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How to Watch the NBA in the UK (2022)
Home / How to Watch the NBA in the UK (2022)
Now harbouring one of the biggest international NBA audiences, there are many people are wondering how they can watch the NBA in the UK.
Not only is there a tv deal in place so you can watch the league in the UK, but with the NBA’s global growth, more and more game times are being tailored for international audiences – meaning it’s not always a case of having to stay up until the early hours of the morning to get your NBA fix.
Sky Sports won the rights to the NBA in the 2018-19 season, signing a four year deal, and then expanded their offering ahead of the 2019-20 season, broadcasting up to five live games per week and covering all the key moments of the season including NBA All-Star 2020, the NBA Playoffs and The Finals.
How to Watch the NBA in the UK
There are three main ways to (legally) watch the NBA in the UK – NBA League Pass, NOW TV and Sky Sports.![]()
Here’s a bit more information about all three:
NBA League Pass
NBA League Pass is one of the most popular ways for UK NBA fans to soak up the action, with every game broadcast live on the online service which can be viewed on a range of devices.
Check out the latest deals for NBA League Pass by clicking here.
NOW TV
NOW TV can help if you don’t have Sky. You can get a Sky Sports day pass for £9.99 or a month pass for £33.99, all without needing a contract.
Find out mow about watching the NBA with a NOW TV Sky Sports pass here.
Sky Sports
Sky Sports will show coverage of the NBA season across various channels including Sky Sports Main Event and online via the SkyGo app.
Find out more about the best Sky packages by clicking here.
NBA 2022-23 TV Schedule in the UK on Sky Sports
With the 2022-23 NBA regular season upon us, the NBA has released its game and broadcast schedule for the season.
The 2022-23 NBA regular season features 45 games that will air in primetime in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) as part of “NBA Saturdays and NBA Sundays presented by NBA 2K23,” marking the 10th consecutive regular season that the league has scheduled weekend games that air in primetime in EMEA.
The 45 games start as early as 12 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CET and feature the league’s biggest stars.
In addition to “NBA Saturdays and NBA Sundays presented by NBA 2K23,” games that will air in primetime in EMEA this season include The NBA Abu Dhabi Games 2022 (Oct. 6 and 8 during the preseason), one game on the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. (Nov. 25), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 16), The NBA Paris Game 2023 (Jan. 19) and the final day of the regular season (April 9).
You can see the NBA Primetime schedule on Sky Sports for the 2022-23 season below:
Schedule subject to change, for remainder and most update to date schedule, check here.
You can see the full schedule for NBA and BBL on Sky Sports this season on the official Sky Sports website.
How to Watch NBA in the UK FAQ
Where can I watch NBA games in the UK for free?
Aside from looking up illegal streaming websites which unfortunately not only means you are breaking the law, but a lot of the times put your computer at risk of viruses and malware, there are some legal options for free NBA games in the UK.
All of the NBA Sunday Games scheduled on Sky Sports will also be available for free on their YouTube channel, so get subscribed and make sure you clear your Sundays during game time!
What channel is the NBA on in the UK?
Sky Sports. Sky signed a four year broadcast deal with the NBA in the UK in 2018, with the games appearing in a mixture of Sky Sports Arena, Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix, along with Sky Sports’ YouTube channel.
How to Watch Inside the NBA in the UK
Inside the NBA is no longer available to watch for UK viewers legally.
It used to be available on NBA League Pass, but has since been removed. Your best options are clips on Youtube, Reddit, or digging up an illegal stream if you are willing to take the risks.
How to Watch the NBA All Star Game in the UK
You will be able to watch the NBA All-Star Game on both Sky Sports and NBA League Pass.
Sky signed a four year broadcast deal with the NBA in the UK in 2018, with the games appearing in a mixture of Sky Sports Arena, Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix.
How to watch the NBA Playoffs in UK
You will be able to watch the NBA Finals on both Sky Sports and NBA League Pass.
Sky signed a four year broadcast deal with the NBA in the UK in 2018, with the games appearing in a mixture of Sky Sports Arena, Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix.
How to watch the NBA Finals in the UK
You will be able to watch the NBA Finals on both Sky Sports and NBA League Pass.
Sky signed a four year broadcast deal with the NBA in the UK in 2018, with the games appearing in a mixture of Sky Sports Arena, Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix.
