Football events have always been very popular in Italy, and in order to be able to broadcast events in a widespread manner throughout Italy, satellite and digital terrestrial broadcasting are used as transmission technologies. But now the Internet is always faster and the services that allow you to watch football in streaming have reached a maturity that can, under certain conditions, replace the antenna and satellite cable without any regrets, at a very high quality (especially with the faster lines). In this guide we will show you how to watch football streaming on PC and Smart TV, going from the Internet without using a satellite decoder or an antenna cable. In the vast majority of cases it is sufficient to have an Internet connection of at least 10 Megabits per second, so that you can make compatible apps for PC and Smart TV.
Football streaming online
In the guide we will first of all show you paid services, which allow you to access the entire national and international football offer; in the second part of the guide instead we will find the (few) free legal services that allow you to watch football streaming online and we will answer all doubts and curiosities about football streaming in general.Paid streaming services
We can currently watch football matches streamed via the Internet through two services: NOW TV and DAZN.NOW TV
With the Now TV platform we will be able to see the same events broadcast on Sky's satellite: 7 out of 10 matches in Serie A, all Champions League matches, all Europa League matches, the Premier League with 5 games in turn and the Bundesliga with 3 games in turn.
The subscription is managed in a simple way, as if we were using Netflix (which from this point of view has made school): the subscription can be canceled or blocked at any time, with the possibility to resume paying in another month without constraints and without penalties. Now TV offers three packages to choose from: the one-day package, the 7-day package and the monthly package with prices starting from € 9.99 per day, going from € 14.99 per week up to the age of 29, € 99 per month to be able to see everything every day.
DAZN
If we want to follow the missing matches of the Serie A and the other foreign leagues we will have to subscribe to a DAZN subscription.
With DAZN we will be able to watch 3 out of 10 matches in Serie A (including many matches on Saturday evening and some matches on Sunday, especially those broadcast at noon), all matches in Serie B, all matches in the Spanish Liga, all matches of the following championships and cups: La Liga, La Ligue 1, Eredivisie, MLS, Chinese Super League, Jleague, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana.
Also in this case the subscription is managed as on Netflix: we can create an account and pay every month for viewing the games, with the possibility to suspend and resume at any time without restrictions and without penalties.
Compared to Now TV we will have to pay a single fee of € 9.99 per month, in order to see all the events broadcast live, the highlights of the most beautiful encounters and other exclusive content.
The accounts are soon made for football fans: to be able to see all the games broadcast we will have to pay € 39.98 every month (if we choose the NOW TV monthly package), an affordable price considering the cost of the Sky system (to which we will necessarily have to add the cost of DAZN to the total, reaching over € 70 per month) and the definitive disappearance of Mediaset Premium as issuer for the matches.
READ ALSO: How to watch the games on DAZN on PC, TV, Android and iPhone
Free and legal streaming services
Currently RAI owns the rights to show the matches of the Italian Cup, the matches of the Italian National Team, the match of the Italian Super Cup and the matches of the Under21 National Team.Mediaset, on the other hand, holds the rights for the Wednesday matches in the Champions League and for some matches in the final phase, but in the latter case it depends on the presence or absence of an Italian team.
Add to this that some Europa League matches are broadcast on digital terrestrial TV8, especially if the Italians play.
To see the RAI, Mediaset and TV8 channels in free streaming, just use the dedicated apps or access the respective sites for the direct channels.
Below we have collected all the links for the sites and apps that we can download or visit:
- RAIPlay (Android, iPhone / iPad, Windows 10 App and Website)
- Mediaset Play (Android, iPhone / iPad and website)
- TV8 (Website)
Quality of streaming games
The best quality will obviously be obtained by focusing on Sky, which transmits many games in 4K UHD without any band or signal problems (thanks to the satellite), but NOW TV also defends itself well thanks to the free insertion of the Super HD package in all Sport tickets, which gives a maximum quality of 1080p at 50 FPS to all users who have a line of at least 10 Megabits per second (we actually recommend betting on lines of at least 20 Megabits per second, so as to be able to compensate for the Internet use by other network users).DAZN currently has a lower quality than NOW TV, but if the network conditions are good it offers a good show with constant 720p transmissions (comparable to the HD offered by Mediaset Premium in the past). For the most followed events there could certainly be a drop in quality, but in recent months at least stability has increased, since everyone can view the events without running into streaming errors.
