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EDIT: 20th September

• Notes about Replays on Disney+ added.
• Notes about watching Notre Dame & UConn home games added.
• Other general changes made as more content & depth becomes available.

OK. Here we go again.

This year in the glorious United Kingdom of Great Britian and Northern Ireland, we have not one, not two, but technically three different options for viewing College Football this year.

After being free to view last year (Despite the threat of charging from W3 onwards), DAZN have this year put NCAA coverage behind a paywall, offering two different tiers offering different levels of ‘enjoyment’. Sky Sports will maintain coverage of Notre Dame games because after being freed from the grips of the Murdoch family, they are now owned by Comcast, who own NBC, who pay Notre Dame lots of money for a deal that’s only slightly better than their B1G Saturday Night Contract.

New this year is Disney+. This is something which had been rumoured for a while, as after failing to launch a sports streaming app with FOX and TNT(?) a couple of years ago, they’ve been looking for ways to push out content in a way that will help their general entertainment streaming numbers, for the more casual sports fan. This means that there will be some duplication with DAZN, but with some important distinctions.

Let’s run through each of the conferences in the FBS and their UNITED STATES BROADCAST PARTNERS first, then look at how each of the broadcast packages stack up[I].

FBS Broadcast US & UK Broadcast Partners

IMPORTANT NOTE: A game’s broadcast partner, outside of Bowl games, Playoff games and select other matches are determined by the HOME TEAM. This means that a game with a B1G team hosting an SEC team will be shown on the B1G’s broadcast partners.

The annual Army / Navy game, which is the last regular season game of the year is shown in the United States on CBS. In the UK, it was accessible via the CBS app.

UK Streaming / Broadcast Options & Costs

The table above highlights a large degree of crossover between DAZN and Disney+, so it may be difficult to choose which option may be best for you. Having reviewed Week 0 in detail, the following key points have emerged:

• DAZN archives replays of broadcasts, Disney+ did not in W0.
• DAZN shows half time reports from games, Disney+ did not, instead showing a holding screen[ii].
• DAZN rotates through the same triage of ‘infomercial ads’ highlighting it’s content, Disney+ shows ‘real’ commercials, though neither network showed US based ads.

DAZN specific prices & features

• The ‘standard’ NCAA package costs:
  • Yearly upfront cost: £99.99
  • 12 Month commitment, pay in instalments: £8.99
  • Monthly flex (Cancel anytime): £12.99
• These costs include other NCAA content (Such as Basketball). There does not yet appear to be any bundle deals, so even if you have NFL Gamepass or another product, you will have to pay separately for this.
• DAZN show games from:
  • The ABC / ESPN family of networks,
  • The B1G Network
  • CBS Sports / CBS Sports Network,
  • FOX / FS1 / FS2,
  • NBC / Peacock
• In addition, DAZN will show both ESPN College Gameday, and FOX Big Noon Kickoff.
• DAZN this year are providing a ‘Multiview’ option, however this is only on their ultimate tier. This allow you to watch up to four games at a time from those that are airing at that time.
• DAZN are claiming that they will provide 40 minute highlights of games, however this did not occur in Week 0.

Disney+ specific prices & features

The situation for Disney+ is more simple in terms of games they can show. If it’s broadcast on the ABC / ESPN Family of networks (Including the SEC Network and ACC Network), there’s a chance it may be on Disney+