How to watch the NBA draft in the UK
You will be able to watch the NBA Draft on both Sky Sports and NBA League Pass.
Sky signed a four year broadcast deal with the NBA in the UK in 2018, with the games appearing in a mixture of Sky Sports Arena, Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix.
How to Watch the NBA in the UK and abroad? Guide 2022
It’s not always easy to watch NBA live streaming in the UK.
Basketball games tend to be impacted by the time difference, meaning if you want to watch NBA live stream, you’ll need to be awake in the middle of the night… Then, there’s geo-restrictions to consider, which makes it incredibly difficult to watch NBA free online outside the US. Lucky for you, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Read on to find out how to watch the NBA in the UK, and how to maximize your streaming experience.
Last Update Made On: 17 November 2022
Table of Contents
The best places for NBA online streaming
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is to basketball what the Premier League is to football.
There are plenty of ways to watch the NBA online, however I’m going to focus exclusively on the real deal: I’m not here to talk about low-quality, free streams, full of viruses and ads, which buffer every five minutes. Instead, I’m sharing the top platforms for NBA online live streaming that actually work – and are actually enjoyable to use.
BT Sports
If you’re at home, you probably already know how to watch the NBA in the UK: You can watch NBA online for free with BT Sports. The platform offers extensive coverage of the season, the playoffs and the finals. The only downside is that you can’t watch NBA free online with BT if you’re outside the UK. For example, if you’re an ex-pat or you’re travelling.
BT Sports don’t allow you to watch anything outside the UK because of television rights.
Sky Sports
Sky Sports sometimes manages to steal the broadcasting contract from BT, so if you want to know how to watch the NBA in the UK, your best bet is to try either of these subscriptions before anything else.
NBA League Pass
Your second option is to purchase an NBA League Pass. With the pass, you can watch NBA online for free in HD. What’s more, previous season games are also available on-demand. You can buy a single game, subscribe for a month or for a year.
Sling TV
Sling TV is a US based streaming platform that will let you watch NBA free online. Subscriptions are $35/month, but the first month is $10. So you could watch NBA live stream for 30 days then cancel your account.
Online betting sites
Another option for how to watch the NBA in the UK is via online betting sites. As long as you deposit into your account, you’ll be able to watch NBA online for free.
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Watch NBA live stream: What’s the catch? When you try to watch NBA online for free in the UK – or anywhere else in the world – there is still the chance of running into problems. Even if you use reputable broadcasters like the ones I’ve highlighted above.
One of the major issues that affect ex-pats and travellers is geo-restrictions.
When broadcasters get the official rights, users can watch NBA free online on their platform – but only in the broadcaster’s original country.
So, if you’re wanting to watch NBA live stream on BT, but you’re outside the UK, you won’t be able to.
Another issue is that even with the best internet you can still experience slow speeds and buffering.
Yep, if your internet provider notices you’re researching ‘how to watch the NBA in the UK’, they’ll be keeping their eyes peeled for your streaming activity. If they detect that you’re streaming content, they have been known to throttle your data and reduce your bandwidth. All of this means that while you’re trying to watch NBA free online, you might also have to suffer through buffering. Not ideal for a fast-paced game like basketball.
How to watch the NBA in the UK (and anywhere in the world)
If you want to get the best experience when trying to watch NBA online for free, you need to find a way to hide what you’re up to from your ISP and bypass geo-restrictions.
Geo-restrictions are based on the IP address of your device (PC, tablet or phone).
So you can use a special tool to change your IP address and hide your activity from your internet provider.
The special tool is called a VPN, and it can help you emulate your location anywhere in the world. If you want to watch NBA free online while outside the UK, you can use a VPN to pretend you’re in the country. That way, you’ll be able to access BT or Sky on the go.
A VPN server acts as a middle between your device and the BT Sports’ website. When you connect to a server, all your traffic passes through this server so that the site is presented the server’s IP address instead of yours. This IP address will be in the UK, meaning you’ll be granted access to watch NBA live stream even when you’re outside the country.
What’s more, when your traffic travels to the server, it does so in an encrypted tunnel. This tunnel means your internet provider can’t see what you’re up to. So, if they can’t see you searching for ‘how to watch the NBA in the UK’, and can’t detect you streaming the game, they can’t throttle your data.
