How to Watch BYU Football on Your TV Without Cable (2011 Edition)

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UPDATE: this post is outdated, see our 2015 BYU Football guide, for the most current information.

Whether you’re a life-long Cougar football fan or someone who just joined the ranks of basketball BYU faithful during the Jimmermania of last year, we know you’re probably asking one question: “how can I watch BYU Football and Basketball without cable or satellite TV?”

Disclaimer: We know that not all Mormons are Cougar fans. But a lot of Cougar fans are LDS. So in that spirit, we consider this a “Mormon” life hack, though it may not interest some of you. If there are any Ute fans (or other schools with a solid LDS fanbase) you’d like to see a similar article on, contact us with the info, and we’d be happy to post it here.

A lot of people are quitting cable (or satellite TV) these days. They do it in protest of all the garbage, to cut costs in a tough economy, or simply to send a message that we don’t want a package with 870 channels when they only ever watch 5 of them. For some time now, my wife and I have been among those who simply feel cable isn’t worth it at almost any cost. We watch a few shows on Hulu a few days after they air, but mostly we just watch Netflix on-demand movies, the occasional TV show, and a DVD from time to time in the mail or from RedboxYouTube’s new rental service is also a great on-demand option.

Internet Channels: ESPN3 & BYU TV

First of you need to understand two free, internet channels: ESPN3 and BYU TV. The first is free, as long as you have the correct internet service provider (ISP). If your ISP has a deal with ESPN, then it’s completely free, and you can stream almost any game of any sport that any of the ESPN network channels (including ABC if I understand correctly) live, over the internet. If you don’t have the right ISP, you’re simply out of luck. Comcast (now Xfinity) has this deal, while Qwest (now Centurylink) does not. You can even use your ISP’s login info to use ESPN3 to watch games, when you’re away from home and on another ISP (eg. WiFi in a hotel or while visiting family for the holidays). ESPN doesn’t offer any subscription alternatives (which we think is stupid). With ESPN3, you can also watch most games on-demand after they’re over. For the 2011 season, ESPN is airing 10 out of 12 BYU Football games, and 8+ BYU Men’s Basketball games.

BYU TV is free to everyone everywhere, as long as you have internet. They recently upgraded their broadcasting with a new studio, HD broadcasts, and a whole lot more, that puts BYU TV up there with the best networks in the world as far as HD quality video and production capability. This year, because ESPN is airing so many Football games, BYU TV will only broadcast 1 Football game live. However, they will have a live pre-game and post-game show, re-run each game after it is over, and have it available for on-demand viewing. BYU TV will also broadcast at least 16 Men’s basketball games, as well as most games from all their other most popular sports.

This is all perfect, if you’re using a computer and have the right ISP. If you don’t have an ISP on ESPN3’s list, you might consider switching ISP’s to one with ESPN3 as part of dropping your cable. But what about watching on your TV? You’ve got the right ISP so you can get both ESPN3 and BYU TV, but you’d prefer to sit on your couch, and watch it on your giant flat-screen. Well from here, things are not quite as easy as we’d hoped, but we’ve got info for you to sort it out.

Media Computers

After tons of research, I’m unhappy to report that the only good option to watch both ESPN3 and BYU TV on your TV is to hook up a regular computer, laptop, or mini-computer to it.  Because it’s a computer, you can watch ESPN3 & BYU TV right from the browser, using your TV as the display. Most laptops and the new class of media-box mini computers all have HDMI. That means with a single cable running from the computer to your TV, you can use the computer with your TV as the monitor, to watch a whole lot of sports between the two channels (plus Netflix streaming, Hulu, YouTube rentals & more) and other BYU TV programming.

The downside is that you’ll probably need to use a wireless mouse (and possibly a keyboard) to navigate from across the room, the browsers aren’t optimized for use from a distance, and you have to click the “full screen” button to make it fill the screen. But currently this is the most sure option to watch the most games.

Here are some popular mini-media-box computers that work great:

You can, of course, make these more of a “10-foot” experience by installing some alternative software. Boxee is very popular right now and includes lots of add-on options. Plus there is an ESPN3 plugin available for it (thought I wasn’t able to confirm if it’s still working). Plex is another great option. We highly recommend either, if you go with the Mac Mini, as it adds a good “10-foot” interface. If you’re more of a hardcore DIY/techie XBMC is quite possibly the best complete media center software, and there is both a browser (for BYU TV) and ESPN3 plugin for it.

