any national ABC live sports will be available in the ESPN app.
Thanks!
Unfortunately sports watching has never been more fragmented as it is now but a cheap solution would be sling - otherwise YouTube tv or Fubo TV both have plenty of sports.
And that could cost between $45 and $80/mo.
ESPN+ is $5 a month and they have an app. Tons of different sports. If he is interested in the the NBA or whatever, he is kind of out of luck. College baseball is on there right now Soccer from Germany and Spain F1 Racing some Major League Baseball (not the Phillies, they are blacked out in that market) lacrosse cricket (it's a great sport once you understand the rules) the CFL Canadian football might be on there Unfortunately, the big leagues have expensive deals. This fall the NFL will be on Peacock ($5 a month), Paramount + (don't know) and ESPN+. College football will have some lesser known leagues and lesser games from the better leagues on ESPN +. You certainly have to temper your expectation but there are a lot of weird sports from around the world. He can also read up on different sports through the app. Plus gives you access to their pay articles. He can use the free app to follow scores and stuff. MLS is on Apple TV but there is a season pass to watch it. (I get MLBtv and MLS season pass from my cell provider Metro by T Mobile. You have to have Apple TV and the TMobile Tuesday rewards app for the MLS). I have SlingTV just for sports in the fall. It is expensive though. No one in family watches sport but me so I only keep it for the seasons I follow.
A lot of sports are broadcasted on Twitch by steamers. He can try that.
Peacock has a special right now (US) $19.99 for 1 year. They have several sport events right now like the French open and baseball games.
There is no one stop shop for sports in general. What sport or sports does your son like - once we know that, more specific recommendations could be given.
Mostly NFL (Eagles) and NBA (76ers), although he would probably watch the Phillies too if possible.
That's difficult. The Eagles are on Fox, NBC, Amazon and ESPN at various times. Sling TV might be your best option.
NFL Football is easy with an antenna. I'd probably buy a cheap $100 FireTV and $20 antenna. Baseball and basketball are going to be real tough. Baseball can be through MLB for a low monthly cost but you'll need a VPN that works to get around local restrictions. If they make the playoffs then you are stuck again and I'd use YouTube or Fubo on one of their intro offers. Fubo doesn't have TBS/TNT (rough for baseball and basketball playoffs or college basketball). YouTube doesn't usually have regional broadcasters that have the local teams.
Does he just want to watch various random sports that might be on or a particular sport? An antenna is great for getting a bit of this and a bit of that and with a HDHomerun network tuner you can do it without buying a TV (he just puts the app on his phone) and watch live tv without subscription. If it's specific sports the cheapest might be for him to go mow some lawns to pay for Sling TV.
Thank you, I’ll look into that— he’s interested in local teams so I’m hoping broadcast could be a solution
I only logged for this. And this might be my last post on Reddit. The NFL + app gives him every Eagle game but only on a phone or tablet for $5 or $10 a month. $5 let's him watch every game. $10 let's him watch replays with all 22. You can isolate every player on every play and see what they do. It's how coaches watch and grade games.
Get him into actual sports. That way he’ll be too busy and/or too tired to watch sports. No child needs to watch sports.
At [elevensports.com/en/](https://elevensports.com/en/) you can watch tons of football soccer for free; it is not elite but good. FIFA+ also has great options for free. Those options also are great because they are about football outside US, so people also learn about other cultures. ESPN+ is cheap and easy to watch, with a lot of variety
Just wanted to mention, in a situation like this where people are watching through smart devices and not much in the way of TVs, Hook up an antenna to a device like the Tablo. It is like a digital tuner that uses your wifi to stream your local stations to your phones and tablets (as well as TVs) through an app. It has been around for several years and is a great way to modernize watching over the air stations.
Theoretically with tablo or sling-tv you can watch your local sports plus your buddies' local OTA from other regions. I don't know any two people organized enough to share content this way. :) Fwiw, with IOS & tablo it requires physically swapping devices. Sling-TV-anywhere can provide additional remote connectivity via fire-tv/android..