Monday Night Football Without Cable: Best Ways to Live Stream NFL Season Online

I’m ready for Monday Night Football’s return with the start of the 2024 regular season. Best of all, I don’t need to be tied to a cable contract to enjoy every game.

In a hurry? If you don’t care to dive into details, these three streaming services will allow you to enjoy not just Monday Night Football but the whole NFL season and more:

Why You Need a VPN Today

However, first you need a VPN to unblock US streaming services from . Our favourite is ExpressVPN. It’s definitely not the cheapest option at $6.67/month, but it just works – and across all your devices.

They have servers in 25+ US cities/states and 105 countries, which unblock access to premium streaming platforms available only in the US, as well as free “on demand” TV services worldwide.

You’ll have access to local platforms as if you were in the country, meaning you can watch BBC iPlayer as if you were in the UK, CBC Gem as if you were in Canada, plus hundreds more worldwide.

Sign Up for ExpressVPN

Hotdog users get three months free at ExpressVPN, so it’s a “no-brainer” for us. Decide for yourself with their 30 day money-back guarantee.

IMPORTANT: Once you’ve installed your VPN and connected to a US server, you’ll still need to subscribe separately to access premium streaming services.

What Channel Is Monday Night Football on?

All Monday Night Football games air on the ESPN family of TV channels. This includes ABC, which was the original home of the presentation.

In terms of exclusive coverage, you will need ABC, ESPN, and ESPN+ to watch every game. But note that four of these games occur at roughly the same time.

Here are the number of games appearing on each channel/service:

• ABC: 8
• ESPN: 17
• ESPN2: 9
• ESPN Deportes: 17
• ESPN+: 1

Note that all ESPN2 presentations will be the Manningcast. Also: ABC, ESPN, and ESPN Deportes will air at least one playoff game this year.

Where Can I Watch Monday Night Football This Week?

Here are the upcoming Monday Night Football games:

Get the complete 2024 Monday Night Football schedule below!

How to Watch Monday Night Football Without Cable TV

A total of 8 games of the 2024 NFL season on Monday Night Football will air on ABC. Five of these games will be simulcast on ESPN. But 3 of the games will air at roughly the same time as alternative Monday Night games on ESPN. So those games can be viewed if you have an antenna. Otherwise, ESPN is the only option (see below for the major exception).

Every Monday Night Football game that airs on ESPN is available with Spanish-language commentary on ESPN Deportes. This will also include any playoff games ESPN is set to air.

If you don’t have cable, your two best bets to watch Monday Night Football are Fubo and DIRECTV STREAM. Both options have access to ESPN live streaming all season long. And they both have trial offers that let you try out the service for several days.

The low-cost option is Sling TV. For just $40.00/month, Sling Orange gives you 30+ live TV channels including ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3.

Because these are streaming-only services, you don’t need cable, just a good internet connection. Once they’re set up, you can livestream Monday Night Football and a number of your other favorites. And, they work with the most popular streaming devices and TVs, which you probably already have.

Fubo: Great for the Whole NFL Season

One of the best ways to livestream Monday Night Football is Fubo. It is great for sports fans. Of its 150+ channels, over 50+ are sports-focused. And its base plan includes ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2, all the channels you might want for Monday Night Football.

Sign Up for a Free Fubo Trial

For $79.99/month, Fubo’s Pro plan offers all the channels you need to watch the NFL: CBS, ESPN, Fox, NBC, and NFL Network. For an extra $10.99/mo, you can get the Sports Plus add-on. This provides you with NFL RedZone as well as 25+ other live sports channels including MLB Network, NBA TV, 4 Stadium channels, 7 Pac-12 channels, and more.

Find out more in our Fubo articles:

• Fubo Review
• Fubo Packages
• Fubo Local Channels
• Fubo Devices.

DIRECTV STREAM: NFL All Season Long

DIRECTV STREAM is $79.99/month for 90+ channels, which include all the base NFL channels including the local channels.

Get DIRECTV STREAM Free Trial

DIRECTV STREAM might be a good service to use if you are interested in more than just football. For baseball, basketball, and hockey fans, it offers the best availability of regional sports networks (RSNs) in the industry. To get access, you need to upgrade to their Choice plan for $108.99/month (100+ channels). But in some Los Angeles, it may be the only option.

The base plan allows you to watch all of Monday Night Football. To learn more about DIRECTV STREAM, check out the following:

• DIRECTV STREAM Review
• DIRECTV STREAM Packages
• DIRECTV STREAM Local Channels
• DIRECTV STREAM Devices.

