How to Watch the Super Bowl Without Cable

The Super Bowl is back, baby, and there's no reason at all to use cable to watch it. When the Patriots and Rams go head to head, you and your friends can watch the Super Bowl without cable – for free, if you want. Below, we'll lay out everything you need to know about your cable-free Super Bowl experience, from the date, time, and channel information to tips about streaming services and free over-the-air TV.

When Is the Super Bowl? What Channel Is the Super Bowl On?

Super Bowl LIII kicks off at 6:30 PM Eastern on Sunday, February 3. CBS has the game broadcast. The New England Patriots are back in the big game once again, where they'll take on the Los Angeles Rams. The game is being played in Atlanta.

How to Watch the Super Bowl Online and Over the Air Without Cable

The Super Bowl is being aired on a major network (CBS), and major networks have affiliates all over the country. That gives us a great option for watching the Super Bowl for without cable for free: over-the-air TV, which costs you nothing other than the one-time expense of buying an antenna.

But that's not the only way to watch the Super Bowl without cable. There are also multichannel live TV streaming services, or “skinny bundles,” which offer cable-like bundles of live TV channels that stream over the internet (yes, just like Netflix or YouTube – only with live TV). The “skinny bundle” nickname comes from the slimmed-down channel bundles that these services boast. With fewer channels on their payrolls, they're free to charge less for a nothing-but-the-best package of channels – and their selection usually includes the major networks that broadcast the Super Bowl each year. The skinny bundles we'll list in a moment all offer free trials, too, so you can check them out risk-free over Super Bowl weekend.

There's one catch with the skinny bundles: not all of the major network affiliates across the country have signed on just yet, so the availability of live ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX streams will vary by region. You can check availability through tools on the services' sites, or you can just sign up for a free trial and check. Just make sure you do it before the day of your party. Remember, this year you want CBS!

Ready to look at your options in more depth? Below, we'll list the skinny bundle first, then talk about free over-the-air TV, and finally wrap up with other apps worth mentioning.

DirecTV Now

DirecTV Now includes live streams all of the major networks (in select markets), so it makes a great way to watch the Super Bowl without cable every year – including this one. The slimmest of DirecTV Now's several bundles is “Live a Little,” which will net you Super Bowl LIII coverage for just $40 per month. You can read more of our thoughts on DirecTV Now by taking a look at our review here, or you can sign up for the service's free trial via the link below and see for yourself.

Try DirecTV Now for free

fuboTV

fuboTV is a skinny bundle built with sports in mind. Once a soccer-only service, fuboTV is now a great way to watch American football, too. fuboTV's English-language base package, fubo, costs $44.99 per month (though fuboTV offers discounts to first-time subscribers — check out the links to learn more). You can read our review of fuboTV here, but you don't have to take our word for it — check things out for yourself by signing up for the week-long free trial below.

Try fuboTV for free

Hulu with Live TV

Hulu with Live TV is, of course, the live TV offering from Hulu, a service already well-known and well-respected for its on-demand streaming offerings. Hulu does just as well with live TV as it does with on-demand content, and Hulu with Live TV is a great way to watch the Super Bowl without cable. Hulu's coverage of major networks includes CBS, the channel that will air this year's Super Bowl. You can get a Super Bowl live stream (in select markets, as is always the case with these major-network broadcasts on live TV streaming services) through Hulu with Live TV's base package, which costs $39.99 per month — though that price will rise to $44.99 per month on February 26th (a few weeks after the Super Bowl), we're sorry to report.

Try Hulu with Live TV for free

PlayStation Vue

PlayStation Vue isn't just for gamers – owners of a broad range of streaming devices will be able to use PlayStation Vue to watch the Super Bowl without cable. PlayStation Vue offers a range of bundles, but even the smallest of them – “Access,” which costs $44.99 per month — will net you a Super Bowl live stream in select markets. To see if you're covered, you can sign up for PlayStation Vue's free trial. It's risk-free and lasts for five days.

Try PlayStation Vue for free

YouTube TV

Google's live TV streaming service, YouTube TV, is another strong option for Super Bowl streaming. YouTube TV offers local feeds of CBS in lots of markets, and there is plenty of other sports coverage available on other channels. YouTube TV's bundle costs $40 per month, and you can test things out by taking advantage of the service's free trial offer.

Try YouTube TV for free

Free Over-the-Air TV

Live TV streaming services are a great way to watch the Super Bowl without cable, but they all costs money once their free trials run out. Not so with free over-the-air TV! Yes, you can still use an antenna to watch TV for free. And since the major networks that broadcast the Super Bowl each year have affiliates all across the country, there's a good chance you can watch the Super Bowl without cable for free this year. You'll just have to find out how close you are to the broadcast towers that matter to you (this year, CBS is the one to pay special attention to — that's the channel that the Super Bowl is on, of course). Get an antenna that is powerful enough to pick up the signal, hook it up, and then go into your TV's settings and scan for channels. Do it all right, and you should be able to watch the Super Bowl without cable for free. For more on free over-the-air TV, check out our coverage and tips here on Cordcutting.com – you can start with the link below.

Check out free over-the-air TV

CBS Sports App

The CBS Sports App and CBSSports.com will both have a live stream of the Super Bowl available on the day of the big game. The best part? CBS isn't asking streaming to authenticate the app with any sort of cable login. You can stream for free, even if you don't have a pay TV login! The app is offered in various versions to users of Android and iOS mobile devices, as well as to users of popular streaming platforms like Roku, Fire TV, and Apple TV.

Check out the CBS Sports app: Android, iOS, Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV

Yahoo Sports App

This year, Yahoo announced that their Yahoo Sports app would be giving fans free NFL coverage on their mobile devices for a portion of the playoffs and for the Super Bowl itself. If you're on the go, this is a good way to get a Super Bowl live stream on your phone and watch the Super Bowl without cable from wherever you are. Keep this one in mind if the Super Bowl gets really intense and you feel the need to lock yourself in a room away from the rest of the Super Bowl party. We don't judge, we're just here to help you watch the Super Bowl without cable.

Check out the Yahoo Sports app: Android, iOS

Can I Watch the Super Bowl on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, or Chromecast?

Okay, so you can plug in an antenna and watch the Super Bowl without cable on your TV – or you can get a Super Bowl live stream and watch the Super Bowl without cable online. But what if you want to get that Super Bowl live stream onto your TV?

We addressed some apps individually above, but we saved the multichannel live TV streaming services for this spot. Let's run through how you can watch each of DirecTV Now, FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV.

Roku users are in luck: DirecTV Now, FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV each have apps for Roku.

Fire TV users can choose between DirecTV Now, FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, and PlayStation Vue.

Apple TV users have all of the skinny bundle options: DirecTV Now, FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV.

Android TV users can get FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV.

DirecTV Now, FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV all support Chromecast devices via other apps.

You can also watch DirecTV Now, FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV on your computer (through in-browser apps) or on your mobile device (using each services' apps for Android and iOS devices).

Gamers will find that Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV work well on Xbox One. PlayStation Vue is, of course, available on PlayStation 4.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that you can turn your free-over-the-air TV Super Bowl experience into a Super Bowl live stream, if you so desire. By using an antenna and either a) an OTA DVR like Tablo or b) a PC TV tuner and Plex, you can make over-the-air content available on multiple devices as streaming content. Using this method, you can receive the signal through your antenna but then use supported apps to stream the Super Bowl without cable on streaming devices like the ones mentioned above.