If you’re a cord-cutter you probably already understand the frustration of trying to stream live sporting events or other live events like awards shows, press conferences, or concerts. The streaming world, even in 2022, is still not friendly to live events. Some organizations, like the NFL, have been really good about streaming games or selling streaming rights. If you’re a baseball or hockey fan, it’s a barren landscape. Sure you can buy the leaugue’s streaming package and watch probably every game but the one you actually want to watch. Why is this the case? Local sports teams make exclusive deals with local TV broadcasters which means the national streaming packages black out the team(s) in your local area. If you’re a fan of your local sports team, you have to watch that team on the TV network they signed the deal with, and that network only.
My favorite sport is professional ice hockey and my preferred team is the Pittsburgh Penguins and because I live close enough to Pittsburgh, streaming through the NHL’s provided streaming service will result in a blackout of all Pittsburgh Penguins games. In this scenario I have three options to watch a live Pittsburgh Penguins game.
Option 1 – Cable Subscription
The easiest and most straight forward option is to subscribe to traditional cable. This requires contacting one of the local cable companies (Verizon or Comcast in my area). The Penguins games are on AT&T SportsNet which could be a higher package than a basic cable setup. A package that let’s your select AT&T SportsNet through Verizon costs about $70/month, on top of my existing internet service. In addition to the monthly cost some cable packages require long-term agreements and equipment rentals, so this isn’t the preferred solution for something looking to cut that cord.
Option 2 – OTT TV Subscription
An over-the-top or OTT TV subscription is similar to a normal cable subscription, but it’s all internet-based. Instead of a set top box connected to cable, you can stream live TV to your streaming device of choice, including smartphones and tablets simultaneously. Every market is different with the OTT options and local sports stations, but luckily AT&T Sports Pittsburgh has partnered with FuboTV to bring their content to OTT streaming. This option is good for families that want to watch different programming on different screens at the same time. AT&T SportsNet is available on the base Fubo package, which is about $65/month, with no commitment. This is the perfect option for sports fans that may not want to commit to a year or multi-year cable subscription. It’s easy enough to cancel when you don’t need it and start it back up during the sports season.
Option 3 – Bypass the Blackout
Disclaimer: this option has a few more moving parts, is not for the non-tech-savvy person, and could violate the terms of agreements with your streaming and/or internet provider.
There are two parts to getting around blacked out sporting events. I’m going to speak specifically to my situation where Pittsburgh Penguins games are blacked out in my home region. The first part is getting a streaming service where you can watch the games. NHL hockey on ESPN+ is new for the 2021-2022 season, whereas before NHL.tv was the streaming provider. Thankfully, ESPN+ is a cheaper service than NHL.tv and can even be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu. You’ll need an ESPN+ subscription to watch Pittsburgh Penguins games in any market, but it also gives you access to stream almost every other NHL game as well as a large variety of other sporting events.
Once you have the ESPN+ streaming service and try to watch a Penguins game near Pittsburgh, you’ll get a notice that the game is blacked out in your area. Here’s where part two comes in.
The easiest method I’ve found to bypassing these blackouts is using a DNS proxy service. This is another subscription you must pay for in order to use it, but it’s relatively inexpensive. You also need a device to stream the games on. Any device with a built-in GPS, such as smartphones and tablets. will not work with a DNS proxy as the ESPN+ app will use the GPS to determine your location. After signing up for a DNS proxy service like smartdnsproxy, you’ll be given one or two DNS IP addresses to input on your device. Most of the DNS proxy services provide per-device instructions that can show you specifics to your device. I use an Amazon Fire TV Stick to achieve this. When setting typing in the Wi-Fi password for my home network, there is an advanced button at the button of the on-screen keyboard. This will allow you to manually enter the IP details instead of automatically pulling it from your router. Entering the provided address from the DNS proxy and a reboot is all it takes to get it configured. The streaming apps will then see your location as the DNS proxy thus allowing you to watch blacked-out games.
Let’s see how cost effective this solution actually is:
ESPN+ = $70/yr
SmartDNSProxy = $48/yr
Total 1 year = $118
vs
Cable/Fubo 1 year = $840
That may sound simple and a no-brainer, but it’s not the whole story.
The new NHL TV/streaming rights are weird, so not every game is on ESPN+.
Here are the number of games per network for the 21-22 Penguins season:
- 69 – televised on AT&T SportsNet and streamed on ESPN+
- 5 – televised on TNT only
- Games on TNT only work with option 1 provided you have TNT in your cable package.
TNT is not included in any Fubo package.
- Games on TNT only work with option 1 provided you have TNT in your cable package.
- 4 – streamed on ESPN+ and Hulu
- Games on ESPN+ and Hulu only work with option 3 as you need a streaming subscription to watch these games.
- 3 – televised on ABC only
- Games on ABC only work with option 1 as even the ABC streaming app requires a cable subscription.
- 1 – televised on ESPN only
- Games on ESPN only work with option 1 as the base ESPN channel and ESPN+ do not overlap.
You need an active cable subscription to watch ESPN.
- Games on ESPN only work with option 1 as the base ESPN channel and ESPN+ do not overlap.
As you can see, there is no one option that can make all games watchable. If you’re concerned with watching every single game, a combination of option 1 and 2 is the best bet.
Devices
Using a DNS proxy to bypass a blacked out sporting event works on most streaming devices that do not have a built-in GPS, like I mentioned above, with the one giant exception being Roku devices. Roku does not allow you to change the DNS server on your device as they use their own DNS servers and give you no way to change it. You could set the DNS server at your router/gateway level, but then every device on your network would be pointing to that DNS proxy. This is not recommended. I recommend using an Apple TV or Amazon Fire streaming box for best compatibility. It also works on Playstation and Xbox consoles, but be aware that changing your DNS on game consoles could impact online gaming.
I suspect that all of this confusion is somewhat intentional to make you just order that cable subscription and be done with it. If you’re an avid watcher of all local sports, I’d say a traditional cable subscription is best since you’ll be able to watch the most amount of games no matter what sport is in season.
