Streaming
Watching every Patriots, Celtics, Bruins, and Red Sox game on TV can be tough without shelling out a lot of money for cable. Here’s some of the best sports streaming options for Boston sports fans — as well as some helpful tips for watching your favorite teams outside of New England.
What’s the best sports streaming service for a fan in Boston? It’s complicated.
Whether you’re a die-hard follower of the Patriots, Bruins, Red Sox, Celtics, or all four, figuring out how to watch every game on TV in 2025 has become a logistical nightmare for the average consumer.
When over-the-top (OTT) streaming providers like YouTube TV, FuboTV, and DirecTV first entered the market, they promised to give viewers more flexibility to pick and choose the channels they wanted — like NESN, the official broadcaster of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins — all while saving money on their cable bill in the process.
Instead, these OTT providers and the broadcast rights holders keep raising their prices and getting into contract fights, leading to protracted battles like the current stalemate between Disney and YouTube TV, where subscribers have now gone without ESPN, FX, and more than a dozen other channels for two weeks and counting.
Even traditional cable providers like Comcast Xfinity aren’t immune to these battles; earlier this year, the company announced that NESN and NBC Sports Boston (the home of the Boston Celtics) would only be available in its priciest Ultimate TV package.
How is a budget-conscious Boston sports fan supposed to cope? Beyond investing in a radio and letting the play-by-play announcers paint you a verbal picture, it’s all a matter of priorities.
If you’re dead-set on watching every Red Sox game without paying for cable, you’ll have to subscribe to NESN 360, for example. Or if you want to watch the Celtics without paying for cable, you’ll have to subscribe to Peacock and pay a $14.95 regional sports fee.
To keep you informed on the latest options, here are the best ways to watch all of your Boston sports teams – the Patriots, the Celtics, the Red Sox, and the Bruins – including how to watch them if you’re living outside of New England.
Click the links below to jump directly to the following information:
How to watch the New England Patriots
How to watch the New England Patriots for free without cable:
The Patriots are the only one of Boston’s Big 4 sports teams that has all of its games available via over-the-air television. Most of their games air on Boston’s CBS affiliate (WBZ-TV Channel 4), while you’ll occasionally find them on Boston 25 (the FOX affiliate) or NBC10 Boston during Sunday Night Football.
On the rare occasion when the broadcast rights to a Patriots game are owned by a cable channel or streaming company – such as New England’s Nov. 13 game against the New York Jets on Amazon Prime Video – you can watch locally on WCVB-TV Channel 5.
Note: If you are trying to watch this Thursday’s Patriots-Jets game on YouTube TV, you’re out of luck. The Disney blackout includes locally-owned affiliates like WCVB-TV Channel 5, so you’ll have to dust off your old TV antenna this week.
How to watch the New England Patriots out of market:
If you live somewhere in the US outside of the Boston area, your only option to watch every out-of-market Patriots game is NFL Sunday Ticket, which is available either as a standalone service or as an add-on to YouTube TV.
Subscribing to the standalone service for the entire 2025 NFL season costs $480, while adding it to an existing YouTube TV subscription is $34.50 a month. You can also choose a pay-as-you-go subscription for $85 a month.
Now that the Patriots are improving under Mike Vrabel, out-of-market fans may get lucky with more games being chosen for a national audience going forward. To check the latest nationwide coverage map of over-the-air NFL games (updated weekly every Wednesday), visit 506sports.com.
How to watch the Boston Red Sox
How to watch the Boston Red Sox without cable:
The only way to watch every Boston Red Sox game without an additional cable or OTT provider subscription is through NESN 360, which is available as a standalone service for $29.99 a month or $239.99 per year to anyone living in New England (except for Fairfield County, CT.)
Three of the most popular OTT providers — YouTube TV, Hulu plus Live TV, and Sling TV — currently do not offer packages with NESN, leaving only FuboTV and DirecTV. Given that Disney (which owns Hulu) recently acquired a majority stake in Fubo, there’s a slim chance that Hulu plus Live TV will add NESN for the 2026 season, but as of now, that’s not the case.
FuboTV Pro (the cheapest tier that includes NESN) costs $84.99 a month, while DirecTV Choice (the cheapest tier that includes NESN) costs $94.99 a month.
There are also a number of cable providers, such as Xfinity, RCN, and Cox, that offer NESN in certain packages. To see a full list, check out NESN’s website.
All of these services offer a number of bundles and discounts that change on a regular basis, so be sure to check all of their websites thoroughly, especially near the start of a team’s season.