Yep, you’re free to watch NBA online for free without having to worry about buffering.
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How to watch NBA online for free with a VPN
So, how do you watch NBA free online with a VPN?
Now that you know a VPN is the only watch to watch NBA live stream in another country, you need to find a good VPN for the job.
I’ve created a list of the best VPNs below, but have a few pieces of advice to share before you dive in.
The first is to never use a free VPN.
While the word ‘free’ is hugely appealing, free VPNs aren’t good news. For a start, they very rarely let you watch NBA live stream, as they’ll have been blocked by reputable broadcasters. The next issue is that nothing is really free these days. VPNs that lure you in with the promise of free use, have been known to actually sell your data to third parties.
In the best case scenario, you get a lot more spam calls and emails. In the worst case scenario, you’re in a massive fraud case.
I recommend staying well away from free VPNs, and instead, use a free trial or cheap VPN for how to watch the NBA in the UK.
For example, ExpressVPN is an affordable, and reliable VPN. Better still, they offer all new users a 30-day money-back guarantee. That means you can sign up, watch NBA for free online, then cancel your subscription within the first month for a full refund.
Of course, there’s also the option to continue with your subscription. And, the longer you sign up for, the more discount you can get. Those that are ready to commit can sign up for 12 months and receive around 50% discount on their monthly payments.
VPNs are usually pretty affordable, and can cost around a single Starbucks a month. Not bad really.
Watch NBA online for free with the best VPN
While there are hundreds of VPN providers on the market, not all will let you watch NBA free online.
To help you get set up quickly, I’ve made a little list of the best VPNs, and I’ve ranked them based on these criteria:
- My experience: I like some VPNs better than others…
- The speed of the VPN: Because you want to watch NBA live stream without buffering!
- The number of servers: So you can watch NBA online for free wherever you are in the world
All the VPNs in this list will show you how to watch the NBA in the UK, as well as anywhere else you find yourself.
What else can a VPN do?
VPNs weren’t originally created to help you watch NBA free online. Nope, they’re actually an integral part of your online security.
As mentioned above, when connected to a VPN, your traffic travels through an encrypted tunnel to a server.
This encryption means onlookers can’t see what you’re doing. As such, VPNs are great for those travelling into a conservatorship country as you can essentially browse anonymously.
It also means you can bypass all geo-restrictions across the globe. So, once you watch NBA live stream, you can switch servers and watch US Netflix, BBC iPlayer or Amazon Prime outside the US and UK.
This was my guide: How to watch the NBA in the UK. Stay tuned for more articles coming soon.
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How to watch the NBA in the era of parallel imports - Bank shot - Blogs
The NBA has done everything in its power to make it impossible to enjoy American basketball in Russia. However, if you really want something, then any prohibitions become conditional.
Here are at least five ways to touch the beautiful (and now also the forbidden).
NBA League Pass
The most convenient and traditional way is to purchase a subscription on the official website of the NBA.
Benefit : You get access to all matchday matches (both live and recorded), plus shortened versions of the matches with original English commentary. This year, League Pass has a nice new feature: the delay between real time and the broadcast will be reduced to a few seconds.
Disadvantage: it is rather problematic to subscribe in Russia. To do this, you need to have, firstly, a VPN with good speed, and, secondly, a non-Russian card with which you can pay for the subscription.
“Took the ball”
When Megogo, which owns the exclusive rights to broadcast the NBA, abandoned Russia, it naturally happened that the channel's Russian commentators continued to work, only within the framework of the “Took the ball” project.
This season, the telegram channel "Took the ball" shows 1-2 matches every day: last season, when the project started from scratch, the broadcasts attracted 2-5 thousand viewers with record numbers during the final series.
Advantage: The main advantage of "Took the Ball" over its competitors is a team of experienced and well-known commentators. Project boss Dmitry Materansky managed to unite everyone who has experience working at Matcha, Viasat or Megogo: Vladimir Gomelsky, Igor Znamensky, Vladimir Spivak and Andrey Pankrashev.
Disadvantage: "Took the ball" is clearly not chasing the quantity, but offers those matches that are considered the most interesting, so you can not always see your favorite team here (especially if you are a fan of some Detroit) . The project does not even cover absolutely all playoff matches, at least that was the case last season.
