How to use DISH to make the most of football season
How to use DISH to make the most of football season
Watch a huge selection of college and professional football games with a DISH subscription.
Football season is just around the corner! Soon, top college football conferences will be getting into action, and shortly thereafter, the NFL regular season will begin. Teams will be in action each week through the end of the calendar year, and after that comes playoff time, featuring the best clashes of the campaigns.
If you want to watch all of the top college and pro football teams via streaming this year, you’ll have to assemble a stack of six or seven services in order to watch all of the games on Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with some Tuesdays and Wednesdays thrown in as well. Not only will that be expensive, but it will put the burden of figuring out which games will be available on what services squarely on the customer’s shoulders.
Instead, if you long for the days when turning on the TV didn’t require hours of homework or dozens of subscriptions, you can turn to a DISH subscription to watch top NFL and college football games all on the same platform. How can you use DISH to maximize your viewing options for the upcoming football season? Find out what you need to know below.
How to use DISH to watch college and pro football games
Does DISH carry local broadcast channels?
No football fan can watch the NFL without access to ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. ABC shares several “Monday Night Football” broadcasts with ESPN each year, and CBS and Fox split the league’s Sunday afternoon package. NBC is still home to “Sunday Night Football,” so access to these channels is absolutely essential for maximizing your football season.
All of these channels, along with The CW, are also essential for watching college football in 2026 as well. Fans will find ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC, and more games on local broadcast channels this season, so no football fan’s TV package will be truly complete without them.
Fortunately, DISH carries local channels in nearly every American market, so you are almost certainly covered. Each DISH package, starting with the America’s Top 120 package, includes local channels ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. Many customers also receive The CW in their market with DISH.
Does DISH have cable sports channels?
Viewers get to choose how much football access they want with DISH. If you prefer to keep your lineup to just games appearing on local broadcast channels, ESPN, FS1, and TNT, you’ll be best served choosing the America’s Top 120 plan, starting at just $90 per month for 190 sports, news, and entertainment channels.
If you want to add access to more college sports channels, such as ACC Network, Big Ten Network, and SEC Network, as well as NFL Network, you can pay just $10 per month more to upgrade to America’s Top 120 Plus. And to take things all the way over the top, you can grab the America’s Top 200 package with CBS Sports Network starting at $100 per month.
Which DISH package is best for football fans?
For our money, your best bet to watch the 2026-27 college football and NFL seasons is the DISH Top 120 Plus package. It has nearly all of the channels you could want to watch college and pro football games all season long, plus hundreds of other cable news, sports, and entertainment channels. It doesn’t have CBS Sports Network, but you just might find the extra savings from not having to upgrade to America’s Top 200 a fair trade for the games found on that channel.
| Package name | Monthly price | Football channels included |
|---|---|---|
| America’s Top 120 | $90 | ABC, CBS, The CW, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox, FS1, NBC |
| America’s Top 120 Plus | $100 | Everything in America’s Top 120, plus ACC Network, Big Ten Network, FS2, SEC Network, and NFL Network |
| America’s Top 200 | $110 | Everything in America’s Top 120 Plus, and CBS Sports Network |
Can you watch streaming-exclusive football games with DISH?
There are a number of NFL games scheduled to appear exclusively on streaming services like Netflix, Peacock, and Prime Video. National audiences will only be able to find these games on streaming, but if the NFL team in your market is playing in one of them, the game will also appear on local broadcast channels in your market.
That means you’ll be able to watch such games with a DISH subscription. Any streaming-only NFL game featuring a team whose TV market you live in will appear on DISH in your area.
Can you record live football with DISH?
Of course! DISH’s Hopper 3 device, which comes included with all standard channel packages, includes up to 2,000 hours of DVR recording space. You can use it to record and save any live football games you won’t be able to watch at their scheduled airtime, and if there are multiple games you want to record at once, no problem — the Hopper 3 can record up to 16 titles at the same time.
What other features does DISH offer football fans?
DISH Hopper 3 devices allow viewers to watch up to four games simultaneously with multiview. Best yet, DISH’s multiview on Hopper 3 devices is customizable, and non-sports channels can also be added to the mix to allow non-football fans to enjoy some programming of their own. DISH also offers a College Sports Multi-View Channel, with a pre-selected mix of college sports networks to watch all at once.
Game Finder from DISH allows fans to browse scores from across the football landscape and see where they can watch all their favorite games. Viewers can also set alerts for favorite teams, see live stats, and more with DISH’s Game Finder.
The bottom line
DISH is a fantastic choice for anyone looking to get the most out of the college and pro football seasons this year. Its channel packages are stuffed with networks that offer live football games, and viewers can choose the level of service and access that fits their fandom best.
With an included Hopper 3 device, DISH customers can record live games, watch up to four games at once with multiview, and track games and stats with Game Finder. DISH is a superb way to watch live football all season long, from preseason to the playoffs.
Dish
Dish is known for its comprehensive satellite TV service, but it also has a robust streaming service called Dish Anywhere which taps into your receiver and allows you to stream live TV, anything on your DVR, and play third-party apps like Prime Video or ESPN+ within the service. Combined they are an amazing package for anyone who has less reliable internet, is looking for something all in one place, or wants to keep their prices locked in for a long period.