How to watch the Boston Red Sox out of market:
Because NESN 360 (and cable packages featuring NESN) are only available in New England (excluding Fairfield County, CT), the best way to watch (most) Red Sox games elsewhere in the U.S. is through MLB.TV’s out-of-market package. Prices for the 2026 season haven’t been announced yet, but for 2025 viewers could choose between every out-of-market game for $30 a month (or $150 for the season).
The caveat is that MLB.TV’s out-of-market package is subject to blackouts. That means if you’re a retired Red Sox fan living in the Tampa Bay area and the Sox fly down to play the Rays, you’re out of luck. Ditto if the Sox are playing in a game whose broadcast rights are owned by a national provider like ESPN or Apple TV.
How to watch the Boston Bruins
How to watch the Boston Bruins without cable:
If you read the section on how to watch the Boston Red Sox directly above, all of the information for Boston Bruins fans living in New England is exactly the same.
The only way to watch every Boston Bruins game without an additional cable or OTT provider subscription is through NESN 360, which is available as a standalone service for $29.99 a month or $239.99 per year to anyone living in New England (except for Fairfield County, CT).
Three of the most popular OTT providers — YouTube TV, Hulu plus Live TV, and Sling TV — currently do not offer packages with NESN, leaving only FuboTV and DirecTV. Given that Disney (which owns Hulu) recently acquired a majority stake in Fubo, there’s a slim chance that Hulu plus Live TV will add NESN for the 2026 season, but as of now, that’s not the case.
FuboTV Pro (the cheapest tier that includes NESN) costs $84.99 a month, while DirecTV Choice (the cheapest tier that includes NESN) costs $94.99 a month.
There are also a number of cable providers, such as Xfinity, RCN, and Cox, that offer NESN in certain packages. To see a full list, check out NESN’s website.
All of these services offer a number of bundles and discounts that change on a regular basis, so be sure to check all of their websites thoroughly, especially near the start of a team’s season.
How to watch the Boston Bruins out of market:
Because NESN 360 (and cable packages featuring NESN) are only available in New England (excluding Fairfield County, CT), the best way to watch (most) Boston Bruins games elsewhere in the U.S. is through either ESPN+ or NHL Center Ice.
NHL Center Ice is available as an add-on to existing cable packages. Costs vary by provider, but are typically around $70 for a full season.
NHL Center Ice is also included in an ESPN+ subscription, which represents a much better value, as it only costs $12 a month and includes a number of other sports channels. (You can also get ESPN+ as part of ESPN Unlimited, which is $29.99 a month or $300 a year.)
Like MLB.TV’s out-of-market package, both NHL Center Ice and ESPN+ are subject to blackouts. That means if you’re a retired Bruins fan living in Florida, you might be out of luck when the Bruins are playing the Lightning or the Panthers, for example. Ditto if the Bruins are playing a nationally televised game on ESPN, TNT, or ABC.
How to watch the Boston Celtics
How to watch the Boston Celtics without cable:
Unlike the Red Sox and Bruins with NESN 360, there is no standalone app that allows you to watch all 82 Celtics games each season.
Instead, Celtics fans must choose from either a cable package or one of four major OTT providers that carries NBC Sports Boston, the home of the Celtics: YouTube TV, DirecTV, FuboTV, and Hulu plus Live TV. (The only major OTT provider that does not currently offer NBC Sports Boston is Sling TV.)
YouTube TV is the cheapest of the four OTT providers that carry NBC Sports Boston, costing $82.99 a month. FuboTV Pro (the cheapest tier that includes NBC Sports Boston) costs $84.99 a month, Hulu Plus Live TV costs $89.99 a month, and DirecTV Choice (the cheapest tier that includes NBC Sports Boston) costs $94.99 a month.
The cheapest option for fans is to pay $14.95 per month to add NBC Sports Boston to an existing Peacock subscription. Peacock costs either $11 (for ad-supported) or $17 (for Premium Plus) per month, but if you use Comcast as your internet provider, you’re likely eligible for a free or discounted subscription. Best of all, you will not be subject to blackouts if the game is also airing on TNT, ABC, or ESPN.
How to watch the Boston Celtics out of market:
Because NBC Sports Boston is only available in New England, the best way to watch (most) Boston Celtics games elsewhere in the U.S. is through NBA League Pass. The service costs $16.99 a month (or $110 a season) for its basic tier, and $24.99 a month (or $160 a season) for its Premium pass, which features no ads, up to 3 concurrent streaming devices, and in-arena streams showing you all the on-court entertainment during TV timeouts.
Like the MLB and NHL’s out-of-market services, NBA League Pass is subject to blackouts.
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