Last year’s landmark 100th NFL season lived up to all expectations and then some. While the 2020/21 campaign got off to an unusual start in so many respects, we’ve since rumbled like vintage Jerome Bettis right down to the final game of the playoffs and the culmination of another scintillating season. Read on for all the latest information and ways to watch an NFL live stream for the big game this February, no matter where you are in the world right now.
Despite all the postponements, depleted rosters, and largely empty stadiums, no one can deny that the NFL has been back with a bang on the field. We’ve been treated to all the gravity-defying touchdown catches, bone-crunching hits, and ice-cold Bill Belichick stares that America’s game is famous for – and with the playoffs having now whittled things down to just two teams, it’s nearly time to watch a Super Bowl live stream for football’s grand finale this season.
NFL live stream 2020/21
The new NFL season kicked off back in September, with the regular season concluding on January 3, 2021. Now it’s time for one of biggest games in world sports: the Super Bowl! Super Bowl LV or Super Bowl 55 takes place Sunday, February 7 this year – full NFL live streaming and TV details are below. However you choose to watch, you can enjoy your preferred coverage – and 100% free viewing options in many countries – from anywhere by adding a good VPN to your software roster.
Reigning Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs and star QB Pat Mahomes ended the regular season with an AFC-best 14-2 record and are favorites to repeat this February. Having earned a first round bye, they survived a concussion to Mahomes and late Browns comeback to advance to the AFC Championship game for the third straight year, where they iced the red-hot Buffalo Bills to give themselves a chance at lifting the Lombardi Trophy for a second straight time.
Over in the NFC, Aaron Rodgers and the always formidable Green Bay Packers had cruised to their conference championship game with big wins over the Bears and Rams. They were odds-on to face the Chiefs in February’s big game…at least, until Tom Brady happened to them.
Despite a spirited second-half fightback by Aaron Rodgers and the Pack, the six-time Super Bowl winner had enough in his 43-year-old tank to guide his new team, the Tampa Bay Bucs, to the big show and claim one of the few postseason records he didn’t already own: being part of the first team to play a Super Bowl on home soil.
How to get an NFL live stream wherever you are right now and watch football online as the 2020/21 playoffs concludes with the biggest game in all US sports.
How to watch the NFL from outside your country
If you’ve mismatched a holiday or you’re away on business and you want to watch your country’s coverage from outside your country, then you’ll need to use a VPN. This will help you dial in to a location back in your home country to avoid geo-blocks and regain access to the content and services you already pay for back home.
A VPN is generally perfect for this as it allows you to change your IP address so you appear to be in a completely different location when the big game is on. We’ve tested hundreds of VPNs and can recommend ExpressVPN as the very best VPN currently available.
ExpressVPN – get the world’s best VPN
We’ve put all the major VPNs through their paces and we rate ExpressVPN as our top pick, thanks to its speed, ease of use and strong security features.
It’s also compatible with just about any streaming device out there, including Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox and PlayStation, as well as Android and Apple mobiles.
Sign up for an annual plan now and get an extra 3 months absolutely FREE. And if you change your mind within the first 30 days, let them know and they’ll give you your money back without a quibble.
Once you’ve chosen and installed your VPN of choice, simply open the service’s corresponding app, hit ‘choose location’, select the appropriate country and you’ll be able to watch the broadcast as if you were back at home.
NFL live stream: How to watch every 2020/21 playoff game online in the US
NFL games in the US are shown by a wide range of broadcasters and under an increasingly confusing number of monikers.
Featured games are those aired Thursday. Sunday and Monday nights as part of the expanded Monday Night Football brand and are shown on TV by NBC, Fox, ESPN and in a very small number of cases, the NFL Network.
In the case of the final game, the Super Bowl, you need just one channel – CBS. It’s got the rights to the big game this year, meaning you can watch on its website by logging in with your cable provider – or without cable by using its CBS All Access streaming service, where a FREE CBS All Access trial is currently on offer.
Alternatively, you can get CBS in most of the country with over-the-top streaming service FuboTV. There’s also a free FuboTV trial going right now, so you really are you spoilt for choice. For more details, check out our complete guide to watching Super Bowl on FuboTV.
The best overall way to watch NFL games without cable
For complete coverage of all nationally televised NFL games in the 2020/21 regular season without cable, you needed access to Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and The NFL Network.
Of the many over-the-top streaming options, some will give you nearly all of the channels you need for complete coverage – but to our knowledge, only fuboTV currently offers them all.
