For the past three seasons, you have been able to stream the Super Bowl for free on mobile, tablet, and even your favorite streaming player and Smart TV. But when it comes to the 2022 Super Bowl on NBC, that won’t be the case.
While you will still be able to watch for free on mobile and tablets using the NFL and Yahoo! Sports Apps, you will need to pay if you want to stream it on your Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, or other connected TV device. That’s because unlike past seasons that dropped authentication to stream on your TV, you will need to have a paid subscription to watch Super Bowl LVI.
NBC has confirmed to The Streamable, that they will be streaming the Super Bowl in the NBC Sports App and on Peacock, but neither will be accessible for free unless you have a subscription. When it comes to the NBC Sports App, you will need to authenticate with your TV Everywhere credentials from your cable, satellite, or streaming provider.
With Peacock, you will need to subscribe to the Peacock Premium tier ($4.99), which no longer offers a free trial – as it was dropped ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics. On the plus side, if you do sign-up for a month to stream the Super Bowl, you can also use it to watch every Olympic event, which is being simulcast on Peacock Premium.
In 2019 and 2021, CBS offered free access to the Super Bowl via the CBS Sports App, while also carrying it on their paid tiers of CBS All Access. In 2020, Fox offered a free 4K stream of the game via the Fox Sports App.
There are still some free options.
You could sign-up for a Live TV Streaming Service that offers a free trial, like fuboTV, which has a 7-Day Free Trial. Both Sling TV and YouTube TV do as well, and while DIRECTV STREAM doesn’t have a free trial – you can get a full refund if you cancel with 14 days.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Free 3-Day Trial | Free Trial | Get $10 Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| NBC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
And of course, there is always a trusty antenna. If you can pick-up your local NBC affiliate over-the-air, you can watch the game on your TV using – what can be as low as $10 one-time purchase of antenna.
Last year’s Super Bowl between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs set a new streaming record. The game saw on average 5.7 million viewers per minute of their streaming broadcast of the Bucs 31-9 win — up 65% year-over-year. Overall, the telecast saw 96.4 million viewers across TV and digital, which was down from the 102.1 million last year.
Without the ability to stream the game without a subscription, will that be the case again in 2022?