Product recommendations- NFL on Radio

Pay or not to pay? That is the question……

So last year we didn’t have much of an option, for some odd reason TuneIn radio lost the rights to broadcast Live NFL games- thus leaving a void in the market for those who wanted a premium user experience. However, at the same time last year emerged ‘Free Sports Radio’, a web-site which gave its users free access to Live NFL radio broadcasts, but with a catch. So now that TuneIn has regained its rights to broadcast games, and both options are back on the table for the 2021 season, what do you do? Pay or not pay for your live NFL radio broadcasts?

First of all, I need to explain to you what the catch with ‘Free Sports Radio’ is. The catch is that, it’s not always available. For each match, Free Sports Radio (FSR) provides you with a list of radio stations who ought to be broadcasting the match- at least 3 radio stations per team, thus giving you at least 6 options to try. However, you’ll find that not all stations connect when you want it to (it’s either just dead air; it might return an error message; it might connect but the station itself is not broadcasting the game; or you get a message that due to copyright laws, the game cannot be broadcasted in your region). Therefore from the 3 options per team, you’re lucky to find even one station broadcasting the game. And in at least 40-50% of the time, all 3 options for a team don’t work.-  and they will never work i.e. if it doesn’t work this week, it will not work next week, or the week after. Therefore, if your favourite team’s channels don’t work, just hope that the opposition’s channels do. And if not…… Then you can’t listen to the live game at all. Simple as that. Well, that was the case in 2020, but in 2021 TuneIn radio is back!

If you pay $14.99 per month for TuneIn Premium, you obtain access to Live NFL games, every match, throughout the 2021 season. The reasons why you’d pay are:

Reliable- You can guarantee that you’ll be able to listen to the match you want, either listening to your preferred team’s broadcast, or the other team’s broadcast (perhaps they have better announcers or more interesting ads); you have the choice of Spanish language broadcasts; and when the match is a Nationally broadcasted game, then you can listen to the Nationally broadcasted feed- which is more neutral if you’re not a particular fan of either team.

User friendly interface- The TuneIn radio app is sleek and user friendly. From your home view, there is a listing of upcoming live sporting events, so on the day you can easily see the team match-ups, what time they’ll be playing, and once you’ve made up your mind in which game to listen to. You just have to tap on it, taking you to a new screen showing you the team radio stations and you make your selection and the audio starts playing in a matter of seconds. Gone is the trial and error of trying to locate a station that works for you, and gone is the nervous 5 second wait to hear if the station will play or not.

Other benefits of paid- And aside from the reliability and a more user friendly experience, TuneIn Premium also provides access to other live sporting matches e.g. NHL, MLB, NBA and college sports. And although you’ll still hear ads, but at least you’ll no longer hear the TuneIn ads which try to talk you into trying premium.

But on the flip-side, here are the reasons why you’d go Free Sports Radio!

It’s FREE- Put simply, it is free of charge! And no matter how cashed up you might be, no one turns down something that is absolutely free! And when it comes down to it, the product is the same and the sound quality is also the same. That is, once you’ve locked onto the broadcast, what you’re hearing on Free Sports Radio, is exactly the same feed which the paid people are listening on TuneIn Premium. Yeah, no joke, it’s absolutely the same!

You gain excitement from not knowing- Do you like the game of Russian roulette? Like do you get a thrill when clicking on something, and you don’t know if it’s going to work or not? And when it does…. You get super happy because it does? Well, if this is you? You’ll love Free Sports Radio! Because each time you click on a radio station, you just don’t know if it’s going to work. Sure, after a few weeks you know which station usually works, but sometimes they do stop working. For example a few stations which worked last year, do not work anymore. While I haven’t noticed any stations which didn’t work last year, but now started to work. So the list of teams you can listen to, is only getting smaller and smaller.

You managed last year- And the final reason why you’d go Free, is the fact that you did this last year and it worked out! For example last year we got through the games of importance i.e. the Divisional rounds, the Conference championship, and the Super Bowl! Each time we were fortunate enough to have team pairings where at least one team had a working radio broadcast! And sometimes not being able to listen to the match-up you want, forces you to listen to some lesser desirable games, and sometimes they can end up being alright! E.g. Houston V Jacksonville was surprisingly ok. But this only becomes a problem, if both teams in the Super Bowl do not have a working radio broadcast, or even if one of the Thursday night, Sunday night, or Monday night match-ups don’t have a working broadcast. In these cases……..

Click over to TuneIn, and with one touch you can start your 1 month free trial! But if you’ve previously used the free trial, then one touch and you’ll start payments again and you’ll be listening to the game faster than you can get your NFL team jersey on!

So the option is yours! Pay or not to pay, it’s up to you! But for me? I’m going to keep using Free Sports Radio, until there is a must listen to match-up which isn’t available free, and then hence forth I’ll be paying for TuneIn Premium- who knows, it might occur in Week 2 or Week 18, I guess we’ll see!