This is especially important for the AFC and NFC Championship games, as Fubo is one of the few OTT services to include CBS. Pricing starts from $64.99 a month, which is pricier than some of the competition, but still a darn sight cheaper than cable. There’s also a FREE 7-day fuboTV trial you can take advantage of, meaning you could watch the games for free, if that’s what you choose.
One of the things we love about fuboTV is that it makes cancelling easy if you decide it’s not for you – and it’s easy to get started, too, thanks to a slick payment system that accepts internationally recognized payment platform PayPal as well as major credit and debit cards.
Now, read on to learn about our favorite cheap NFL streaming option – and what channels cover what games each week. However, note that as the regular season is now over, much of the information below won’t be fully relevant again until next season.
International viewers: scroll down for your fully up-to-date NFL playoff live stream options.
The cheapest way to live stream NFL games without cable
While it doesn’t offer every channel you need for complete NFL coverage, Sling TV is an affordable over-the-top provider whose Blue and Orange packages cost just $30 a month each.
Sling Blue is the obvious starting point for NFL fans, as it offers local Fox and NBC/NBC Sports channels in most major markets, as well as NFL Network. An extra $15 a month will get you Sling Orange and add ESPN 1, 2 and 3 to your NFL viewing arsenal – as well as getting you a handful of other top premium channels like TNT, AMC, TBS, BBC America and more.
So just $45 a month for the combined Sling Blue + Orange bundle covers off a large number of NFL games, including both primetime and local broadcasts, making this a great option for many NFL fans.
How to watch Thursday Night Football
Fox and the NFL Network have the TV rights to Thursday Night football.
This means you can stream games through the Fox or NFL Network if you’ve got cable – or take advantage of the fact that Amazon Prime has now joined the NFL streaming party and will be the exclusive streaming-only provider of Thursday Night Football games. Try the famous FREE 30-day Prime trial today.
How to watch Sunday afternoon NFL games
CBS and Fox are the broadcasters you need for the traditional 1pm and 4pm (ET) kick-offs every Sunday, and while the exact games and timings will vary by region, those with the channels as part of cable will be able to watch their local coverage online via the CBS and Fox websites.
If you just want CBS, then know that CBS All Access is also available on a streaming-only basis from just $5.99 a month to consider – try it for free today.
How to watch Sunday Night Football
Sunday Night Football is being aired exclusively by NBC throughout the regular season, so if you have it as part of a cable package, you’ll be able to stream games directly through the NBC website.
How to watch Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football can be found on ESPN every week, so anyone with the channel as part of their cable package can watch online at no additional charge through the ESPN website – just log-in with details of your TV provider.
We have also compiled for you below a full list of other TV streaming service options where you can live stream the NFL playoffs.
How to watch NFL games from abroad
Don’t forget, you can take your favorite NFL streaming coverage with you wherever you are with the help of a good VPN – try the best around, ExpressVPN 100% risk-free for 30-days.
How to watch a NFL live stream FREE in Canada
Canadian NFL fans are some of the the luckiest in the world as streaming service DAZN includes coverage of every single 2020/21 regular season game with its great value DAZN packages.
It’s an absolute bargain as just CA$20 a month or $150 a year, especially when you consider that you get not only NFL Game Pass access complete with RedZone, but also that DAZN’s the exclusive Canadian streaming home of Premier League and Champions League soccer!
It comes with support for iOS, Android, Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Roku, Xbox One, PS4, and laptop/PC streaming (including Mac devices). And if you’ve never used it before, you can try it for free by taking advantage of a FREE 1-month trial, too.
TV coverage of select games including all the Wild Card playoff action is also available by tuning into, CTV on linear TV.
UK-based American fans can watch up to six NFL games live and in their entirety each week courtesy of Sky Sports, with the network now boasting a new dedicated Sky Sports NFL channel as well as offering access to the live RedZone highlights show each Sunday.
Needless to say, Sky has the Super Bowl covered this February – but it’s far from your only option. Those intent on the Sky experience can look at its Now TV pass options – but the best option for the big game for most people is to watch it 100% free and without commercials on the BBC or its companion iPlayer streaming service.
Not in the UK but still want to catch the action on iPlayer or using the Sky Go app? Then grabbing a 100% risk-free VPN trial will let you log into a UK IP address so you can live stream NFL as if you were at home. Our latest 2021 testing shows that they’re both working well, so you can install with confidence.
