Streaming
Watching each Patriots, Celtics, Bruins, and Red Sox sport on TV will be robust with out shelling out some huge cash for cable. Here’s among the best sports streaming choices for Boston sports fans — in addition to some useful ideas for watching your favourite groups exterior of New England.
What’s the best sports streaming service for a fan in Boston? It’s sophisticated.
Whether you’re a die-hard follower of the Patriots, Bruins, Red Sox, Celtics, or all 4, determining watch each sport on TV in 2025 has change into a logistical nightmare for the common client.
When over-the-top (OTT) streaming suppliers like YouTube TV, FuboTV, and DirecTV first entered the market, they promised to offer viewers extra flexibility to choose and select the channels they needed — like NESN, the official broadcaster of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins — all whereas saving cash on their cable invoice within the course of.
Instead, these OTT suppliers and the printed rights holders maintain elevating their costs and entering into contract fights, resulting in protracted battles like the present stalemate between Disney and YouTube TV, the place subscribers have now gone with out ESPN, FX, and greater than a dozen different channels for two weeks and counting.
Even conventional cable suppliers like Comcast Xfinity aren’t immune to those battles; earlier this 12 months, the corporate introduced that NESN and NBC Sports Boston (the house of the Boston Celtics) would solely be accessible in its priciest Ultimate TV bundle.
How is a budget-conscious Boston sports fan purported to cope? Beyond investing in a radio and letting the play-by-play announcers paint you a verbal image, it’s all a matter of priorities.
If you’re dead-set on watching each Red Sox sport with out paying for cable, you’ll should subscribe to NESN 360, for instance. Or if you wish to watch the Celtics with out paying for cable, you’ll should subscribe to Peacock and pay a $14.95 regional sports price.
To maintain you knowledgeable on the newest choices, listed below are the best methods to look at all your Boston sports groups – the Patriots, the Celtics, the Red Sox, and the Bruins – together with watch them when you’re residing exterior of New England.
Click the hyperlinks under to leap on to the next data:
How to look at the New England Patriots
How to look at the New England Patriots for free with out cable:
The Patriots are the one one among Boston’s Big 4 sports groups that has all of its video games accessible by way of over-the-air tv. Most of their video games air on Boston’s CBS affiliate (WBZ-TV Channel 4), whilst you’ll often discover them on Boston 25 (the FOX affiliate) or NBC10 Boston throughout Sunday Night Football.
On the uncommon event when the printed rights to a Patriots sport are owned by a cable channel or streaming firm – corresponding to New England’s Nov. 13 game against the New York Jets on Amazon Prime Video – you may watch domestically on WCVB-TV Channel 5.
Note: If you are attempting to look at this Thursday’s Patriots-Jets sport on YouTube TV, you’re out of luck. The Disney blackout contains locally-owned associates like WCVB-TV Channel 5, so that you’ll should mud off your previous TV antenna this week.
How to look at the New England Patriots out of market:
If you reside someplace within the US exterior of the Boston space, your solely choice to look at each out-of-market Patriots sport is NFL Sunday Ticket, which is offered both as a standalone service or as an add-on to YouTube TV.
Subscribing to the standalone service for your complete 2025 NFL season prices $480, whereas including it to an current YouTube TV subscription is $34.50 a month. You may also select a pay-as-you-go subscription for $85 a month.
Now that the Patriots are bettering underneath Mike Vrabel, out-of-market fans could get fortunate with extra video games being chosen for a nationwide viewers going ahead. To examine the newest nationwide protection map of over-the-air NFL video games (up to date weekly each Wednesday), go to 506sports.com.
How to look at the Boston Red Sox
How to look at the Boston Red Sox with out cable:
The solely approach to watch each Boston Red Sox sport with out an extra cable or OTT supplier subscription is thru NESN 360, which is offered as a standalone service for $29.99 a month or $239.99 per 12 months to anybody residing in New England (besides for Fairfield County, CT.)
Three of the most well-liked OTT suppliers — YouTube TV, Hulu plus Live TV, and Sling TV — at present don’t provide packages with NESN, leaving solely FuboTV and DirecTV. Given that Disney (which owns Hulu) not too long ago acquired a majority stake in Fubo, there’s a slim likelihood that Hulu plus Live TV will add NESN for the 2026 season, however as of now, that’s not the case.
FuboTV Pro (the most cost effective tier that features NESN) prices $84.99 a month, whereas DirecTV Choice (the most cost effective tier that features NESN) prices $94.99 a month.
There are additionally quite a lot of cable suppliers, corresponding to Xfinity, RCN, and Cox, that provide NESN in sure packages. To see a full listing, check out NESN’s website.
All of those companies provide quite a lot of bundles and reductions that change regularly, so you’ll want to examine all of their web sites totally, particularly close to the beginning of a group’s season.
