One of the biggest complaints of NFL fans over the last year or so (aside from any of their team’s losses) has been that a number of NFL games are landing exclusively on streaming services rather than on traditional broadcast and cable channels as has been the norm for decades. Well, it’s happening again, as ESPN touts the week 7 Monday Night Football game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Arizona Cardinals as streaming exclusively on ESPN Plus on Monday, October 21, at 9 pm ET/6 pm PT. But is there any way for football fans not subscribed to ESPN Plus to watch the game?
The good news is if you live in Los Angeles or Arizona, then yes. There is going to be an alternative viewing option that won’t require you to sign up for another monthly streaming subscription. For those outside Southern California and Arizona, there is actually another option besides ESPN Plus, but it will cost you some money and has a small catch.
First off, for local fans of the Chargers and Cardinals, though the week 7 matchup is being touted as an ESPN Plus exclusive, the game will air on local TV channels in the Los Angeles and Phoenix markets. For those in Los Angeles, the game is airing on KCOP channel 13, while Phoenix’s Fox station (Fox 10) will have the game for Cardinals fans. Anyone in those areas can watch the game if they have a traditional pay-TV provider, a TV antenna that receives local stations or live TV streaming services that carry those channels (ie Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV).
Now what if you’re not a resident of those areas, don’t have ESPN Plus and don’t want to subscribe to it? Your best option is to sign up for NFL Plus, the NFL’s own streaming service. You can sign up for NFL Plus starting at $6.99 per month and stream all national primetime games, which in this case does include the Chargers vs Cardinals game. The one catch is that you can only do so on your mobile devices (phone, tablet).
So though the game is being billed as “exclusive” to ESPN Plus, there are other options to watch Chargers vs Cardinals on October 21. However, if you decide that ESPN Plus is the best way for you to watch the game and you want to sign up for the streaming service, there are a couple of different ways to go about it. You can sign up for ESPN Plus as a standalone service, which starts at $11.99 per month, or you can bundle it with Disney Plus and Hulu for a monthly subscription starting at $16.99 per month with the aptly named Disney Bundle. You can also sign up for Hulu with Live TV, which automatically includes ESPN Plus as part of its package.
The Chargers vs Cardinals week 7 Monday Night Football game is one of two Monday Night Football games this week. The Baltimore Ravens are taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting at 8:15 pm ET/5:15 pm PT on October 21. That game will air on ESPN, be simulcast on ABC and stream on ESPN Plus as well. The alternative Manningcast, featuring Peyton and Eli Manning, is also airing on ESPN2 and should have commentary on both games.
