It’s undoubtedly been a complicated year for sport. Empty stands or sporadic spectators have made watching from a distance more peculiar than we could ever have expected. And if we think it feels more than a little off-kilter, imagine how it must feel for the players.
There’s always been a market to get those games onto our screens, but heading into another new season, our screens are going to be our best-bet option to catch any sports matches, games, and leagues for the imminent future—wherever they are in the world.
If you live local to your team, there’s every chance you won’t be allowed into the stands, or can’t get your hands on the limited availability tickets to watch them in person. That’s right. Back to the TV…
If you’ve got StreamLocator set to manage your geo-location blocking, then you’re in a position to juggle all of the international sports providers.
If you’re in the US or Canada, home to the NHL, there are a handful of ways to watch.
In the US, the standard ways are subscribing to a cable or satellite provider. The channels a package needs to include are predominantly provided by the NBC,with a few others required to get around the regional blackouts via your RSN (Regional Sports Network).
In Canada, something similar applies. Rogers Cable holds NHL viewing rights**.** Streaming games is available via Rogers NHL Live, Sportsnet or NHL Live (both owned by Rogers). Then, TSN, TVA Sports, RDS and CBC also hold rights to some content airing regional games, in some instances, with a choice of languages. However, the issue with game blackouts becomes pretty complicated in Canada, meaning even if you have access to local Canadian services, you won't be able to watch your local team's games.
For the rest of the world there are a selection of broadcasters with limited access. But now, with StreamLocator cracking those geo-location blocks, everything is on the table.
First things first, you’re going to need to connect and subscribe to the US or Canadian platform, not the German option or any other worldwide portal to be able to switch around between all possible DAZN platforms later on.
DAZN streams all over the world, recently making a grand announcement that it’s coverage has stretched to 200 territories. We had a good look at what was to be streaming from the new locations, and as it turned out, it wasn’t as good a shout as we’d hoped, although, it’s still a great deal if it covers the sports you follow.
For the new territories, the catalogue is primarily based on boxing and big fight nights. The beauty behind the broader spread of locations is the incredibly low subscription fee. For the NHL hockey, however, they’re not going to work for you.
So, back to the hockey—with StreamLocator acting as your global ticket to the major catalogues, stick to the German DAZN option, and you’re in good hands.
With the German sports broadcaster, Sport1, renewing its rights to NHL and continuing to share them with DAZN, it means all you hockey fans can access a lot of what you love for a far cheaper price tag than any other of the available means.
For an €11.99/month subscription, you might not be able to watch every game on the NHL schedule, but it’s a cracking deal for the ‘all-round’ hockey fan.
If you want to follow a specific team through thick and thin, though, you may have to look into one of our other more all-encompassing options. DAZN does show a lot of games, but it’s not guaranteed to show those of your team. So, either do a little research into which games will be streamed, or opt for one of our more inclusive options.
NHL is on NBC in the States. So it’s the NBC channels we’re interested in. That means, to access all the games your team is playing, if you’re in the States with a cable subscription, you’ll need access to NBC, NBCSN, regional NBC and FOX sports networks, NHL networks, and NHL Center Ice.
For cable cutters and streamers everywhere else, there are a healthy handful of bundle packages that will deliver the games you need without the same fuss and price tag.
Which streaming service providers have the NBC sports covered in abundance? Here are our best-bet options.
There are many skinny bundles and streaming packages out there, but the standout for NHL coverage has got to be Fubo TV.
Fubo TV includes NBC, NBCSN, and the NHL Network. It also delivers regional NBC and FOX RSNs, and that’s quite a commodity. So many of the alternatives struggle to provide anything near to how Fubo handles the RSNs.
The key consideration of committing to Fubo TV for your hockey viewing is the $64.99 US/month subscription. If all you want is to get stuck into the NHL, then that’s quite a commitment. If, however, you’re looking into opening avenues including a lot more TV of every ilk, then suddenly it’s not such a pricey deal.
Fubo TV is bundled with over a hundred channels—including AMC, Bravo, E!, and Showtime. If you’re a full-blown sports junkie, then Fubo TV also delivers access to the NFL Network, NBA NTV, MLB Network, and the Golf Channel.
When you sign up, you also get 500 hours of Cloud DVR Plus, so you can record all the games or shows you’d like to watch some other time.
It only takes a few simple selections with Sling TV to get the NHL games you want to watch, and a little cheaper than opting in for the full Fubo TV experience.
Sling TV’s Blue package includes NBCSN and USA ($30 US/month), and with the Sports Extra add-on ($10 US/month) you’ll get the NHL Network (as well as NBA TV, MLB Network, Golf Channel, Tennis Channel, and a few more to boot).
However, what Sling TV doesn’t have is quite the same access to the regional networks. That means some of the local games requiring a FOX RSN aren’t always available to locals. If you’re accessing it from another country using a geo-location solution, chances are, you’ll be good to go in every last corner of the country, anyway.
AT&T TV NOW, NBC Sports, and ESPN+ all offer streaming access to the hockey through their own subscriptions and programming.
ESPN+ is another affordable option at $59.99 US for the year. For that, they regularly broadcast 2 games a day, up to 13 games per week. If you want to know which games they are, head over to their press room to find out.
AT&T TV NOW is a more expensive option to our favourites, and NBC Sports, although a great way to access the games, will require a subscription to a service that grants you access to its platform.
With our suggestions and our smart-hub, you shouldn’t be far from having all that hockey action and excitement streamed into your TV with the least amount of fuss. If you’re having problems connecting to any of our supported services, just get in touch, and we’ll sort things out for you—it’s what we’re here for, after all.
If you want predictions on who’s going to top the league this year, or who’s worth a flutter, well, that’s not really our department. With all that unblocked sports coverage, though, we’re sure there are plenty of shows available, where experts in every genre will happily provide you with all the expertise and forecasts you could hope for.