How to look at the Boston Red Sox out of market:
Because NESN 360 (and cable packages that includes NESN) are solely accessible in New England (excluding Fairfield County, CT), the best approach to watch (most) Red Sox video games elsewhere within the U.S. is thru MLB.TV’s out-of-market bundle. Prices for the 2026 season haven’t been introduced but, however for 2025 viewers may select between each out-of-market sport for $30 a month (or $150 for the season).
The caveat is that MLB.TV’s out-of-market bundle is topic to blackouts. That means when you’re a retired Red Sox fan residing within the Tampa Bay space and the Sox fly right down to play the Rays, you’re out of luck. Ditto if the Sox are enjoying in a sport whose broadcast rights are owned by a nationwide supplier like ESPN or Apple TV.
How to look at the Boston Bruins
How to look at the Boston Bruins with out cable:
If you learn the part on watch the Boston Red Sox instantly above, the entire data for Boston Bruins fans residing in New England is strictly the identical.
The solely approach to watch each Boston Bruins sport with out an extra cable or OTT supplier subscription is thru NESN 360, which is offered as a standalone service for $29.99 a month or $239.99 per 12 months to anybody residing in New England (besides for Fairfield County, CT).
Three of the most well-liked OTT suppliers — YouTube TV, Hulu plus Live TV, and Sling TV — at present don’t provide packages with NESN, leaving solely FuboTV and DirecTV. Given that Disney (which owns Hulu) not too long ago acquired a majority stake in Fubo, there’s a slim likelihood that Hulu plus Live TV will add NESN for the 2026 season, however as of now, that’s not the case.
FuboTV Pro (the most cost effective tier that features NESN) prices $84.99 a month, whereas DirecTV Choice (the most cost effective tier that features NESN) prices $94.99 a month.
There are additionally quite a lot of cable suppliers, corresponding to Xfinity, RCN, and Cox, that provide NESN in sure packages. To see a full listing, check out NESN’s website.
All of those companies provide quite a lot of bundles and reductions that change regularly, so you’ll want to examine all of their web sites totally, particularly close to the beginning of a group’s season.
How to look at the Boston Bruins out of market:
Because NESN 360 (and cable packages that includes NESN) are solely accessible in New England (excluding Fairfield County, CT), the best approach to watch (most) Boston Bruins video games elsewhere within the U.S. is thru both ESPN+ or NHL Center Ice.
NHL Center Ice is offered as an add-on to current cable packages. Costs fluctuate by supplier, however are usually round $70 for a full season.
NHL Center Ice can also be included in an ESPN+ subscription, which represents a significantly better worth, because it solely prices $12 a month and contains quite a lot of different sports channels. (You may also get ESPN+ as a part of ESPN Unlimited, which is $29.99 a month or $300 a 12 months.)
Like MLB.TV’s out-of-market bundle, each NHL Center Ice and ESPN+ are topic to blackouts. That means when you’re a retired Bruins fan residing in Florida, you may be out of luck when the Bruins are enjoying the Lightning or the Panthers, for instance. Ditto if the Bruins are enjoying a nationally televised sport on ESPN, TNT, or ABC.
How to look at the Boston Celtics
How to look at the Boston Celtics with out cable:
Unlike the Red Sox and Bruins with NESN 360, there isn’t any standalone app that lets you watch all 82 Celtics video games every season.
Instead, Celtics fans should select from both a cable bundle or one among 4 main OTT suppliers that carries NBC Sports Boston, the house of the Celtics: YouTube TV, DirecTV, FuboTV, and Hulu plus Live TV. (The solely main OTT supplier that doesn’t at present provide NBC Sports Boston is Sling TV.)
YouTube TV is the most cost effective of the 4 OTT suppliers that carry NBC Sports Boston, costing $82.99 a month. FuboTV Pro (the most cost effective tier that features NBC Sports Boston) prices $84.99 a month, Hulu Plus Live TV prices $89.99 a month, and DirecTV Choice (the most cost effective tier that features NBC Sports Boston) prices $94.99 a month.
The least expensive choice for fans is to pay $14.95 monthly to add NBC Sports Boston to an existing Peacock subscription. Peacock prices both $11 (for ad-supported) or $17 (for Premium Plus) monthly, however when you use Comcast as your web supplier, you’re seemingly eligible for a free or discounted subscription. Best of all, you’ll not be topic to blackouts if the sport can also be airing on TNT, ABC, or ESPN.
How to look at the Boston Celtics out of market:
Because NBC Sports Boston is simply accessible in New England, the best approach to watch (most) Boston Celtics video games elsewhere within the U.S. is thru NBA League Pass. The service prices $16.99 a month (or $110 a season) for its fundamental tier, and $24.99 a month (or $160 a season) for its Premium cross, which options no adverts, as much as 3 concurrent streaming gadgets, and in-arena streams displaying you all of the on-court leisure throughout TV timeouts.
Like the MLB and NHL’s out-of-market companies, NBA League Pass is topic to blackouts.
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