How to Watch NBC Sports Bay Area Without Cable

NBC Sports Bay Area is available on four live TV streaming services.

You can watch NBC Sports Bay Area live on:

• Hulu with Live TV
• fubo
• YouTube TV
• DIRECTV STREAM

You can use a Smart TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick or Google Chromecast instead of a cable TV provider. The regional sports network carries in-market games for the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors.

But if you’re cutting the cord for the first time, it’s worth weighing the pros and cons of each service.

STREAMING SERVICE	NBC Sports Bay Area	# of channels
DIRECTV STREAM	Yes	105
fuboTV	Yes	152
Hulu Live TV	Yes	75
Sling TV	No	31-41
YouTube TV	Yes	128

How to Stream NBC Sports Bay Area

NBC Sports Bay Area is only available in the San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California, Central California, Nevada, Hawaii and Southern Oregon. 

Live TV streaming services are similar to cable TV subscriptions, but you are streaming your TV channels online to your television, smartphone or PC.

These services are used by cord-cutters to watch local channels such as ABC and CBS along with popular cable channels, including ESPN and CNN. 

To get started, you just need an Internet connection. Once you pick a streaming service, and sign up for a free trial, you can download the app to your Smart TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast or Apple TV.

Whether you are an NBA or NHL fan, getting your local regional sports network (RSN) through a streaming service gives you more flexibility than a cable company. 

You can easily cancel a streaming service online, and jump to a competing service whenever you want. Some cord-cutters even jump from platform to platform throughout the year just to catch certain shows.

Many of these services also carry NBC Sports California, which carries local games for the Oakland Athletics, San Jose Sharks, and Sacramento Kings.

Hulu with Live TV

Hulu with Live TV has 75+ channels total including local NBC, CBS and ABC stations. 

ESPN, NBC Sports Bay Area, FS1, TNT, TBS, CNN and MSNBC are part of the channel lineup. You have all the channels you need to watch Golden State Warriors games and Giants games.

Subscribers get Disney+, ESPN+ and unlimited Cloud DVR storage to record live TV shows, movies and sporting events.

Hulu has apps for major brands of Smart TVs and streaming devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Chromecast. Gamers can watch Hulu through PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and XBox game consoles. 

And if you’re using a Roku, Apple TV or Fire TV, you can use your Hulu subscription to activate dozens of apps. A subscription costs $69.99 per month.

You can look over the Hulu + Live TV channel lineup.

fubo

fubo (formerly fuboTV) has about 152 channels in the Pro plan including NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California. 

The Pro plan has ESPN, FS1, AMC, A&E, FX and local FOX, ABC, CBS and NBC stations.

The fubo Pro plan costs $74.99 per month. You can start off with a free 7-day trial to see if the service is a good fit.

You can watch TV or on-demand content on 10 screens at once. fubo adds a regional sports fee. It costs $10.99 per month for one regional network. It’s $13.99 per month if you have two RSNs in your area. 

You should look over the channel lineup for your area before signing up.

You will be able to record games using 1000 hours of Cloud DVR. The “lookback” feature also maintains an on-demand style menu for games that aired in the last 72 hours. fubo has apps for pretty much every device, including Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Fire Stick and NVIDIA Shield TV.

Look over the channel lineup to see what locals and regional sports networks you’d get before deciding whether to try out fubo.

YouTube TV

YouTube TV has a long roster of cable and local channels along with regional networks. A subscription will cost $72.99 per month for roughly 128 channels.

Subscribers get unlimited hours of Cloud DVR storage. You can watch live TV on three screens at once on Smart TVs, smartphones or a streaming device such as a Roku or Chromecast.

The channel lineup has local ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX stations. Cable channels include ESPN, Oxygen Network, USA Network, Comedy Central, FOX News, CNN, and Telemundo. 

NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California are among the regional sports channels. 

YouTube TV subscribers can watch live TV on Smart TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV Stick, Google Chromecast and Xbox One. You can try out YouTube TV free for 7 days.

DIRECTV STREAM

DIRECTV STREAM has every channel needed to watch San Francisco Giants games in 2023.

A subscription to the Choice plan costs $99.99 per month for 105 channels. NBC Sports Bay Area, ESPN, MLB Network, NBA TV, FS1, Bravo, SyFy, and local channels such as ABC and FOX are included in the Choice lineup.

DIRECTV STREAM subscribers can get three months of HBO Max, Showtime, Cinemax and MGM+ for free before the monthly rates kick in. You can watch live TV on up to unlimited screens at once.

You can sign up for a free 5-day trial without any obligations. Every plan includes unlimited Cloud DVR and a robust library of on-demand movies and shows.

There are no contracts. There are no additional regional sports fees.You can subscribe month to month and cancel whenever you want.

DIRECTV STREAM works on Roku, Android TV, Fire TV devices, Apple TV and smartphones and tablets.

You can look over the different channel lineups before making any decisions.

Watching San Francisco Giants games for free

If you don’t want to pay for a regional sports network, San Francisco Giants fans can also catch some nationally televised games on FOX using a TV antenna.

But for most of the season, you’ll want NBC Sports Bay Area for home games, and FOX and FS1 to watch games currently listed on MLB’s National Broadcast Schedule.

Here are some other resources I have assembled over the years on how to get a local FOX station for free using a TV antenna.

• How to Choose the Best TV Antenna and OTA DVR
• How to Connect Multiple TVs to One Antenna
• Review: The Best Indoor TV Antennas
• Review: The Best Outdoor TV Antennas

How to Watch NBC Sports Bay Area FAQs

These are questions readers ask when searching for ways to stream NBC Sports Bay Area without a pay TV provider. 

Is NBC Sports Bay Area on Sling TV?

No. Sling TV announced that they would no longer carry regional NBC Sports networks as of April 1, 2021.

Does Peacock TV have NBC Sports Bay Area?

NBCUniversal plans on eventually bringing regional NBC Sports networks to Peacock TV, according to a December 2022 story from Bloomberg. But it hasn’t happened yet. Bloomberg reported that NBC Universal has been negotiating streaming rights with teams and leagues.

If a deal is struck, it could mean that sports fans could watch their local MLB, NBA and NHL teams without cable. NBC Sports carries games for Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Celtics, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Washington Wizards, the Chicago Bulls and others.

What’s the best way to get NBC Sports Bay Area live without cable?

There are a number of options out there to watch NBC Sports Bay Area, so let’s review some highlights and narrow down your choices.

Hulu Live TV has 75+ live TV channels including NBC regional sports networks. A subscription includes subscriptions to ESPN+ and Disney+ for $69.99 per month. You can look over Hulu’s Live TV plan for more details. There is no free trial, but plans run month to month.

fuboTV has NBC Sports Bay Area, local stations and ESPN for national broadcast MLB games. You’ll get about 152 live TV channels and 1,000 hours of Cloud DVR for recordings. A subscription costs $74.99 per month along with a regional sports fee of $13.99 per month. You can try out fuboTV free for a week. There are no contracts and you pay month to month for a subscription.

For more news on streaming, how-to guides and reviews, head over to the main page of The Cord Cutting Report or follow the CCR on Google News.

NOTE: This article was published on March 2, 2021, and has been updated.