How to watch the NHL, NBA, MLB, CFL and NFL without cable

For Superman, it’s Kryptonite. For Dracula, it’s garlic. For Achilles, it’s that one spot on his heel that his mom forgot to dip in the River Styx.

And for people who have ditched cable and cut the cord, it’s live sports.

Most cord-cutters have found ways to keep watching their favourite shows, or they simply gorge on movie downloads and streaming services like Netflix. But the single biggest disadvantage to ditching cable is losing access to sports.

With the Stanley Cup and NBA playoffs about to get under way – and Canada’s largest, loudest city having teams in both – the pain has never been more keenly felt. Plus, the new baseball season has begun, the CFL returns in June and the 99th season of the NFL is a mere five months out.

Fortunately, there are workarounds for watching sports without a cable subscription. Unfortunately, some are expensive, inconvenient, unsatisfactory or some combination of all three.

Whether you seek pucks, hoops, bats or pigskins, here are some post-cable strategies for keeping up with your favourite teams.

GET AN ANTENNA

If you live in an urban area, chances are you can get over-the-air broadcast channels with an inexpensive HD antenna. The best-case scenario is living near the U.S. border with line of sight to both your local broadcast tower and ’Murica itself. In that case, you’ll get more than 300 NHL games broadcast on CBC and Rogers networks in Canada, as well as some NHL, NBA and NFL games on the major U.S. stations.

There are a ton of variables at play when it comes to antennas – check TVfool.com to find out what stations you’re likely to be able to pick up in your area.

SUBSCRIBE TO A SERVICE

Subscription streaming services can give you access to lots of different sports, allowing you to watch games on your computer, mobile device, set-top box and some smart TVs. But none of them are particularly cheap, and a complex web of rights-holders means that most come with blackout restrictions that you need to study up on.

For hockey, Sportsnet NOW ($24.99 per month) is a good option, as it gives you all Stanley Cup playoff games, all NHL games outside of your local market and in-market games for the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames (as well as 56 in-market Toronto Maple Leafs games.)

You also get Toronto Blue Jays games, some Toronto Raptors games and a selection of other MLB, NBA and Premier League soccer games. There are all kinds of complicated exceptions and restrictions, though, so read the FAQ carefully before signing up.

MLB.tv ($24.99 per month) is the best option for devoted baseball fanatics, but it only offers out-of-market games, so no watching the Jays if you live in Toronto. For the NFL, sports streaming company DAZN (pronounced “da zone,” $20 per month) offers NFL Game Pass in Canada, but some users have complained about the inconsistent quality of DAZN’s streams.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Sports apps have come a long way in the last few years, and while free, live game streams are rare, you can get live updates tailored to your specific needs – the best way to discreetly keep up with a game while at work or school.

There are too many to list here, but search your device’s app store for official league apps (NHL, NBA, MLB, NFL, CFL) or the official apps from the broadcasters that carry the games in your region.

DON’T BE SNEAKY

One of the advantages of using a virtual private network (VPN) to secure your Internet connection is being able to appear as though you’re located in another country, giving you access to geographically restricted online broadcasts and subscription services. While this might violate some content providers’ terms of service, it’s not technically illegal in Canada. Yet.

Venturing even further into grey territory, online pirated sports streams are free and plentiful, and represent a serious and growing problem for broadcasters. (A 2017 story in The Guardian reported that more than half of all U.K. millennials have watched an illegal sports stream.)

But you shouldn’t do that. Even if you’re unlikely to face legal consequences, it’s essentially a form of theft that ultimately hurts the teams you support.

GO BACK TO CABLE – TEMPORARILY

Just because you’ve broken up with cable doesn’t mean you can’t hook up again, briefly. If you kept your set-top box and whatnot, and can convince your provider to reconnect you without a hefty fee, it might be worth resurrecting cable for the duration of your team’s playoff run. Think of it as a cable booty call between consenting parties.