How to Watch the WNBA on Your TV
Breaking down the channels and services you can use to watch all the scheduled games of the 2020 WNBA season
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Update: The 2021 version of this article can be found here.
Even in a typical season in 2019, the growing number of ways to watch the WNBA caused confusion among many. A pandemic-shortened and Wubble-hosted season in 2020 is enough to make your head spin. Increasing options to watch games is an excellent problem to have — more ways to watch means more coverage of women’s hoops! But that doesn’t make it easy to figure out. So we did that for you. Here is everything you need to know to get the WNBA onto your TV screen this season.
Summary
If you really want to watch every single WNBA game this year on your big screen, you’ll need a way to watch both traditional channels like ESPN and streaming games on League Pass. You can watch the traditional channels via either a cable or satellite subscription or with an online service such as YouTubeTV, AT&T TV Now, or Hulu. You’ll also need a device for the streaming games. If you’re an Apple household, we suggest using Apple TV. If not, we’d recommend purchasing the much more affordable Chromecast to project from your phone or computer.
Details
There are six traditional TV channels carrying nationally-televised WNBA games in 2020: CBS, CBS Sports Network, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and NBATV. The rest of the games may either be on Twitter or League Pass — the league has stated that those games, as well as NBATV games, “will be announced in the coming weeks.” The chart below breaks down the number of games on each channel, as of now. If you live in a WNBA market, the League Pass games of your local team may be blacked out, in which case you will need to find them on a local channel.
Broadcast Games: Cable/Satellite Subscribers
If you have a satellite or cable subscription, watching a game on your TV from one of the six traditional networks is pretty simple. All you’ll need to do is make sure you have a package that carries those channels and then find them on your TV. We’ve compiled a list of each of the channel numbers for some of the top providers. Channel numbers for ABC and CBS vary by zip code, so you will need to check your local listings to find them.
Broadcast Games: Cord Cutters
Services
If you are one of the growing number of people cutting the cord and opting to use an online streaming service, the first thing you’ll need to figure out is if your service has the channels you need. This chart shows the six traditional channels that carry WNBA games and their availability on each of the four major streaming services. To have access to all six, you’ll need to subscribe to YouTubeTV or AT&T TV Now.
Devices
To watch on a TV with one of these services, you’ll need to have a streaming device (unless you have a smart TV). The four most popular services — YouTube TV, AT&T TV Now, Hulu, and Sling — are all available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku devices. Using Chromecast and a computer is an option for each of these services as well.
If you use a lesser-known service such as Fubo or Philo and your service doesn’t have an app on your device, you do have a couple of options for the CBSSN games as well as the games on ESPN networks (including ABC). CBSSN games can be seen on the CBS Sports app, while the ESPN app has the games on its three networks. You’ll need to log in with your TV provider, and both networks have apps on Apple TV, Fire TV, and Roku in addition to being compatible with Chromecast.
Streaming-Only Games
By far, the biggest challenge for many seems to be for the largest category of games: those not on a traditional provider. At the moment, we are not aware of any method for cable/satellite subscribers to watch these games directly through those subscriptions, so all WNBA fans must use some kind of streaming device to watch them.
For any game on League Pass, you can use the League Pass app (with a subscription) on Apple TV or project it using a Chromecast device. Other devices such as Roku, Fire TV, and more do not currently support League Pass. With a League Pass subscription, you can also stream WNBA games on NBATV, but that isn’t the only way to watch them.
All services mentioned in this article have apps on Android phones and tablets as well as iPhones and iPads, so if you’re a cord-cutter, tune in on any of your devices! Once you’ve found your game, sit back, grab some popcorn, and cheer on your team!
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also buy Her Hoop Stats gear, such as laptop stickers, mugs, and shirts!
Haven’t subscribed to the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter yet?
How to Watch the WNBA on Your TV
For people that bump against this article in the future... if you are a cord cutter, get League Pass, as noted in this article, but install it on you PC/phone/tablet/whatever and then cable that device to your TV. If you are a cord cutter, odds are VERY good that you have a modern TV with the ports to allow this action.