Now that I have an Android phone, I want to know: Can I keep up on sports? Is there a way to watch TV on my Android device?
There are a ton of ways you can watch streaming television and sports on your modern device, actually, whether we’re talking about a Windows computer, a Mac, an iPad or an Android phone. Big companies like AT&T feel it’s a sufficiently important channel that they have been acquiring television and broadcast companies: AT&T now owns DirecTV and offers some killer deals on adding DirecTV – including its DirecTV Now streaming service – to your existing AT&T plan.
My favorite for streaming sports, however, is SlingTV, which offers a huge lineup of different sports channels on its service and works great with just about every device, from AppleTV to, yes, an Android phone. Here’s a quick demo of how it works on my Xiaomi Android phone because, well, soccer. Any excuse to watch soccer is a good thing!
A tap and it’s launched, showing me what’s on my favorite channels and what recordings I’ve made:
Yes, recordings. SlingTV offers a DVR capability, which is great. Not only that, but you can mark something as a favorite – like Game of Thrones – and it’ll help you track the show and avoid missing any episodes. All from the comfort of your smartphone!
A tap on the so-called hamburger menu on the top left (three horizontal lines) and you get to the main menu in the app:
Choose “SPORTS” to see what’s on and what’s coming, all neatly organized by sport. Love volleyball or cricket? Football or basketball? Or, like me, soccer? Sling’s got ya covered. I admit, I had to scroll down just a bit to get to Tennis and Soccer:
And seriously, tennis above soccer? Augh, it’s tough to be an American some times. Anyway, that Italia league game of Lazio v Genoa looks terrific, and the orange progress bar shows it’s about 30% through the game, a good time to jump in. A tap and…
This is more sophisticated than you may realize: notice you can start over or record the game. SlingTV isn’t just a tuner, it’s a full streaming entertainment ecosystem. I just want to watch the match, however, so I’ll tap on “Watch”.
Now, unfortunately, I can’t take screen captures of the live stream, so here’s what it looks like streaming on the phone itself:
Looks great, actually, and the bigger the device, the better it looks. Not too shabby at all, eh?
Now I need to switch back to the game before they hit half time, so I’ll just hope that this whetted your appetite for streaming sports options and SlingTV, certainly what I would say is one of your best choices available today.
Disclosure: Sling offers me a complimentary account so I can write about the service.