NFL Football w/o 57 Channels and Nothing On

February 22, 2013 6:24 AM

What are my NFL Sunday Ticket options in Canada?

I only pay for satellite tv service during the NFL season. I turn it off (using "vacation mode") for the other months of the year. I have to pay for a channel package in order to be able to also subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket. I am currently a Shaw Satellite customer in Manitoba, who would like to no longer be any kind of a satellite customer.

What are my options to access NFL Sunday Ticket without paying for a channel package from a cable/satellite provider? Can I use the app on my iPhone and just pay for that? Is there any way to get NFL Sunday Ticket on my Apple TV 2 (jailbroken). What about an iPad or other tablet (Android)?

I read this question, but am not sure if there are any differences due to being in Canada and such.

Basically, I want to pay for NFL Sunday Ticket and only NFL Sunday Ticket. Is this possible or reasonable?

posted by joelhunt to Technology (5 answers total)

Could you get the NFL.com Game Pass and stream that through your TV? I have an AppleTV and before I was paying for Sunday Ticket, I'd use one of those shady "streaming.tv" sites to watch games using my computer and AirPlay. I don't know if the quality will match the DirecTV feed, though.

Game Pass is pretty cheap and only available outside the US. I know you can also get Sunday Ticket on a PS3, but it's full cost.
posted by john the fourth at 6:29 AM on February 22, 2013

Have you looked into NFL RedZone as an alternative to Sunday Ticket? It is really amazing, even though you can't see every play of ever game you'll still see 99% of the good stuff and they find it for you. Unless there is a specific team whose games you want to watch entirely live, watching RedZone is NFL nirvana. Personally I'll never go back to trying to monitor three TVs with Sunday Ticket again.

Of course, you may face the same difficulties getting it without cable/satellite, but it does look like Verizon has a mobile offering.
posted by 0 at 8:06 AM on February 22, 2013

Do you need to watch the games as-it-happens or would watching it later be okay for you?

Also if you are following a specific team, which one?
posted by WinnipegDragon at 11:21 AM on February 22, 2013

I believe that NFL Game Pass has different pricing in different countries. I've used it in the UK and it was reasonably priced and pretty decent quality, but I don't know what the pricing is in Canada. There were several special offers between the time when I registered with NFL.com before I got the offer I took. I would consider registering right now with NFL.com as a Canadian resident and you can see what they offer you over the summer.
As a UK resident, one of the best things about Game Pass was that the late night games on Sunday and Monday were available ad-free the next morning in the UK. You could watch the whole game in about 1.5hrs with no need to fast forward. This might not be such a big bonus where you are.
posted by Jakey at 2:23 PM on February 22, 2013

WinnipegDragon: As it happens is much preferable, and I follow The Patriots.
posted by joelhunt at 3:20 PM on February 22, 2013