Based on the volume of questions regarding viewing sports without cable, I thought a how to guide of sorts would be a good idea. This will cover the four major North American sports leagues, the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB.
The MLB and NHL are the easiest of the two, as you can watch them through the apple tv directly on your TV. The more difficult part is being able to watch your home games (usually blacked out), and national broadcast games (blacked out). To get around this, you will need to trick your device (ATV, iPad, Computer, etc.) into thinking it is in another location. Conventional VPNs will do this for you, but they must be turned on or off, and have your internet traffic routed through it when on, and not when off. Smart VPNs allow you to change your DNS settings on either your router (all devices connected to it will gain the feature) or on individual devices. Signing up for a Smart VPN such as UnblockUS, or Unotelly (both around $5.00) will trick the devices accordingly, and then lift the blackout, for your viewing pleasure.
The NFL is a little trickier, there is no ATV app for it, nor is there a Canadian or American iOS app for it. To get around this, you will have to create a UK based Apple account, and download the NFL Gamepass app through said UK account. Once the app is downloaded you can purchase a subscription and with the use of the smart VPN, watch all the games, including nationally televised, as well as have access to the NFL Network, and NFL Redzone. The app has built in airplay, so you can easily watch all the games on a TV with an ATV.
**You can in fact create an Apple store account from another country without a credit card.
The NBA is the most difficult to gain access to without cable. Unfortunately Unblock US does not work with the NBA app, and Unotelly only works with the web app (accessing through a desktop, NOT an iOS app). First you will need to download the NBA Gametime app, available in the Canadian app store (I believe all the international app stores have it, while the US has another app) To get around the blackouts I recommend installing hotspot shield on your iOS device, turning it on to lift the blackout restriction, and once the game is playing turn off the VPN (this is not required), to have your full bandwidth available, and not being throttled by the VPN. Using this method you can watch any game, and like the NFL the app has built in airplay to watch on any TV with a connected ATV. Unfortunately the NBATV channel cannot work using this workaround.
These are the methods I use to watch each of these four sports, mostly the NBA and NFL. I am not 100% sure the methods for NFL or NBA will be available to Americans, or whether they will be able to use the Canadian apps as a work around.
The MLB and NHL are the easiest of the two, as you can watch them through the apple tv directly on your TV. The more difficult part is being able to watch your home games (usually blacked out), and national broadcast games (blacked out). To get around this, you will need to trick your device (ATV, iPad, Computer, etc.) into thinking it is in another location. Conventional VPNs will do this for you, but they must be turned on or off, and have your internet traffic routed through it when on, and not when off. Smart VPNs allow you to change your DNS settings on either your router (all devices connected to it will gain the feature) or on individual devices. Signing up for a Smart VPN such as UnblockUS, or Unotelly (both around $5.00) will trick the devices accordingly, and then lift the blackout, for your viewing pleasure.
The NFL is a little trickier, there is no ATV app for it, nor is there a Canadian or American iOS app for it. To get around this, you will have to create a UK based Apple account, and download the NFL Gamepass app through said UK account. Once the app is downloaded you can purchase a subscription and with the use of the smart VPN, watch all the games, including nationally televised, as well as have access to the NFL Network, and NFL Redzone. The app has built in airplay, so you can easily watch all the games on a TV with an ATV.
**You can in fact create an Apple store account from another country without a credit card.
The NBA is the most difficult to gain access to without cable. Unfortunately Unblock US does not work with the NBA app, and Unotelly only works with the web app (accessing through a desktop, NOT an iOS app). First you will need to download the NBA Gametime app, available in the Canadian app store (I believe all the international app stores have it, while the US has another app) To get around the blackouts I recommend installing hotspot shield on your iOS device, turning it on to lift the blackout restriction, and once the game is playing turn off the VPN (this is not required), to have your full bandwidth available, and not being throttled by the VPN. Using this method you can watch any game, and like the NFL the app has built in airplay to watch on any TV with a connected ATV. Unfortunately the NBATV channel cannot work using this workaround.
These are the methods I use to watch each of these four sports, mostly the NBA and NFL. I am not 100% sure the methods for NFL or NBA will be available to Americans, or whether they will be able to use the Canadian apps as a work around.
