The latest World Marathon Major falls on Monday, April 17: the 2024 Boston Marathon returns on what's meant to be a lovely sunny day of running.
US: ESPN (live TV streaming) | WCVB (free)
UK: Eurosport
AU: FloSports
Watch abroad with a VPN
The oldest annually-occuring marathon race in the world, the Boston Marathon takes runners from the town of Hopkinton to a point 26 miles east in downtown Boston, passing by Framingham, Natick, Newton and more points toward the harbor.
Boston follows Tokyo as the second World Marathon Majors event of the year, preceding London by just one week. Given that the year will also bring us the Paris Summer Olympics, it's a great time to be a running fan.
Running fans will be tuning in to watch the Boston Marathon from around the world, partly for the festivities of one of the most famous world marathons, and partly for some fantastic athletics. Kenyan Evans Chebet will be running the Boston Marathon, after winning the last two years' races, but his top spot will be closely contested.
If you're interested in watching the Boston Marathon, here's how to do so from around the world.
How to watch the Boston Marathon in the US
Around the majority of the US, you'll be able to watch the Boston Marathon on ESPN2, though in New England it'll be on WCVB-ABC. Race coverage begins at 8:30 am ET/5:30 am PT, and is set to last for roughly four hours.
If you live local to the marathon, you can use WCVB's online live stream (which you can find here). to watch the race, and best of all, this is free. Otherwise, you'll have to use ESPN2.
If you're looking for a way to watch ESPN2 and don't have a cable plan that covers it, you'll be happy to know that several live TV streaming services include it. With DirecTV you can catch it on the standard Entertainment plan, while Sling TV includes it in the Orange or Orange + Blue plans, Fubo has it on its standard plan and YouTube TV has it on its sole plan.
ESPN Plus doesn't seem to be hosting a live stream of the race, and you can't use the service to watch live ESPN channels either.
How to watch the Boston Marathon in the UK
If you live in the UK, you can watch the Boston Marathon using Eurosport, with coverage beginning at 2:30 pm and lasting for three hours.
You can access Eurosport through Discovery Plus, as access to the sports company's live events is done through Discovery. It seems like you'll only need Discovery Plus' standard £6.99-per-month plan, not the £30.99-per-month TNT Sports option thankfully, so it won't be too expensive.
How to watch the Boston Marathon in Australia
In Australia, you'll have to sign up to FloSports to watch the Boston Marathon, with the pricey sporst streaming service being the official broadcaster in the country according to the BAA.
FloTrack costs the equivalent of USD$30 monthly or USD$12.50 if you sign up for an annual plan, with the website not sharing exact Australian pricing. You'll have to sign up to find out!
How to watch the Boston Marathon everywhere else
If you're going to be away from your normal TV setup but still want to watch the Boston Marathon you might run into some problems. Thankfully, you can solve this exact issue with a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN lets you change your IP address to that of the area of what you want to watch, meaning you can tune in to your favorite TV show, sporting event or other content even if you're not there. Our favorite is NordVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar.
How to use a VPN to watch any stream
- Download the app at NordVPN
- Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
- Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!