• Disney+ offers three teirs of subscription:
  • Standard with ads: £5.99 a month
  • Standard without ads: £9.99 a month / £90 a year
  • Premium: £14.99 a month / £149.90 a year.
• It must be remembered that the ‘without ads’ package will still either generate adverts / a holding screen for live content. Therefore if you are only subscribing to Disney+ for college football content, it may be worth saving £4 a month as there are natural ad breaks in CFB coverage
• The standard tiers offer HD (1080p) streaming. Premium offers 4K / HDR streaming, but this should come with a ‘where available’ tag for CFB content, as some game may be available in 4K, but outside of games of the week, this is unlikely to be the case.
• Disney+ now have replays for FBS games only. These are full replays, no ads, but no highlights in 40 / short highlights. This brings Disney’s offer much closer to that of DAZN for non B1G / MW / PAC-12 fans (Though there is a CW #Pac12AfterDark game on the replays for this week, likely due to a background agreement by minority owners of ESPN Hearst Communications and CW, the former providing educational programming for the latter).
• As ABC / ESPN have removed their ‘Bottom Bar’ ticker from games this year, alongside having no halftime shows because of what’s mentioned about broadcast rights previously above, it may be a good idea to keep open a window with other game scores!

Notre Dame specific prices & features

• You did choose to be a Notre Dame fan, so politely, for a team who’s had their own broadcast deal with NBC since 1990, don’t be surprised that you have the hardest option!
• As Comcast own both NBC and Sky Sports, any Notre Dame HOME game will be on Sky Sports. Unless you have included with your TV / Internet package, the easiest way to get Sky Sports is via NOW TV. A daily pass is £14.99, and monthly options start at about £28 a month.
• HOWEVER, from one Catholic to another, REJOICE! Notre Dame have a little publicised streaming option for fans outside of the US, so they can watch ND Home games. It’s called Fighting Irish TV. Assumedly, it’s designed for students on study abroad semesters and the like, but is free for anyone who wonders what life is like when you get to schedule your games as you wish.
• You do need to ‘sign up’ for an account, though there is no need for school verification or anything. Do NOT use a VPN, as you need to be ‘outside’ of the US in order to view.

Notre Dame specific prices & features

• As the other FBS Independent, UConn do not have a ‘sports network’ deal for home games.
• However, UConn DO have an agreement with local PBS Networks to air home games. This is not geo-restricted to the UK, so you can watch for free! Details available here. (H/t Fletch)

What option should I choose?

This is a mixture of personal choice, alongside the limitations around specific teams and content:

• If you support the SEC / ACC conferences or teams playing in it, then Disney+ will be your cheapest option. There are however times when games are bumped from Disney+ onto DAZN only. I’m guessing this is because DAZN pay for certain games to be exclusive to them.
• If you are a B1G conference fan, then DAZN is your only realistic option for the season, as once conference play starts, there will be no B1G home games on Disney+ during the regular season.
• If, somehow you are an XII fan / a fan of one of their teams, it’ll come down to how much you value seeing your team live every week. DAZN are more likely to cover each team in depth, however this can vary from school to school.
• If you want FCS / DII content, both offer this, but Disney+ has more depth due to many games being on ESPN Unlimited. These games are live only however at present, and don’t have replay options.
• If you want to watch NCAAB (Mens / Womens), then it seems that both Disney+ and DAZN will have content. Similar rules to CFB apply, but gets WAY more complicated. Disney+ will likely win out in terms of available games.
• Notre Dame have a scheduling alliance with the ACC, playing roughly 5 games a year against ACC teams. Because the ABC/ESPN Family of networks own full rights to the ACC, if you want to view other games, Disney+ may be the best second option over DAZN.

In all cases, unless you have a specific use case, both the more ‘basic’ package will suit most viewers. The Disney+ (With Ads) subscription will be fine if you don’t watch anything else on Disney+. This is live content, and ad breaks will be a part of this, even if we don’t get the US ads we love and sometimes hate. Likewise, unless you specifically want Multiview, the basic DAZN tier will work for most. There doesn’t seem to be any content linked to the ultimate tier only.

I hope this helps, and as ever, leave comments and questions below. Happy to use my useless brain’s sports broadcasting knowledge to good use!

Peace, Rage & Love

[i] Note, this may change as the season progresses. I will try to update this post if there are noteworthy changes.

[ii] This is possibly due to the fact that Disney+ does not hold rights to show other networks’ coverage, such as clips from games on other sports networks.