You don't need a cable bill to keep watching ESPN. Here's every way to stream it online, and how to do it for free.
Reviewed and updated July 2026 by our cord-cutting team · 14 options
You can stream ESPN live without cable on Fubo, Sling TV Orange, DIRECTV, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV Essentials, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Unlimited bundle, YouTube TV Sports Plan, Youtube TV Sports + News Plan, YouTube TV Sports + News + Entertainment Plan, YouTube TV, or ESPN Unlimited.
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Yes, with a free trial. ESPN is on Fubo, and you can watch it free for Fubo's 7-day free trial. Cancel before it ends and you pay nothing.
Fubo stands out for their generous 7 day free trial. If you thought Sling was affordable at $4.99/day, how about a week completely free. Once branded as a sports-focused streaming service, it also comes with RSNs, CBS Sports, both Fox Sports channels FS1 and FS2, as well as ESPN2 and ESPN3. The only area it falls short of being the perfect cord-cutting solution for sports fans is that it doesn’t include TNT. It’s worth noting Fubo has recently been acquired by ESPN’s owner Disney, and it’s set to be merged with Hulu + Live TV at some point in the future.
It leans heavily on sports, and a regional sports fee of a few dollars up to about $17 by ZIP gets added on top.
Fubo plans
Yes, with a free trial. ESPN is on Hulu + Live TV, and you can watch it free for Hulu + Live TV's 3-day free trial. Cancel before it ends and you pay nothing.
Hulu and ESPN are both owned by Disney, so it makes sense that: a- Hulu’s Live TV service includes ESPN, and b- ESPN Unlimited and Disney+ are included in Hulu with Live TV’s base plan. You’ll be getting ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN College Extra, ESPNews, and ESPNU all in one place, together with local channels, ABC, CBS, and Hulu’s on-demand library. The price might be steep but you do get a lot for it, and they often run 3-month discounts for new subscribers.
It caps you at two simultaneous streams, the fewest of the big live-TV services; lifting that cap costs about $10 more a month.
Hulu + Live TV plans
Our breakdown of Hulu + Live TV →
Yes, with a free trial. ESPN is on DIRECTV, and you can watch it free for DIRECTV's 5-day free trial. Cancel before it ends and you pay nothing.
DIRECTV (previously DIRECTV Stream) is known for their industry-leading picture quality, but they have recently been covering their bases against the competition. For starters, they offer a five day trial which includes ESPN, so you can watch the game or event you’re looking for, and if you choose, cancel and not pay anything. Second, they recently introduced “genre packages”, which are cheaper skinny bundles. ESPN is included in the MySports package for $69.99, which also comes with a free trial.
There are, however, plently reasons to keep this complete cord-cutting package: local channels, RSNs, unlimited DVR, and the ability to watch on an impressive 20 devices at once in your home (3 devices outside).
The price climbs steeply between tiers, and a regional sports fee gets added on top.
DIRECTV plans
Yes, with a free trial. ESPN is on YouTube TV, and you can watch it free for YouTube TV's 7-day free trial. Cancel before it ends and you pay nothing.
Youtube TV has quickly grown into one of the best choices for Live TV, offering both local and national channels like ESPN, CNN, Comedy Central, and others. Youtube TV’s marketing claims that by getting the platform, you could save up to $500 a year on cable. One major draw of the platform is unlimited cloud DVR storage that’s included in the $82.99 plan.
It’s also one of the most widely available Live TV streaming services, as you can get it on virtually every device from Fire TV to XBOX to Smart TV brands like LG.
At around $83 a month it's one of the priciest options, and add-ons push the bill past $100 fast.
YouTube TV plans
No, not free. Sling TV carries ESPN but has no free trial, so you pay from day one — at $45.99/mo it's the second-cheapest way to watch ESPN on this list.
Sling Orange’s $4.99/day price tag makes it de facto the cheapest option to get an ESPN live stream for just a game or two. This so-called “skinny bundle” includes all three ESPN channels, and throws in TNT, TBS, A&E and more. The 3-day pass costs $9.99, and the week pass costs $14.99. The monthly subscription is at $45.99, which is good value, but is technically the second cheapest way to stream the Disney-owned sports broadcaster, as ESPN unlimited currently costs $29.99/month.
Whether you’re looking to watch a single game or looking for a more complete alternative to cable, Sling’s Orange package is one of the market’s highlights.
One stream at a time, capped at 720p, and the price has crept up over time.
Sling TV plans
No. Philo doesn't carry ESPN.
No. Paramount+ doesn't carry ESPN.
No. Peacock doesn't carry ESPN.
No. Frndly TV doesn't carry ESPN.
