I want to watch the Knicks from the UK.

October 22, 2008 9:31 AM

I want to watch the Knicks this season and beyond. The problem is that I live in the UK for most of the year so I'm looking for a way of getting to see more than just highlights.

Despite the high interest in the NBA in the UK, all we get on TV is the weekly NBA 360 programme and the final series live. Meh. I can keep up with the highlights via ESPN.com & NBA.com and I'll be over to watch a four game home series at the Garden in February but I really want to be able to watch more games through the season.

The added problem is that the time difference (+5 hours from EST) means that I need to record most of the games to watch when I wake up so a Slingbox-type setup might not be ideal.

Some other possible solutions are:

Paying for an MSG TV subscription and an extra cable box on NYC-dwelling friends' account, hooking up an eye TV & Mac mini (or similar but I'd want a Mac solution) to record a game, control the thing remotely and copy the files across to my UK machine; or

Finding a NYC-based Knicks fan who can record and send games -- either a series on DVD or individual games as digital files.

I'm sure there are some potential legal issues with the above. Am I missing something really obvious or has anyone got some sage advice?

posted by i_cola to sports, hobbies, & recreation (6 answers total)

NBA League pass offers what you're looking for - you can stream games online through their broadband service. If they're blocking it in the UK, try finding a proxy server.
posted by antonymous at 9:39 AM on October 22, 2008

But I'd need to subscribe via an out-of-market account/address to get the broadband access, right? Any idea on cost?
posted by i_cola at 9:47 AM on October 22, 2008

Check out this link

Looks, like you'd need to get a friend to sign up for it on it the states and get their username/pwd, or maybe some broadband provider in the UK will allow it.
posted by sandmanwv at 10:06 AM on October 22, 2008

Correct - if you want to buy me NBA League Pass, I'll give you the login info ;)

The NBA does not offer League Pass themselves, only through cable and satellite providers. Once you've ordered it, you get the online subscription. They do it this way I believe to prevent people overseas from doing exactly what you're doing. I'm sure you know a hoops junkie in the states who would be thrilled to split the cost of League Pass - Comcast charged an extra $189 for League Pass for the entire season last year. I have no experience regarding the quality of the broadband for regular season games, but I did watch some summer league games online this year and the quality was decent (YouTube-comparable).
posted by antonymous at 10:11 AM on October 22, 2008

MSG is part of basic cable in NYC. There is no need to buy an extra tier or anything.
posted by Zambrano at 12:07 PM on October 22, 2008

Well, well, well. The NBA have just started a broadband only league pass and there's an international version available. All games live and available for replay with one-off, monthly & season subscriptions available.

I watched the Heat v Knicks game on Tuesday and the quality was good. Me like.
posted by i_cola at 3:27 AM on October 31, 2008