All the major sports leagues out there have ironclad contracts governing how their content can be streamed online. The result is that you can't stream most sports broadcasts--at least not for free. Luckily, networks have finally made some of the most culturally significant sports events like the Olympics and the most recent Superbowl available online. In addition to these events, we've found a few other ways to get your sports fix for free, legally, without the hefty premium leagues like the MLB and NBA charge.
Did you know that you can watch the Olympics for free online? Catch this summer's games live on NBC's site, and if you're looking for something to watch now, they offer year-round Olympic coverage.
Most NFL games aren't available online for free, but you can catch the game of the week on Hulu. Best of all, you can easily watch this one on your iOS devices.
MLB.tv is, for the most part, a subscription service. However, like the NFL, the MLB also offers a free game of the week available to stream online. They also have an app in the app store, for those that want to stream the games on their iOS device.
Interested in golf? If you are, you can watch all of The Masters live, for free, via CBS Sports. It's one of the few sports that doesn't seem to over-protect itself from streaming its matches for free.
While you can't catch every college game on CBS Sports' ULive without a subscription service, it does offer quite a bit of free content. The site allows you to watch select baseball, football, and other sports games without any subscription. ULive even covers women's college sports, and more obscure sports like water polo, crew, and track and field.
ESPN isn't technically free, but it is available to users of any ISP that subscribes to the service. So, if you subscribe to Xfinity cable (aka Comcast), you can access the huge volumes of sports content ESPN provides online. Broke college students rejoice--ESPN 3 is also available to anyone with an academic IP address.
Where do you stream your favorite games? Let us know in the comments!
Parker DelPonte
April 12, 2012 at 3:06pm
i do not subscribe to a cable tv service; i still can get all the TV series i want but i miss out on live sports. It was nice to be able to watch the masters and watching the olympics will be nice to.
driverajr
April 09, 2012 at 12:21pm
And people really don't know this already?, some of the articles you guys post are really childish...I'm glad I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.
DaveT
April 11, 2012 at 5:33pm
So true dude. The writers here have their heads so far up Apple's asses that they'll post any crap and call it news for Apple fanboys. I have some sites I use (also for free tv and movies) but why bother posting them here? I also am not stupid enough to pay for music or album covers for my computer. I get both free.
Oh and to the writer.. If it's on the internet through an ISP it's not 'free' idiot.
Ambika Subramony
April 12, 2012 at 10:49am
"Oh and to the writer.. If it's on the internet through an ISP it's not 'free' idiot."
DaveT, we actually mention that first thing in the description. But I suppose you're too smart to read such things. You'll get your points across more effectively when you aren't being rude and unnecessarily negative, by the way. I'll just assume you were having a bad day.
acg
April 11, 2012 at 9:34pm
Well for myself who just recently moved out of the US this news is helpful to me. Especially the Olympics. Just because it was not informative to you does not mean it wasn't to others.
