Ohio State Football Forum

Ohio State Football Forum

Ohio State football fan talk.

Guide to Watching the Buckeyes Without Cable

+51 HS
Byaaaahhh's picture
August 27, 2023 at 5:55pm
76 Comments

tl;dr - Streaming services will cost about $70-75/mo. and you can watch every game except any that are exclusively on Peacock (so far, only Maryland).

Since there have been a lot of posts about this, I'm putting together this guide on methods for watching each OSU game. 

Ohio State 2023 Schedule
Week 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Sept 2 Sept 9 Sept 16 Sept 23 Oct 7 Oct 14 Oct 21 Oct 28 Nov 4 Nov 11 Nov 18 Nov 25
Opponent
@ IU

Young-
stown State

WKU
@Notre Dame

Maryland

@ Purdue

Penn State

@
Wisc

@
Rutgers

MSU

Minn

@
TTUN
channel CBS BTN FOX NBC FOX Peacock FOX  NBC CBS NBC TBA FOX
Youtube TV Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Hulu Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Fubo Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Sling No Yes No No No No No No No No -- No
Peacock Premium No No No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes -- No
OTA Antenna Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Ultimate Cheapskate Plan
($ total)
OTA
($0)
Fubo Trial
($0)
OTA
($0)
OTA
($0)
OTA
($0)
Peacock
($6)
OTA 
($6)
OTA
($6)
OTA
($6)
OTA   OTA

Source: https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/football/schedule

OSU games will be found on CBS, NBC, FOX, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), BTN, or Peacock. The College football playoff games are going to be on ESPN. 

CBS, NBC, and Fox are public broadcast channels, which means you will be able to pick them up over the air with an antenna. 

FS1, BTN, Peacock, and ESPN will require some sort of paid streaming package to get them legally. Peacock is only available via a Peacock subscription. 

Streaming Service Info
This information may vary depending on location. Descriptions are only meant to provide a general summary and the details/conditions of some features may be more nuanced. 

YouTube TV ($73/mo., 14-day free trial):
There is also a current ongoing offer for new users that knocks the monthly price down to $65/mo. for the first three months, after which it will cost $73/mo. Streams in 1080p, no annual contract, unlimited DVR space (connection required), up to 3 simultaneous streams. A $10/mo. add-on is required for 4k streams, offline DVR playback, and unlimited simultaneous streams.  

Hulu + Live TV ($50 77/mo., no free trial):
Currently available for $50/mo for 3 months. For new subscribers and users unsubscribed for at least 1 month. 
A subscription does come with access to Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+, but with ads. Streaming 1080p, no annual contract, unlimited DVR, up to 2 simultaneous live TV streams. $10/mo. add-on for unlimited streams from home network and one more mobile stream.

Fubo ($75/mo., 1-day free trial):
Limited to 1000 hours of DVR space. Up to 10 simultaneous streams at home plus 2 screens on the go. Fun fact, they call this "unlimited screens."

Sling TV (Various plans available):
The plan to get appears to be the Blue + Sports Extra Season Pass. Scroll to the bottom and it's the plan on the right.

It's a 5-month package for $199, which offers FS1 and BTN (as well as NFL Redzone, NFL Network, and FS2), working out to $40/month and according to them, saves you $56.

Essentially it's the Blue plan ($40/mo.) with the Blue Sports add-on ($11/mo.), but bundled so you only pay $40/mo. but are limited to 5 months. That's fine, since that will cover September through January. HOWEVER! You will NOT get ESPN, which is needed for the CFP playoff. That's on the Orange plan only.

Peacock Premium ($6/mo., no free trial):
Only the base Premium level is needed to watch the live college football games (source: Cord Cutting Report). A student discount knocks the price down to $2/mo. It is verified via SheerID.

Plan Recommendations

  • For the simplest solution, getting YouTube TV/Hulu/Fubo plus a month of Peacock when needed will get you everything you need and comes with the most features. This will probably run you ~$286-$356, depending on the postseason dates and assuming only one peacock-exclusive game. Watching the Indiana game OTA and waiting until Week 2 to start your subscription should guarantee that you don't have to spring for the extra month, even if we make it to the CFP championship. 
  • For the cheapest simple solution, combine OTA and Sling Blue Season Pass for complete coverage until the CFP, at which point you'll need to find a way to get ESPN, either via Sling Orange or YTTV/Hulu/Fubo. This will cost about $199 if you have free trials for ESPN in January. Otherwise, it'll be about $270, at which point I would probably just do the simplest solution. 
  • For the most convoluted but cheapest solution, I'll combine OTA when possible, use free trials, and try to be efficient with the plans. So far, it would only cost $6 up through Week 6. Will need to wait for further announcements. Will still have a YTTV 14-day trial to burn. 

There may be other "methods" to watch the games. I won't go into those in this post since they might exist in some legal gray areas and may pose potential risks to your devices.

If these services aren't your thing, you can always listen in to 97.1 The Fan on the radio if you're in Columbus or online at https://www.971thefan.com/ (thanks MindSurfr). 

More Information:

CFP - Semifinals are on Jan 1 and the Championship is on Jan 8. Both will be on ESPN.

B1G CG - Played on Dec 2, to be broadcast on Fox.

CBS - "Any game on CBS is streamable on Paramount+. Which is a service that in the past gives away free months of service with promo codes all the time." - I'm Ron Burgundy

Peacock - Peacock and NBC will stream 21 B1G games in total. Thirteen of those will be available on NBC and Peacock, while eight will be exclusively on Peacock. So far, only two Peacock-exclusive games have been announced and only four NBC+Peacock games have been announced. (Source: NBC)

This means there are six remaining Peacock-exclusive games and five remaining NBC+Peacock games. 

Roku/Firestick - Streaming devices like this may have apps that give you access local public broadcast streams. Thanks Ziplock007 for the tip on Firestick and Mizzer for Roku.

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

View 76 Comments