Sky Sports has NFL Total Access, which you can watch for free online. But that’s probably the only concession the sports channel network has made for American viewers. Actually, Sky Sports isn’t just one channel but six, and for the most part they focus on sports that Europeans love. While some games such as golf are shared passions across both sides of the Atlantic, others are a bit too exotic for American tastes. There’s football (which is called soccer in the US), there’s F1 racing, and then there are sports like cricket.
Subscribing to Sky Sports
But if that’s your taste, who’s going to say it’s weird? After all, a lot of people in the world enjoy these sports as well. And if you want to watch Sky Sports, you can get Sky Sports live streaming to your TV. You can use your Xbox 360, PS3, Roku, YouView or the new NOW TV Box. You can watch on your LG Smart TV and selected LG media devices. You can use your PC or Mac. You can even use your iPhone or one of the several selected Android devices.
But if you want to watch Sky Sports online, it can get very expensive. You can access all six channels, register up to 4 devices, and even watch two channels at the same time, but it will cost you £9.99 per day. That’s right, for 24 hours of Sky Sports fun you’ll have to pay $16.79.
That may be a bit steep for some of us, but fortunately there are more affordable alternatives. In fact, you can watch a particular game on any Sky Sports Channel for free.
First Row Sports
First Row Sports is one of the more venerable names in online live streaming. This channel can be very reliable if you want to catch a Sky Sports live stream. That’s because it’s a European website, and that’s why it has always managed to rise up from the grave whenever the US government shuts it down. You may have to do some digging through Google to find it, however, because the website may change its HTML address every now and again.
The thing about First Row Sports, however, is that you may get to watch Sky Sports live without paying with money, but you pay in other ways. You see, as a viewer you will be inundated with popup ads. You may also be asked to install plugins in addition to your flash player, and that means you are risking the entry of nasty viruses and malware into your system. So you just have to make sure that your antivirus program is working fine.
However, there are a few existing “aggregate” variants of First Row Sports which don’t have as many ads in their version of the website. Right now, these versions can be found easily, such as on http://gofirstrow.eu/ or http://xn--frstrowsports-39b.eu/. There may still be ads, but at least they won’t be as obnoxious.
VIP Box
So you want to watch cricket? Just head on to VIP Box TV and click the cricket categoryand you’ll see what’s available.You can also click on the TV Channels category and select UK TV, and you’ll see available Sky Sports channels too. You’ll then be asked to upgrade your flash player and your codecs to get the Sky Sports streaming to your computer.
Now everything seems too easy, but of course there’s a catch. It’s that you may also be overwhelmed with lots of crazy popup ads that may even force your browser to go to another website. Just click the back button, and close the popups as they appear. There’s also a neat trick in which you can click the special “x” to close the popup. The regular “x” will say “click to close the JavaScript or something similar, but the special “x” won’t say anything at all.
Once you get to that point, put the streaming video on full screen to prevent other popups from appearing.
Wiziwig.tv
Now this website isn’t as simple as the others, but at least there aren’t all that many ads. The Sky Sports stream is available via P2P, which meansthat the stream provider and you must be using the same program to broadcast and receive the stream. But at least the program is identified, and for your convenience even the links and instructions to download the program is provided in the website. This may take a bit of time, which is why you may want to head to the wiziwig.tv website a few hours before the start of the game.
The great thing about wiziwig.tv is that they also offer you the chance to download the game once it’s over. It may not be live, but you may even get the game in HD quality, which is a vast improvement over the usual graininess of free streams online. Just go to the forum section and look around. There are quite a few helpful folks online who like to share these games for free.
Justin TV
Now we’re back to another simple website, and this one functions much like YouTube. There are thousands of channels available, so use the search bar to look for the particular game you want to watch. So find the channel showing the game, sit back, and enjoy. If you can watch YouTube videos, you can watch videos on this website. All you really need is a browser that has flash installed, and that’s it. If you are using your mobile device, you may want to use the Skyfire browser so that it can also mimic the flash player.
Justin TV is great, but it’s not always up. Again, the US government likes to take it down, but it keeps coming back.
And that’s it. For many people, these alternatives are probably the best way to watch a game on Sky Sports. Times are hard, and for the typical American, paying $16 for 24 hours of Sky Sports TV may be a bit too expensive. Not even cricket will be worth that kind of money!