Major League Baseball has placed more hurdles in front of cord cutters than any of the four professional sports leagues. It has made baseball broadcasts the exclusive province of cable and satellite TV networks, even for your local teams. Add to that the league’s draconian blackout policies, and the prospect of watching the Grand Old Game without a pricey subscription seems as reachable as a Clayton Kershaw slider.
It doesn’t get much easier come October. This year’s postseason games will air nationally across five networks: Fox, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), ESPN, TBS, and Major League Baseball Network (MLBN); all but the first are cable/satellite channels you can’t tune into with a TV antenna. Fortunately, with some combination of over-the-air and over-the-top options, you can still watch virtually every at-bat from the Wild Card round to the World Series. Here’s how.
Over the air
Of all the channels carrying postseason games, Fox is the only one available over the air. The good news is Fox is the exclusive broadcaster of the World Series, so if you just want to catch the clash of baseball’s top two titans, you’ll need only an antenna to see them battle for the Commissioner’s Trophy. Don’t live within range of your local Fox affiliate’s broadcast tower? No worries, you still have plenty of options.
Jason CirprianiYou can watch the World Series on Fox with just an antenna, provided your TV has a tuner (and almost all of them do).
Sling TV
Sling TV is your single best option for watching the postseason without a cable subscription. In fact, you can access a significant number of games for what you’d pay for a couple of beers at the ballpark. The Sling Orange + Sling Blue package includes ESPN, TBS, Fox Sports 1, and local Fox affiliates in select markets for just $25 per month. You can get MLBN by subscribing to the Sports Extra package for an additional $10 a month.
Sling TVA Sling TV subscription is your best option for streaming almost every game of baseball’s postseason.
If you’re hesitant to add a streaming subscription to your budget just for the privilege of watching postseason baseball, remember that with a Sling TV package, you get access to many other popular cable channels including CNN, HGTV, and Comedy Central. There’s no contract, so you can cancel as soon as the World Series ends, though you might find you don’t want to. Sling TV also offers a free seven-day trial, so you can essentially watch the first week of postseason play without spending a dime.
PlayStation Vue
SonyPlaystation Vue offers channel packages similar to Sling TV, but at a slightly higher price.
You can also catch every game with a PlayStation Vue subscription. That’s the good news. The downside is PlayStation Vue’s Core package, which includes ESPN, TBS, Fox, FS1 and MLBN, will cost you $55 per month. The service can be used on PS3 and PS4 consoles and has dedicated apps for Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, and Android and iOS devices. You can also stream it to your TV via Google Chromecast or on your Windows or MacOS computer through a web browser. You can read our complete guide to PlayStation Vue here.
AT&T TV Now
AT&T TV Now, formerly DirectTV Now, offers ESPN, FOX, FS1, and TBS as part of its $50-per-month Plus plan that delivers access to 45 channels of TV. You can get those same channels in its Max package, which bumps the number of channels to more than 60 and includes HBO and Cinemax, but the cost of that packages jumps to $70 per month.
Neither package includes MLBN, so you might miss some American League Division Series (ALDS) games, but you’ll have full coverage of the Wild Card round, the Championship series, and the World Series.
DirecTV NowAT&T TV Now provides a traditional channel grid for those who can’t let go.
Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV
Unlike the competition, Hulu and YouTube TV don’t offer subscription tiers with their live TV services. It’s a one-size-fits-all approach that costs a $45 and $50 a month respectively. The extra five bucks you’ll pay for YouTube TV delivers MLBN, which Hulu with Live TV does not offer. As with many of the services, there are 7-day free trials available for both subscriptions.
FuboTV
Fubo TVFuboTV has evolved from a soccer-centric streaming service to one that offers a full-spectrum of entertainment. It’s $55-per-month subscription now includes many of the same channels as the other services outlined here, which could make it easy to overlook, especially as it’s one of the pricier options. FuboTV, however, made a big play for seamheads this year by streaming MLB games in 4K all season, a move it’s extending into the postseason. That certainly makes its monthly cost go down easier, but consider that it does not offer ESPN or MLBN in its sole channel package. That means you won’t be able to watch the AL Wild Card game and likely several ALDS games. The usual 7-day free trial is available. Here’s our review.
MLB.tv
If you’re an MLB.TV subscriber, you already have streaming access to postseason games—sort of. Although Major League Baseball’s subscription service delivers live streams of every regular season out-of-market game, the league’s blackout policies prevent it from live-streaming the playoffs and the World Series anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. Instead, archived streams of postseason games are available to subscribers in blacked-out areas about 90 minutes after the game’s conclusion.
If you have the willpower to abide a self-imposed media blackout (and can avoid spoilers), it’s not a bad way to watch the October action without taking on the cost of an additional streaming subscription. Even if you’re not a currently a subscriber, it might be worth signing up as it’s the least-expensive way to catch the postseason: as of now, MLB is currently offering subscriptions for $27 to catch the rest of the year’s games (on 90-minute delay, of course).
Batter up!
Major League Baseball continues to be stingy with live streaming. But hopefully as the NFL and NBA continue expanding their online viewing options, the league will rethink its policies in upcoming seasons. Until then, you can take advantage of these cable alternatives, and along with our guide to second-screen baseball apps, create your own Diamond Club from which to watch baseball’s 10 best teams slug it out to the Fall Classic.