In case of problems with DAZN, with NOW TV or with any other streaming service, we invite you to read our guide Live video streaming problems: how to solve (DAZN, NOW TV, IPTV etc.) .
How to watch football streaming on Smart TV
On Smart TV it is very easy to access the services offered by NOW TV and DAZN, since the apps are available for the latest Smart TV models from the respective stores (in particular for all Smart TV models from 2016 onwards).To download the Now TV app, simply connect the Smart TV to the Internet, access the content store with your remote control and find the dedicated app (often included in the Entertainment or Entertainment section of the Store).
Once added to the apps, open it and insert the login credentials of the NOW TV account we own, so that we can see all the games transmitted from the platform in the comfort of the sofa and the living room at home.
For DAZN the procedure is very similar: we connect the TV to the Internet, open the app store and look for DAZN among those available.
At the end of the installation, we start the app and enter the login credentials of the previously created account, so that we can enjoy all the games transmitted by this app on a suitable TV.
If we don't see the apps appear or the Smart TV does not connect to the Internet, we can try to solve it by reading our guide What slows down the speed of the Wifi network and the internet connection .
How to watch football streaming on non-Smart TV
If our Smart TV is not compatible with the app or the Smart component is completely missing, we can still see NOW TV and DAZN equipping ourselves with one of the following devices (to be connected to a free HDMI port).NOW TV Smart Stick
This small HDMI dongle allows you to watch all NOW TV games at the highest quality, as if it were a native app! It connects to an HDMI port, connects it to your NOW TV account and is immediately ready, with all the Sport channels well cataloged. The device is compatible with the DAZN app, so we can take it into account to be able to watch the matches of both subscriptions without any problem.
We can buy this small device from here -> Now TV Smart Stick (€ 29.99 with a month of Sport ticket included).
Amazon Fire TV Stick
A good method to watch both streaming services on TV is by using the stick offered by Amazon and purchasable from here -> Amazon Fire Stick (€ 24).
This small dongle connects to the HDMI port and to the home Wi-Fi network and allows you to view the matches thanks to the web browser compatible with all services (Mozilla Firefox for Fire TV) and thanks to the specific app for DAZN.
If we only have a DAZN subscription it is one of the best choices, if instead we have both subscriptions we will have to use the dedicated DAZN app and the Firefox browser for NOW TV. In this regard, we invite you to read our Amazon Fire TV Stick Guide with tricks, apps and hidden functions .
Chromecasts
The Google Chromecast (€ 39) is the best method to watch football streaming on non-Smart TV!
With Chromecast we will have support for both services via the Cast protocol, so just install the specific apps on Android or IOS devices and transmit the game to the Chromecast to see them at the highest quality on television. Once purchased and connected to an HDMI port on the TV, connect it to the Internet to make it operational.
After configuring the device, let's go to our smartphone or tablet and install the NOW TV and DAZN apps, using the following links.
- NOW TV (Android) (Apple)
- DAZN (Android) (Apple)
To understand how Chromecast really works, we recommend you read our Chromecast Guide with tricks and applications to make the best use of it .
Conclusions
If we are big football fans and we want to watch the games in streaming without parabola and without antenna, just use one of the apps or one of the methods described above to be able to enjoy a game at a good quality, paying the right (for those who want everything) or taking advantage of the events broadcast for free (for those who do not want to spend anything).In another guide, we showed you how to watch football games on Android and iPhone .
If, on the other hand, we are looking for a way to maximize Internet speed when using streaming services, we recommend following the suggestions proposed in our article on How to increase video streaming speed to the maximum .
