As a fan of the NBA, there’s always that recurring problem when you’re loyal to a team that’s not the Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, or any other large market team, and that is that you can almost never find your team’s games on TV. Usually, the average fan will just give up and wait for their scoring updates to be sent to their phone every quarter and at the end of the game, but those die hard fans, they don’t give up so easily. They surf the Internet for hours upon hours, trying to find the most reliable streaming website where they can watch their teams anytime they want to. So where should you look as an NBA fan to find your teams whenever you want them? Let’s find out.
For starters, if you don’t want to spend countless hours searching the web for streaming websites, you can always order NBA League Pass. NBA League Pass offers three different options for users: TV, Broadband, and Mobile. The purpose of NBA League Pass is to “give fans access to every out-of-market game that isn’t being broadcast nationally.” This is perfect for all those fans that have a favorite team that isn’t from the city they live in, because they can see every game their team plays. The Mobile plan, for a cost of $50, will give you the ability to stream every game of the entire NBA season to your phone (IPhone or Android only).
Or, if you want to be able to watch the games from your computer or video game systems, the Broadband plan, for $130-$190, can give you access to the entire season of games available on your computer, tablet, Xbox, IPad, etc, just not your phone or TV. Finally, if you want the best overall plan, go with the TV one, which, for $190, will allow you to access any game on any device, and allow you to watch any game on your TV or phone. For the best overall viewing of NBA games, I highly recommend the NBA League Pass; it’s certainly your best comprehensive option.
However, if you don’t want to pay the somewhat expensive prices of NBA League Pass, or your cable provider doesn’t support it, there are definitely other options. One of the best options available for you on the Internet is the live streaming of games by some of the major networks that broadcast NBA games, mainly TNT, ESPN, and ABC. ESPN has its WatchESPN.com website, along with its WatchESPN app, enabling users to watch whatever is currently playing on ESPN’s bevy of networks at any given time, as long as they sign in through their cable provider, with any device.
So for all those ESPN Wednesday and Friday NBA games that you may be missing because you’re out at some business dinner, or maybe you’re in a night class in college, now you can just pull up the app on your phone, your tablet, or your computer, and never miss another minute. Plus, this app allows you to view all those ESPN channels you may not have on your TV, such as ESPN Deportes or ESPN3, giving you access to even more coverage than you normally had. The best part about this is that it’s completely free of charge, as long as you have a verified cable provider.
If you don’t have a cable subscription that works with WatchESPN, TNT Overtime has you covered. TNT Overtime is different than WatchESPN because it gives you different interactive features and camera angles that WatchESPN doesn’t provide, since that is simply just a live stream feed of ESPN programming. The best part about TNT Overtime is being able to access most of these games without the need for a cable subscription.
ABC, with its Sunday NBA day games, allows streaming of those games with the Watch ABC app, which is available via IOS, Android, and Kindle Fire. However, this app is only available to customers with a few different cable providers, so this may not be the best app to use, but it is a very good way to catch your Sunday NBA action if you’re out doing some Sunday shopping or at brunch with the family and don’t want to miss the game.
So with all these networks providing streaming of their NBA games, anytime you go out on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Sunday, which just happens to be when most of the best NBA games are happening, you will never miss another one of your teams in prime time action because of these great solutions.
Another relatively new solution to seeing your team play is a streaming video startup called Aereo. Aereo acts as your personal TV antenna to help stream local games over the air to you via the broadband programming it gets. Basically, you have your own personal TV at your service online, which includes getting all your favorite team’s games whenever you want.
The interesting feature about Aereo is that it has a DVR feature, so if you are out and want to watch the game at your own leisure instead of checking back and forth on your apps to see what the score is and try to catch a few glimpses of a play every few minutes, Aereo can bail you out. Since Aereo is relatively new, there are still some issues with the software, including blackout issues and licensing agreements, along with the streaming currently only being offered in a few cities (Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Miami, New York, and Salt Lake City), but as this new software continues to build, it will evolve and become a very smooth and viable application to use for your NBA viewing pleasure.
Finally, a recent announcement has surfaced that will make every NBA fan very happy, and that is that the NBA is now going to let cable subscribers stream local games for free. The NBA is currently finishing up agreements that will come into effect in the current season that will allow fans to watch their games online through their cable networks for no additional charge.
So far, the NBA has struck deals with FOX Sports and NBC Sports, the two biggest regional sports networks in the US, which will allow fans to see their hometown teams over live streams. 24 teams have agreed to the deal so far, 16 with FOX Sports and 8 with NBC Sports, with the rest predictably soon to follow. All you need to watch these games is a cable subscription, and you can watch your team at your leisure, even if they aren’t the primetime game of the week. You will also be able to watch through the FOX Sports and NBC Sports apps, which are available on IOS currently.
This deal is a win for regional sports networks as well, since they “will not have to pay extra for digital rights, and the games will be hosted on their websites.” And of course, the smaller regional sports networks and cable carriers will be getting in on the action soon, but for now, the major networks are the big players involved in this huge technology deal.
With all these different ways to access NBA games, if your friend is ever complaining about not having his favorite team on TV for the night, you now know where to direct him. No more of those shifty and sketchy streaming websites that require you to fill out surveys or give you lots of spam and viruses when you open them; you, as a real fan of the NBA, have all the resources you need right here to find any game at any time, and have yourself a good night of watching some great NBA action.