A final option is NFL Game Pass, whose international version is a great option at the start of the season – and now offers 31 days of access including the Super Bowl for a one-off charge of £7.99. That’s a price that’s just gone up by quid since we last yet – the cheek! – and certainly not free like the BBC!
How to watch an NFL live stream free online in Australia
If you live in Australia and want to watch the NFL this season, you have several options to do so – and are in fact some of the luckiest fans in the world.
For starters, 100% FREE-TO-AIR channel 7Mate has been showing the NFL playoffs Down Under, and while not yet confirmed, we think it’s a good shout to be airing the biggest game of them all this February, too.
Even better, anyone located in Australia can watch the channel absolutely free online – you just need to quickly create an account on its companion 7Plus streaming service – all that’s required is a name, verifiable email address, and Australia zip code.
It’s not the most elegant platform we’ve ever seen, but if you head there and click the ‘Live TV’ tab at kick-off time, the playoff game you want should be there…and the price is certainly right”
Foxtel will also be broadcasting games weekly and you can also stream games to your laptop or mobile devices using the Foxtel Go app but you’ll need your Foxtel ID to access the app.
Just as Foxtel does, Kayo Sports will also show a number of games throughout the season with weekly coverage expected – now we’re down to the playoffs, expect every game to be shown.
The streaming service has a Basic and a Premium plan with the difference being you can watch on two devices with the Basic plan for $25 per month and on three devices with the Premium plan for $35 per month. The best news? Both plans come with a FREE 14-day trial so if you’re looking just to watch a specific game or two you can cancel after the 14 days.
However, for the proper, live-for-it NFL fans, we highly recommend you sign up for an NFL Game Pass as it is also available in Australia, and even though it is marginally more expensive you have a much wider range of features.
For those wanting to watch home coverage of sports from overseas, a VPN is usually the solution – our most recent testing has current No. 1 pick ExpressVPN working brilliantly with the service.
Should I buy an NFL Game Pass this season?
Editor’s Note: with just one game left – the Super Bowl – the short answer is that you probably shouldn’t buy NFL Game Pass this season. While a great season-long option, especially for international fans, there are simply too many free-to-air options for the final game of this NFL season – and ways you can stream it online for nothing as well. Below is our general opinion of the pros and cons of NFL Game Pass, but know that these recommendations should now be applied to the forthcoming 2021/22 season.
Watching NFL online has never been easier thanks to the wide variety of streaming services now available. However, the league also has its own streaming service called the NFL Game Pass which allows die-hard football fans to watch every game.
It’s really geared towards international fans and that’s where it’s a great option. In most of the NFL’s main international markets, a Game Pass Pro subscription will get you access to every single regular season and playoff game live, plus the Super Bowl, and you also get the league’s live highlights show, RedZone. It’s now £7.99 for a Super Bowl Pass that gets you a month’s access – or £14.99 for access through July 2021.
As well as the UK and Ireland, the service is available in countries like Mexico, Germany and most of Europe, and Australia – with only ‘domestic markets’ the US and Canada missing out on the full-fat offering.
Instead, there’s a US and Canada-only Game Pass option available for $99 a a year that lets you watch commercial-free full game replays right after they’ve finished. Not the worst offer we’ve ever heard, but don’t get caught out – GamePass does not offer live NFL games in the US or Canada.
Should you decide to give Game Pass a shot, apps for Android and iOS mobile devices as well as on the likes of Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku, PS4, and more – plus you can obviously watch on your laptop or desktop computer through a browser.
The only caveat for non-domestic markets (e.g. the UK) are that some games are subject to blackout restrictions due to deals with local pay TV providers (e.g. Sky).
Who won the last Super Bowl?
The reigning Super Bowl champions are the Kansas City Chiefs, who won Super Bowl LIV in 2020 by defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-20. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was named MVP of the game.
When is Super Bowl LV 2021 and where is it being played?
Super Bowl LV, or Super Bowl 55, is scheduled for Sunday, February 7 and is set to be played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida – the third time the stadium has hosted the big game. It also represents the fourth time in NFL history that the Super Bowl is being held in the same state back-to-back years – Miami having hosted Super Bowl LIV in 2020.
Who are the favorites to win Super Bowl 55 in 2021?
With just two teams left, it’s safe to say the list of contenders has narrowed considerably. Defending champs the Kansas City Chiefs are comfortable favorites over the Bucs heading into the biggest game…but anyone who’s ruling out a Tom Brady-led team in the Super Bowl needs to take a long, hard look at themselves.
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