Yes, inside the app. Disney folded its ESPN streaming service into Disney+ in 2025, so the ESPN tile gives you live ESPN games and studio shows with no separate login.
Disney+ merged with Hulu into one app in 2025, so everything Disney owns now streams here on demand.
No. HBO Max only streams the Warner Bros. Discovery family (HBO, Discovery, HGTV, TNT, CNN and the rest), and ESPN isn’t part of it. The best way to watch ESPN without cable is YouTube TV above (free-trial).
No. There’s no Prime Video Channels add-on for ESPN, so Prime can’t stream it on demand or live. The best way to watch ESPN without cable is YouTube TV above (free-trial).
The honest way to watch ESPN for free is a free trial, and the trick is not to spend them one at a time. Start one, then start the next when it ends, and you can string together a few weeks of free live TV back to back, usually enough to cover a tournament or a playoff run without paying for a month.
If you're cutting cable for ESPN, odds are you want ABC too. It's a sister channel, so every service above that carries ESPN carries ABC as well, and the same free trials get you both. See our full guide to watching ABC without cable for the per-service breakdown.
| Service | From | Free trial | Plans | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fubo |
$84.99/mo | 7 days | 2 | Get it |
| Hulu + Live TV |
$82.99/mo | 3 days | 2 | Get it |
| DIRECTV |
$94.99/mo | 5 days | 4 | Get it |
| YouTube TV |
$9.99/mo | 7 days | 2 | Get it |
| Sling TV |
$45.99/mo | None | 3 | Get it |
ESPN and the US services that carry it are geo-locked to the United States, so your login stops working the moment you leave the country. A VPN fixes that: connect to a US server and the service sees a US address again. The catch is that streaming platforms actively block most VPN traffic, so the VPN you pick matters far more than the service does. These three reliably get back in:
A huge US server network (thousands of IPs across 15-plus cities) with SmartPlay DNS baked into every server, so streaming just works without extra setup. The best value of the top tier on a two-year plan.
Best for streaming ESPN with: Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV
Get NordVPN →The budget pick, and the one to get if the whole household travels: it allows unlimited simultaneous devices on one account, plus a Smart DNS for TVs. Reliable with the on-demand and lifestyle services.
Best for streaming ESPN with: Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV
Get Surfshark →Whichever you pick, connect to a US city first, then sign in to ESPN or the service that carries it as normal. Choose a VPN with a money-back window so you can confirm it un-blocks ESPN before you commit.
No. ESPN is a cable channel and doesn't broadcast over the air, so an antenna can't pick it up. An antenna only gets the free broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, The CW), which pair nicely with one of the services above; check which of those reach your address here.
Every service that carries ESPN runs on the major streaming platforms, so you can watch on just about any TV, phone, or console. Here's how, device by device:
On Roku, you can watch ESPN through Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, add the channel from the Roku Channel Store, sign in, and open ESPN in the live guide.
On Amazon Fire TV, you can watch ESPN through Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, download the app from the Amazon Appstore, sign in, and open ESPN in the live guide.
On Apple TV, you can watch ESPN through Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, install the app from the App Store, sign in, and open ESPN in the live guide.
On Android TV & Google TV, you can watch ESPN through Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, grab the app from the Google Play Store, sign in, and open ESPN in the live guide.
On Chromecast, you can watch ESPN through Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, and Sling TV. The gap: DIRECTV and YouTube TV don't offer a Chromecast app. To set it up, cast it from your phone or use the built-in Google TV app, sign in, and open ESPN in the live guide.
On Samsung & LG smart TVs, you can watch ESPN through Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. The gap: Fubo doesn't offer a Samsung & LG smart TVs app. To set it up, install the app from your TV's own store (Tizen or webOS), sign in, and open ESPN in the live guide.
On phones & tablets, you can watch ESPN through Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, download the app from the App Store or Google Play, sign in, and open ESPN in the live guide.
On game consoles, you can watch ESPN through Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. The gap: Fubo and DIRECTV don't offer a game consoles app. To set it up, download the app from the Xbox or PlayStation store, sign in, and open ESPN in the live guide.
Cheapest is the question everyone starts with, and it's the wrong place to stop. A $35 plan that drops ESPN the month after you sign up hasn't saved you anything. So the first number we pay attention to is the real one, what you owe after the introductory month ends, not the figure in the ad. From there it comes down to whether the channels you actually want sit in the base plan or get stranded in an add-on, how the service behaves day to day (a slow app and a useless DVR wear on you faster than you'd expect), and how much of a fight it puts up when you decide to leave.
Whatever lands at the top of a list like this is the service that gets most of that right for the most people. Once in a while that's also the cheapest one. Usually it isn't.
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