Sling TV: Budget Option for NFL

Sling TV is a great option if you are on a budget. They offer two plans for $40.00/month each. Sling Orange offers ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3. Sling Blue offers ABC, Fox, and NBC in select markets and NFL Network everywhere. You can get the two together for $55.00/month for a total of 50+ channels. This last plan is the one most football fans will want.

Save $25 on Sling TV Now

Although Sling Orange does not offer ABC, you won’t miss anything from ABC Sports since it is all simulcast on ESPN3, which Sling TV does provide.

The hole in its NFL coverage is CBS. You can get around this, however, by integrating your Sling TV interface either with an antenna or Paramount+. But even without this, Sling TV represents one of the best deals in the industry and is fantastic for Monday Night Football.

Find out more about Sling TV in the following article:

• Sling TV Review
• Sling TV Packages
• Sling TV Local Channels
• Sling TV Devices.

See also these Sling-specific NFL guides: NFL on Sling, NFL Preseason, NFL RedZone, and Sunday Night Football.

Hulu + Live TV: Every MNF Game

Everyone knows Hulu because of its industry-leading on-demand streaming service. Hulu + Live TV offers this along with 95+ live TV channels for $76.99/month. This includes all the channels you need to watch the NFL including Monday Night Football.

Get Hulu + Live TV for $59.99 Monthly

And if that isn’t enough, all Hulu Live subscribers get Disney+ and ESPN+.

Hulu + Live TV also allows you to get NFL RedZone. It is only $9.99/mo extra but comes with an underwhelming selection of 6 other channels: MAVTV, Sportsman Channel, Outdoor Channel, FanDuel, FanDuel Racing, and Tennis Channel. But that’s a good price for RedZone alone.

There’s lots more to know about Hulu + Live TV; check out the following:

• Hulu + Live TV Review
• Hulu + Live TV Packages
• Hulu + Live TV Local Channels
• Hulu + Live TV Devices.

Other Options to Watch Monday Night Football Without Cable

While these are our top recommendations for live streaming Monday Night Football, there are other options of varying levels of acceptability:

• NFL+: Live stream all local and primetime games, including Monday Night Football, for just $6.99/month. Limited to viewing on mobile devices.
• Antenna: In most areas, you can get ABC in high definition over the air (OTA). This will only allow you to watch about half the episodes of Monday Night Football (see below) but it’s a good option for watching a lot of other games.
• ESPN App: This is a great way to catch Monday Night Football on the go. However, you will need to have a streaming service account to login via TV Everywhere.
• YouTube TV: A full cable-replacement streaming service very similar to Hulu + Live TV.

There are other ways to watch the NFL outside of Monday Night Football. You should consider Paramount+, for example, to live stream the games on your local CBS affiliate.

Devices and TVs to Live Stream Monday Night Football

Over the past couple of years, the streaming industry has gotten very serious about supporting the hardware that is in use. You can live stream Monday Night Football on most streaming devices.

TVs and TV Devices

The most direct way to use a streaming service is to run it directly with your TV. All the services support recent Samsung smart TVs. Fubo, Hulu, and Sling also support VIZIO SmartCast TVs and LG TVs. And Fubo supports Hisense TVs.

All the streaming services support units that run the Android TV operating system.

But if you are like most people, you probably have a little TV “stick” that you connect to your TV. All the streaming services support these:

• Amazon Fire TV
• Apple TV
• Roku.

Mobile Devices

If you want to live stream Monday Night Football on your phone, you can do that too. Everyone supports the major models:

• Android Phones
• iOS devices (iPhones, iPads).

All the major web browsers are universally supported: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. If you want, you can use a labtop to live stream and then send it to your TV — either by connecting an HDMI cable or by casting.

Similarly, all the services support Chromecast, which allows your TV to accept video casting from your phone.

Gaming Consoles

If you want to use your gaming console to live stream Monday Night Football, that’s not a problem. Fubo, Hulu, and Sling all support the Xbox. Hulu also supports the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Echo Show. And Sling TV supports the Oculus.

Sign Up for a Free Fubo Trial

About Monday Night Football

When Monday Night Football started on ABC back in 1970, it was a very big deal. NFL games that were at night on a weekday and at night — revolutionary. Now with Thursday Night Football and Sunday Night Football, it isn’t as unusual. But it’s still an important event for football fans.

