Khalil Mack, No. 52 of the Chicago Bears, plays against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field.
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With only a few weeks remaining in the regular season, the playoff picture is starting to come into focus. Lamar Jackson led the Ravens past the 49ers and into first place in the AFC after the Patriots fell to the Texans. And the Chiefs blew out the Raiders to strengthen their playoff resume. In the NFC, the Packers got an easy win against the Giants for their ninth victory of the year, while the Rams kept their playoff hopes alive by beating the Cardinals. You can see all of the Week 13 NFL results here.
Week 14 kicks off tonight with the Cowboys heading to Soldier Field to battle the Bears. The Cowboys enter tonight’s contest atop the weak NFC East and would currently be the four seed in the NFC. But they’ve struggled to get a win against teams with a winning record this year, last week getting beat at home against the Bills. The good news for the Dallas faithful is that the Bears are currently sitting with the same 6-6 record. For Chicago, a win is necessary to keep their playoff dreams alive following their Thanksgiving Day rally over the Lions.
There are more ways than ever to catch the only NFL game in town. Tonight’s game between Cowboys and Bears kicks off at 8:20 p.m. ET on Fox, the NFL Network, Twitch, Yahoo and Amazon Prime Video. Here’s how cord cutters can watch Thursday Night Football without cable — as well as the rest of the NFL games this season on Monday nights and Sundays.
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Live TV streaming services for cord cutters: How to choose…
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How to watch on Fox (and how to get 4K)
Fox’s Thursday Night Football broadcast will be available to stream on live TV streaming services that carry your local Fox station (see below), as well as via antenna, cable or satellite.
New for 2019 is the ability to watch Thursday Night Football in 4K. Traditional cable and satellite companies such as DirecTV, Altice’s Optimum, Comcast’s Xfinity, Verizon Fios and T-Mobile’s TVision will all offer 4K versions of the game if you have a compatible set-top box. In addition, streaming service FuboTV will let subscribers watch in the higher resolution on most 4K streaming devices.
The downside? The game itself isn’t a native 4K stream. Instead it will be produced in 1080p with HDR and then upconverted to 4K HDR.
The Fox Sports app (not to be confused with the Fox Sports Go app) will also be streaming the game in 4K on the Apple TV 4K and certain 4K Roku devices, but you need a login from a cable, satellite or live TV streaming service provider to access the stream in the app.
What about Amazon Prime Video?
In addition to Fox and the NFL Network, Amazon will be streaming the game live to Prime Video subscribers. You will need to have the Prime Video app, but thankfully that’s available on a host of devices and platforms, including Fire TVs and TV Sticks, Roku, Apple TV, iOS and Android, web browsers and more.
Prime Video also now supports Chromecast for casting from a phone or tablet to a TV.
Amazon’s broadcast will feature the choice of listening to Fox’s Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on the call or switch to a broadcast team of Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer. Scottish and Irish broadcasters Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth, previously heard calling soccer on ESPN, will also be an option.
Features like X-Ray, which provides the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, will be available to those watching on Android, iOS or Fire TV.
Et tu, Twitch?
Those without Prime or a subscription to a video service will be able to stream the Fox broadcast of Thursday Night Football on Twitch for free via the streaming service’s /primevideo channel. In addition to the official broadcast, Twitch fans can watch the co-streams with many of the site’s personalities on their own respective Twitch channels.
A full list of co-streams for each Twitch game can be found on Twitch’s blog.
How can I watch my local team’s NFL games?
For teams in your local market — Vikings fans in Minnesota, Seahawks fans in Seattle, and so on — you’ll be able to watch your local team’s games on a major local network channel.
Games are typically broadcast on CBS and Fox on Sunday afternoons. National broadcasts are shown on NBC on Sunday nights, ESPN on Monday nights and the NFL Network on Thursday nights and Sunday mornings. Most of the Thursday night games are simulcast on Fox, Amazon Prime and Twitch. (Note that CBS is the parent company of CNET.)
There’s also NFL RedZone to consider, a channel that springs to life each fall and shows live coverage from around the league with the promise to show you every touchdown from every Sunday afternoon game. It’s a great way to watch out-of-market action and essential viewing for fantasy football GMs.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Which live TV streaming services are best for NFL fans?
The short answer? PlayStation Vue is our No. 1 overall pick for streaming live NFL football. It’s going dark in January 2020, but until then football fans can still subscribe and watch.
Read more: Best ways to watch football live without cable
The longer answer: Many live TV streaming services — including Vue as well as AT&T TV Now, FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV — carry one or more local networks (namely CBS, Fox and NBC), so they’re the best bet for cord cutters who don’t want to use an over-the-air antenna.
The catch is that not every service carries every local network, so check each one using the links below to make sure it carries the network you want in your area. If you’re looking for the NFL Network you’ll want to focus on Sling TV Blue, PlayStation Vue or FuboTV.
Other stuff to know about live TV streaming services:
PlayStation Vue offers all the networks that show NFL games, and you can add the NFL RedZone channel for $10 a month extra. The $55 Core plan is the cheapest option that includes the five channels NFL fans need — CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN and NFL Network — and the $10-a-month Sports Pack will get you NFL RedZone. As we mentioned above, Vue is shutting down in January, but until then it’s still available.
Sling TV splits its live NFL options across its $25-a-month Blue plan and $25-a-month Orange plan, which forces NFL fans into a tricky decision or encourages them to spring for both at $40 a month.
Sling Blue includes Thursday and Sunday games on NBC, Fox and the NFL Network. Sling Orange includes Monday night games on ESPN. And if you want to add the NFL RedZone, you’ll need Sling Blue. Blue — but not Orange — subscribers can add the $10-a-month Sports Extra package, which includes NFL RedZone. Sling TV does not offer CBS, which typically carries AFC games on Sunday afternoons.
Sling’s packages are discounted by 40% for the first month.
YouTube TV costs $50 a month and includes CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN, but not NFL Network or RedZone.
FuboTV costs $55 a month and includes CBS, Fox, NBC and NFL Network but not ESPN. You’ll miss out on Monday Night Football on ESPN but will get the games on Sunday afternoons (CBS and Fox), Sunday nights (NBC) and Thursday nights (NFL Network). The $9-a-month Sports Plus package adds NFL RedZone.
AT&T TV Now includes CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN but not the NFL Network or RedZone. Its basic, $65-a-month Plus package will let you watch games on CBS and Fox on Sunday afternoons, Sunday Night Football on NBC, Monday Night Football on ESPN and Thursday Night Football on Fox.
CBS All Access costs $6 a month and lets you watch AFC matchups on Sunday afternoons. It makes for a good add-on for Sling TV subscribers, who don’t get CBS.
Prime Video will stream the Thursday Night Football games this season that will be simulcast on Fox. The games on Prime Video will also be streamed live on the Amazon-owned Twitch, which means you don’t need an Amazon Prime membership to stream Thursday night football.
Stream live on your phone with NFL Mobile and Yahoo app
In previous years, only Verizon Wireless subscribers could livestream games on their phones with the NFL Mobile app. Now, anyone can get a live NFL stream on a phone, regardless of carrier. You’ll be limited to watching on your phone and will see only local, in-market games and the national broadcasts on Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights.
National and local games will also be streamed on the Yahoo and Yahoo Sports app.
Originally published earlier this year. Regularly updated with the latest game details.