You also need to understand that the “Took the ball” commentators are not always perfect either. Young representatives of the project do not always quickly figure out what is happening on the site, experienced ones promote expert opinion (often controversial and annoying to many) right during the games, and all together they sin with monotonous humor (and endless jokes on Sergey Abaev), from which you quickly get tired.
Despite all the power of production and the best conditions, "Took the ball", supported by the bookmaker, could not completely get rid of the main problem of import-substituting broadcasts: technical problems periodically occurred during the first season, and even Spivak's unstoppable irony at such moments the situation is not strong brightened up.
AANBA
The founder of online broadcasts in basketball is the legendary Volodya Korvalol - it was with him that the All About NBA project began in 2013.
“At first we streamed on the VK platform, then GoodGame, then VidiTV,” says Anton Kuzmichev, project manager. - The peak of those years is 15,000 spectators on Vidi during the 2016 NBA Finals, the same ones where Cleveland made a comeback from 1-3. At that moment, one of the funny episodes is that the servers of the VidiTV company fell, and they “asked” us not to post broadcasts for such volumes. So, in fact, not only the news, but also the broadcast branch of our project, which has been running for 7 years, started.
AANBA showed 65% of matches last season and plans to aim for 70% of matches in Russian and 10-15 in English next season.
The AANBA audience ranges from 500-1000 spectators at night matches and 2000 to 5000 at morning matches. The most popular game of last season is the first in a series between Boston and the Nets. It was watched live by 12,000 people
Advantage : “First, volumes. Secondly, commentators, - explains Anton Kuzmichev. “We have a pretty diverse staff of casters. Each of them carries its own informational agenda. Regarding the work of commentators, we often talk about the moments where they need to improve, because without this the comments would stagnate, but we are not satisfied with this situation. One way or another, almost all the actors see themselves as future professionals, although even now our approach is close to this. Another important episode of our work is the absence of donathunting. Since, in fact, commentators receive money from donations, we regulated them.
Several left-wing people left the staff of commentators, who not only abused support, but also spoiled the organics of the broadcasts. This is no longer possible to meet in the expanses of aanba during the last season. This is all the more so."
Weakness : AANBA has two main problems that are typical for self-grown projects on the Internet.
The first one is hanging broadcasts, which sometimes slow down at the most interesting place.
The second is commentators without a professional school. They sometimes forget about what is happening and focus on donations. Many of those who are involved in commenting on matches at AANBA work at games of provincial Russian basketball clubs or amateur matches, but there are no people of the level and fame of Gomelsky, Materansky and Znamensky here.
Anton Kuzmichev says that they are working on both: “I think that without NBA broadcasts on public TV, the basketball fandom has no future. Any rights cost money.
And it is not very clear how you can recoup the night spot on paid subscriptions. If suddenly such a topic is revived in Russia, then we would be happy to fly into it. The idea of "pirates" in the eyes of the public is slightly different from what is happening now. We ourselves used to sin with amateur comments with a share of peppercorns, but current trends have forced us to reconsider our position. In order not to lose the audience, we left something of our former self, the ability to communicate with a chat, for example, and significantly added in the technical aspect, focusing on immersion in the sport.”
Wild Sport
The Wild Sport VKontakte group started eight years ago with NBA broadcasts, but gradually mastered more and more other types of basketball. In addition to several matches of the NBA game day, almost the entire Euroleague is shown here (last year - 85%), friendly and official matches of the national teams, several matches of the national championships, with the exception of the VTB League (Spain, Turkey, and this year also France).
In live mode in the Wild Sport group, the NBA final was watched by 2-3 thousand spectators, the EuroBasket or Euroleague final - by 3-4 thousand spectators. Regular matches gather from 300 to 1000 people.
In total, the matches, according to the management of the group, get about 10-15 thousand views.
Advantage: “I think it's the commentators,” says project manager Andrey Levy. - Our studio is quite professional in this regard: many commentators work on television (or have worked on television), they are people with great experience. Plus, we regularly invite such wonderful guests as experts, such as Ivan Lazarev, Mikhail Terekhov, Anton Ponkrashov, Maxim Grigoriev, and other guys. We talk about basketball not only from the point of view of play-by-play, but also from the point of view of tactics, analytics, and some interesting facts.