In 2006, Monday Night Football moved to ESPN. Because of its long association with cable, some fans might be concerned about ditching cable. But ESPN is well supported by streaming services.

You can live stream Monday Night Football without cable with Fubo (free trial) and DIRECTV STREAM (5-day free trial). Check out our guide for how to watch Monday Night Football online below.

MNF On-Air Talent

Veteran NFL sportscaster Joe Buck provides play-by-play coverage with former Cowboys quarterback and Hall-of-Famer Troy Aikman on color commentary. Lisa Salters is the primary sideline reporter.

There is a secondary team for when two games take place at the same time. Chris Fowler provides play-by-play for these games. With him are Dan Orlovsky and Louis Riddick with analysis and Laura Rutledge on the sidelines.

ESPN’s pregame show is Monday Night Countdown, now hosted by Scott Van Pelt. Ryan Clark, Larry Fitzgerald, Adam Schefter, Alex Smith, and Marcus Spears are returning to the show along with newcomer Jason Kelce.

Monday Night Football has featured play-by-play from some of the biggest stars in sports broadcasting including Frank Gifford and Al Michaels who headed the show for a combined 35 years!

MNF Manningcast

Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, or as it’s better known, the Manningcast, is broadcast on ESPN2. Some of these are simulcast on ESPN+.

The popular alternate telecast starring Super Bowl winners Peyton and Eli Manning debuted in 2021, and won a Sports Emmy Award in 2022. There will be 9 games this year.

Peyton Manning led the Indianapolis Colts to a win in Super Bowl XLI in 2007. But his younger brother Eli has bragging right with victories for the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII (2008) and Super Bowl XLVI (2012).

Monday Night Football Schedule

Let’s look at this year’s great schedule. There will only be one Monday Night preseason matchup (Texans at the Bears for the Hall of Fame game). There will also be one Monday Night playoff game.

All MNF games air on ESPN, ABC, or both with one streaming only on ESPN+. If you don’t have access to ABC, these games are simulcast on ESPN3. Sling TV offers this through its own interface but you can get access to it via TV Everywhere with all the other services.

Looking for complete information about the preseason? See our NFL Preseason Viewer’s Guide for everything you need to know!

Here is the complete schedule of Monday Night Football (outside of the playoffs) including four (roughly) simultaneous games, which you may want to DVR (not available with ESPN3). Times are all Eastern.

Summing Up

If you want to watch Monday Night Football, you need ESPN. Thankfully, ESPN is available in the base plans of most streaming services. And they normally come with the other channels you need to enjoy the whole NFL season and more.

We recommend Fubo for Monday Night Football. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.

FAQs

What time does Monday Night Football start?

Most Monday Night Football games start at 8:15 pm with Monday Night Countdown starting an hour earlier. However, some days there are two Monday Night Football games on the same day. In these cases, one will start 30 or 45 minutes after the other. This happens 5 times during the 2024 season.

Which channels carry Monday Night Football?

ESPN airs almost all Monday Night Football games. Sometimes, ABC will also air it. You can also watch Monday Night Football on your phone or tablet with NFL+. But generally, if you want to enjoy Monday Night Football in all its glory, you should get a streaming service that offers ESPN like Fubo or Hulu + Live TV.

Why are some Monday Night Football games on Thursday night?

There are no non-Monday Monday Night Football games in 2024 regular season. But the preseason Hall of Fame game, on Thursday, is a Monday Night Football game. This is because “Monday Night Football” is a brand not a description. It’s the same as the first game of the regular season, which takes place on Thursday night but is called Sunday Night Football.

Can I watch Monday Night Football with an antenna?

You can watch Monday Night Football via antenna when it airs on ABC. In the 2024 season, it will broadcast seven games of the regular season (one in the preseason). However, local market games will air on ABC in those markets. So if you live in Tampa Bay and the Buccaneers are on Monday Night Football, it should air on your local ABC affiliate and should be available OTA via antenna.

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Frank Moraes

I am a Senior Content Editor at Hotdog.com, specializing in sports streaming and regional programming issues. With a PhD in Atmospheric Physics from the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and extensive experience in remote sensing technology, including early video streaming, I bring a unique technical perspective to the streaming industry.

My expertise in sports coverage, particularly for out-of-market games and regional sports networks, stems from years of hands-on experience as an early adopter of streaming services and my work addressing fans' viewing challenges. As a longtime cord-cutter and subscriber to multiple streaming platforms, I combine my technical knowledge with practical user experience, making me a leading expert in the field of sports streaming and entertainment technology.

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