[box]After further investigation, it appears that ESPN3 (now called Watch ESPN) most likely blocks the Google TV web browser. Also, though ESPN released an Android app, it appears that you must have cable TV through 1 of 3 providers in order to use the Android, iPhone or iPad app, despite what I originally thought. The point of this article was about watching without Cable, so my comments below are invalidated. There is no good solution, if you don’t want cable, for both ESPN3 and BYU TV, other than a full-computer as mentioned above.[/box]

“Set-Top” Boxes

There’s a lot of set-top box options out there, but the only one I could confirm will work with both ESPN3 and BYU TV, is the Google TV options. Because Google TV has a full browser and Flash, like a regular computer, it can (according to my sources) stream both channels just fine through it’s browser. ESPN3 recently blocked a plugin to Windows Media Center that allowed it to be navigated and watched via WMC, so it’s possible that they have or will also block the Google TV in some way.

The next option that’s best if your priority is Football, is the Xbox 360. Through Xbox Live, you can stream all ESPN3 content (assuming you’re on the right ISP). There’s no simple way to watch BYU TV through your 360, but there is a workaround where you install the MCE browser, then if you have a Windows computer on the same network, can pull regular internet through the connected computer. Assuming Flash is supported, you should be able to watch BYU TV on your TV, via your 360.

None of the other options (Apple TV, Roku, etc) have any kind of support for ESPN3, though the Roku does have a BYU TV channel if Football is less important to you.

Mobile

There’s some varied options for mobile, but our pick is the iPad (though iPhone works too). With it’s larger screen, and both a BYU TV app and an ESPN3 app, it’s by far the best option.

18 comments
  1. You’ll also want to consider the new Roku players. They are about the size of a hockey puck, so are not intrusive or space hogs.

    The top model offers 1080p HD and is both WiFi and wired. All offer a host of channels including both of the BYU channels and they are inexpensive … $59.95 to $99.95

    The Roku home page is at: http://www.roku.com/ Click on “What’s On” to see the channels.

    They are a great solution for cable cutters or folks who want to watch the On-Demand BYU offerings on almost any (old) TV in their home via video/RCA ports. (I’m writing as a user and have no ties to Roku.)

    1. Great point Lee. The Roku, was the one I should've mentioned but didn't. Though it has an excellent BYU TV app, it unfortunately has no way to play ESPN3. So if Football is important to you, it won't help you much this season (just one live game on BYU TV).

    1. Clint, that is a great video. I'm sorry you felt the wording was "unfortunate." What did I need to state more clearly? It does ESPN3 very well, it does not do BYU TV without a bit of a workaround. Was there more I should've included?

      1. Clint was referring to the language in the Gizmodo article.

        Tevya – thanks for the awesome post!!! It was really helpful.

  2. Great information. I watch ESPN3 on my Windows Media Center using Playon and tubecore. I listen to the mormon channel through boxee, but unfortunately I still need to bring up a browser to watch BYUtv. I guess Playon had a script that worked for BYUtv, but were asked to remove it. I'm not sure why.

  3. For those who are a little more technically inclined, the Raspberry Pi is a $35 mini computer that can run XBMC. It uses the same basic hardware as the Roku 2 but you can customize it much more and there is an ESPN3 plugin for it as well as a BYUtv plugin. These little devices are in pretty high demand right now so it can be difficult to get one, but if you can manage it they are quite a bit of fun. I haven’t yet run either of those plugins yet, but I am working on it.

    Considering you were looking for a single solution for both of these channels, this might be it.

      1. Since my last update I have gotten the following addons to working on XBMC on my Raspberry Pi:
        Hulu
        BYUtv
        WatchESPN
        Amazon
        Plex
        Pandora
        YouTube

        The BYUtv plugin can be found here:
        https://code.google.com/p/xbmc-byutv/downloads/detail?name=plugin.video.byutv-0.1.2.zip&can=2&q=

        I actually watched the ESPN3 BYU game last night using the addon for XBMC. I set it up using this tutorial:
        http://www.insanehtpc.com/2012/05/16/how-to-install-espn-add-on-for-xbmc/

        When I get a little time I will document my setup for each of these on my blog.

      2. That is awesome! I just tried it out and decided that you are my new hero. I will think of you next time I watch a football game or General Conference on the big TV. Thanks, NitroCSIA.

  4. Looking for what BYU’s plans are for 2015. Last year they re-broadcast a bunch of games on BYU TV. Anyone know what they are planning for upcoming season. BYU broadcasts on so many different networks it makes for a very expensive cable (DISH) upgrade each season. Thanks in advance for any comments.

    1. I’m working on an update to this post AJ. But there’s still several games that are unknown on the 2015 schedule. So I’m waiting another week or two hoping that at least the networks that will carry them, get announced.

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