Sports remains the toughest thing to navigate
for cord cutters.
Luckily, basketball is one of the more
straightforward sports to stream.
Today we're going to talk about the four options you have
if you want to stream the NBA this season.
There's NBA League Pass,
NBA Team Pass,
Over the air antennas,
and live TV streaming.
Now, each one has its own strengths and weaknesses
for us to discuss,
so let's dive in.
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Now, let's start with the most obvious choice
for streaming the NBA.
And that's the NBA's own streaming service.
It's called NBA League Pass.
For $200 a year, or $29 a month,
you get live out-of-market games.
No in-market games though,
thanks probably to contracts with local networks
and that sort of thing.
So, here in Salt Lake City, where I live,
I can't watch the Jazz through NBA League Pass.
And, if you think you're going to get around that
with a VPN,
well good luck I guess.
I mean, you might be able to,
but services are starting to get wise to this.
It's not something that we've ever recommended,
and now they're starting to figure out
that you're doing that.
- -Wait a minute, I know you.
You're Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.--
- -I'm sorry son, but you must have me confused
with someone else.--
Also, nationally broadcast games are blacked out.
So, if it's on ABC, ESPN, TNT, NBA TV,
you're going to be out of luck in those cases.
Now, you're also going to get those in-market games
that I said were going to be blacked out,
but they are only available three days later.
You can get those.
You can also get a classic games archive
of previous seasons,
and you can watch some games throughout the season
in virtual reality on compatible Android devices.
Now, if you really want to go the extra mile
you can get NBA League Pass Premium.
It's $250 a year, so that's $50 more.
And what you get is a commercial-free experience.
So, every time it cuts to commercial
it's actually going to show you an in-arena stream.
So, you can watch all the contests,
and the dancers,
and whatever else you might have missed out on.
Now, if you only really care about one team,
then you're going to look at NBA Team Pass
for about $120 a year, or $18 a month.
Basically this is the same service,
it's just for a single team.
Now, I hope that's not your local team because,
once again, this is still only out-of-market games.
Now, you'll also miss out on the classic games archive
and the virtual reality broadcasts,
and there is no commercial free option here.
So, what do you do if you're really in this
just for your local team?
Well, obviously League Pass and Team Pass
aren't going to work for you.
So, you've got two options.
First, an over the air antenna.
This is the obvious choice.
You get local channels,
but it does lack a DVR or other bells and whistles,
unless you get a third party piece of equipment
to do that for you.
And you can check out some of our other videos
on the best over the air antennas on the market,
I'll link that right there.
The problem with this is that you are,
while you are getting your local channels,
you're missing out on the cable stuff.
So, you don't get TNT,
and thus you don't get Barkley and Shaq
bickering all the time.
You don't get ESPN, and you don't get the NBA network.
So, if you want to stream local TV
and the relevant cable channels,
then you're going to want to go
with a live TV streaming provider.
We're talking about Sling TV, Fubo,
AT&T TV NOW, Hulu Live, YouTube TV,
there are lots of options.
Now, my two favorites for the last little while
have been usually Hulu Live and YouTube TV.
But, in this case, go with YouTube,
since it includes NBA TV in its normal channel lineup.
And don't forget to check with any of these services
whether your local channels are actually included.
Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.
So you've got to put in your zip code and find out.
So, did I miss your favorite way to watch the NBA
without cable or satellite?
Hit the comments below,
give this video a like
and subscribe if it was helpful to you,
and if you want to get more reviews like this one.
And if you want more info on streaming your favorite sports,
we've written about this quite a bit on reviews.org.
You can check the description below
for some links to that.
Thanks for watching everybody.