How do you watch international sporting events?

22 comments

1. Sometimes they’re aired on the major channels, so it’s just a question of staying up until it airs. The only big events I can think of however, are the Olympics and the World Championships, which sometimes means that matches or events are broadcast on odd hours.

   Superbowl is aired on a private network, Viaplay, and it is, in some circles, an event that is looked forward to, but most of the time, it is the only NFL match people watch, again, because of the odd hours. Most people just follow along in the statistics—like you would read the tables in a newspaper 20-30 years ago—and watch highlights online.

2. The super bowl is popular enough to be on free-tv in many EU countries.

   I’ve intended to watch it this year again (it’s the only American football game I watch almost every year)

3. [removed]

4. Super Bowl, actually whole NFL season, is on sport broadcaster that bought the rights.

   If your cable provider has that channel then you can watch it, if not stream it from some site.

   I tried to watch current game, couldn’t made it through the first quarter. Breaks all the time. And when you watch it alone it gets boring due to all the breaks and stoppages.

5. The NFL is quite popular in Austria, especially among younger people (mostly students), so the Superbowl (as well as one game per week in the regular season and all playoff games are shown on free-tv in both German and the original English broadcast. So, I’ll just watch it on TV.

   Oh, and I support the Eagles, because I got into football during their superbowl run and their fan base is a bit similar to my favorite football club’s fan base.

6. Many international sporting events are simply on the main channels here.

   Tennis, cycling, football, etc.

   No idea where you would watch the super bowl. Haven’t really watched television for 10 years or so.

7. Despite gaining some popularity in recent years, American Football is still very much a niche event.

   Also consider that the super bowl takes place in the middle of the night in Europe. So basically only the real hard core fans stay awake if they have nothing important to do the next day.

8. Here in Italy the Superbowl is on live (middle of the night) on a pay channel (DAZN).

   Some people will stay up and watch it, but they are a small minority I’d say… the vast majority here don’t know anything about American Football.

9. I don’t follow American Football, but tennis. I used to stream on some less-than-official websites, but a few weeks ago I bit the bullet and got a Discovery Plus subscription to watch the Australian Open. Haven’t surfed much past that and Deadliest Catch, but they have a whole sports section available which wouldn’t surprise me if it had American Football

10. The good thing about the NFL here in germany is, that its just popular enough to have full and extensive coverage, but just niche enough for it to be on free TV

11. Most passionate use the NFL Gamepass.
    Superbowl is aired on free tv. With most advertising made more about the show than the game.
    Since last season, one game per week is live on a free network witch is a huge upgrade.feom.the past.
    The sports is still very very a niche here but with a good community and in growing numbers I think

12. Movistar and DAZN offer it. Movistar is a internet/mobile/tv package and DAZN is a sport streaming service, they usually have some kind of deal for many sports so they do the same shows (ex: F1).

    I don’t watch many games but my favourite team is (don’t come at me) the Cowboys. I just watched a lot of NHL and I always went with the Stars and the Mavericks in the NBA so the obvious course was to go with America’s Team™.

13. International sporting events are usually on public TV.
    You know the Olympics, World Cups, European Championships.

    Stuff like AF or Darts more on private channels.

14. Well, I can’t say I’m a n American football fan but my favorite sport, figure skating, is practically non-existent on Polish TV. Luckily, International Skating Union puts all major competitions on their Youtube channel, live, which is not geoblocked here, so it’s super easy. It gets tricky if I want to watch non-ISU events like Japanese Nationals – then I join a probably-illegal stream and count myself lucky if it works semi-smoothly at 360 resolution. For the Olympics, I get an Eurosport subscription.

15. Our cable has around 10 sport channels and you can pay for more.
    But almost everything I want to watch is covered by national tv and their sport channel anyway

16. I have honestly no idea, and I don’t think there is a big market for it in the Netherlands.

    I do however watch one American sport that’s just a niche sport here, Indycar. And at least last year it was just included in my sport package that also has most of the best European football leagues, as well as Formula one and rugby.

    And since I watch a lot of rugby I just don’t understand why American Football is the way it is. It always seems like there is more time of them standing around doing nothing than actual play.

17. Super bowl is a decently big event and the NFL has a loyal fan base over here so it’s broadcast live on our main sports channel late at night

18. I’m not sure I understood the question. obvious answer is, if it’s not on live tv, then through streaming services. which run on internet, which gives everyone with a connection endless options of services covering pretty much all sports.

    As for the specified question regarding robot rugby final, it’s on Viaplay here. (a streaming service with a monthly subscription fee).

19. Some sports are retransmitted by public TV, but Movistar (big telecoms company) has the monopoly, so most times we have to either pay (a lot) or piracy

20. Over the next couple of weeks we are going to get the usual flood of questions about the Superbowl and American Football, some expecting that we will all be watching. We have our own big sports here, so very few people watch American Football. If it wasn’t in the middle of the night, you might get some curious viewers, but it isn’t at a time that suits. I could go to r/AskanAmerican and ask if people there watch the All-Ireland [Hurling](https://youtu.be/fgEMvRrOCRI) Final every year. Although I know Hurling is played there and there are some fans, I know it is a niche sport, so I would not ask the question. The All-Ireland Hurling Final is massive in Ireland, but bar Irish people around the world, it is not going to get much attention outside Ireland. That’s the way it is for us and the Superbowl. It is a big thing in the USA, but we have our own sports and major sporting events that get our attention. Enjoy the Superbowl. While you are doing that, myself and most Europeans will be enjoying a good sleep, and the vast majority of the ones that will be awake will be doing other things.

21. In recent years there’s been a big effort to push the effort of American Football in the UK, with games being played at Wembley and the Super Bowl being on TV.

    Despite that though, it’s still very much a niche sport. The problem it has is that the UK loves its sport, and there’s loads to choose from. Football, cricket, tennis, rugby, athletics, darts, boxing, horse racing, and F1 are all far more popular. I wouldn’t be surprised if more people watch lawn bowls than watch American Football.

    >sports that aren’t well broadcast in your country?

    Sport here is split between free to watch TV and paid for TV. The free TV channels tend to do live coverage of really important stuff like the Olympics, some football finals, Wimbledon etc, with the rest being on paid for TV.

    The range on paid TV is *huge* though. There’s probably not that many decently popular international sports which aren’t covered in some way by some kind of channel you can subscribe to. Generally if you like a particular sport and you’re happy to pay then you can probably follow it, even if it’s just seeing highlights rather than live events.

22. I think we have a channel that broadcasts american football available on cable, IDK though I don’t pay for nor watch scheduled TV broadcasting.

    I’ve watched superbowl using VPN the past few years, just to see those ridiculous million dollar ads and the over the top half time show..