There is certainly a future for the NBA basketball fandom without public TV coverage. People have been moving away from television for a long time and do not watch television in the modern sense.
We follow the US principle. There is national television, there is local television, but a lot of time people spend on online platforms where they buy subscriptions and enjoy life: TNT and ESPN. This is more convenient than when you turn on the channel and they impose on you the match that you are watching. In Russia, it all develops thanks to ideological people who promote themselves. Will it get more financial support? Not sure. But as for the people who are interested, I think yes. For example, we basically do not work with bookmakers, we believe that if a person wants to support, then he does not need to buy a subscription, he can directly support the commentator and the studio. It seems to me that now it is a good platform to give content. Not only in the form of matches, but also in podcasts, documentaries and articles.”
In fact, the main advantage of Wild Sport is that most non-NBA basketball is broadcast here.
Flaw : "I think it's the commentators" could also be the Wild Sport's major flaw.
After television broadcasts, the style of commenting on the Internet can be very embarrassing or at least seem unusual - especially when users' opinions and questions are counted right during basketball, the roll call of cities begins or donations are counted. One of the foreign coaches of the VTB League looked at the Wild Sport match of his national team and remained at a loss: “Five facts were mentioned - and all five are wrong.”
Standard lags in broadcasts are also present here.
Topbasket
Since last season, the most popular Youtube channel about basketball in Russian has a special telegram where broadcasts of NBA matches are posted with the original sound track. Usually during the season there appear three or four of the most interesting matches of the game day.
advantage: English (if you know it) and emphasis on the most interesting. Topbasket focuses not so much on an attractive sign, but on the quality of the spectacle. Therefore, noteworthy games of some “Houston” and “Oklahoma” get here, if they managed to give out a sparkling ending or comeback, go into overtime or put a winning baser.
Disadvantage: English (if you don't know it) and no live broadcasts. Matches begin to be uploaded in the morning Moscow time (approximately at 9-10 o'clock), and there is no way to follow your favorite team in real time. Plus, you have to make some efforts not to find out the result in advance (apparently, with these goals, a separate channel was allocated for matches).
Photo: Gettyimages.ru/Kelly Defina, Gregory Shamus; nba.com Youtube
Basketball. Men. European Championship 2022. Ukraine
The European Basketball Championship takes place from September 1 to 18, 2022 in four countries - Germany, Italy, Georgia and the Czech Republic, and on September 2 in Milan, the teams of Ukraine and Great Britain will meet each other in a match that can determine them further fate in the tournament.
Recall that at the preliminary stage, 6 teams play in each group, and according to the results of the round-robin tournaments, the four best of them will continue to fight in the playoffs.
The potential leaders of Group C, whose matches are held in Milan, are the teams of Italy and Greece. For sure, the Croatian team, which has already dropped out of the fight for participation in the main tournament of next year, will also try to rehabilitate itself for the failure in the selection for the 2023 World Cup. The three remaining teams - Ukraine, Great Britain and Estonia - are likely to fight for the fourth vacancy in the playoffs, and their face-to-face meetings with each other acquire special significance because of this.
The Ukrainian national team, led by Latvian specialist Ainars Bagatskis , can be considered the favorite in this confrontation of three teams for a place in the playoffs. As part of this team, two players from the NBA will perform at once at the European Championship 2022 - forward Stanislav Mikhailyuk and center Alexei Len . The last time they played together for the national team four years ago, and then the Ukrainians were able to defeat the Spanish team in the qualifier for the 2019 World Cup.
So this duet can be a very formidable force. Another thing is that Bagatskis has yet to debug team interactions with their participation. So far, the process is not without difficulty, as evidenced by the painful defeat of the Ukrainian team by Iceland in the 2023 World Cup qualifying match on August 27. And in this sense, it’s probably not very good that it is with key meetings with Great Britain and Estonia that Bagatskis’ team will have to start the group stage of the European Championship 2022.
With such skilled players as Luke Nelson , Ovie Soko and Miles Hesson , the British team will certainly not be an easy match for Ukraine. And given the tournament significance of the meeting, it will be an exciting match.
The full schedule of the 2022 European Basketball Championship can be viewed here .
The match of the European Championship-2022 Ukraine - Great Britain can be watched on the official video portal of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
