How to stream 2020 NRL trials live and free

This week's matches

Date	Match	Stadium	Kick-off (AEDT)	How to watch
Fri 21 Feb	Eels vs Rabbitohs	Ringrose Park	7:00 PM	Kayo Sports, NRL.com
Fri 21 Feb	Broncos vs Wynnum Manly	Kitchener Park	8:00 PM	N/A
Fri 21 Feb	Titans vs Burleigh Bears	Pizzey Park	8:00 PM	N/A
Sat 22 Feb	Storm vs Warriors	Central Energy Trust Arena	3:00 PM	NRL.com
Sat 22 Feb	Knights vs Dragons	Maitland Sports Ground	5:30 PM	Kayo Sports, Foxtel, NRL.com
Sat 22 Feb	Sharks vs Bulldogs	PNG Football Stadium	6:00 PM	N/A
Sat 22 Feb	Panthers vs Wests Tigers	Panthers Stadium	7:00 PM	Kayo Sports, NRL.com
Sat 22 Feb	Indigenous All Stars vs Maori All Stars	Cbus Super Stadium	8:10 PM	Channel 9, Kayo Sports, Foxtel, NRL Live Pass
Sat 22 Feb	Broncos vs Cowboys	Barlow Park	8:00 PM	Kayo Sports, NRL.com
Sun 23 Feb	St Helens vs Roosters	Totally Wicked Stadium	6:45 AM	Gem, Kayo Sports, Foxtel, NRL Live Pass

Watching the NRL on free-to-air TV can be a pretty lousy experience. Not only are you chained to the couch the whole time, but you also miss out on more than half the action every round. Only a handful of matches from the regular rounds are broadcast on traditional TV and they're broken up by ads. Channel 9 does at least show every NRL finals game and the grand final live exclusively.

Until recently, the only alternative has been shelling out for a Foxtel subscription, a costly solution if you're only going to use it for watching sport. Fortunately, the advent of online streaming has brought about a better option: Kayo Sports. This dedicated sports streaming service and app includes all of the Fox Sports content, without having to install a set-top box or pay for non-sporting channels.

Another way to stream the NRL and NRL finals is with NRL Live. It's a subscription streaming service dedicated to all things rugby league, but you don't get the 50+ other sports also included with Kayo. By purchasing an NRL Live Pass, you do get to stream every single NRL Premiership game live to your phone or tablet, ensuring you'll never have to miss a match again.

Below we have a more thorough rundown of all your options.

Live stream every NRL game on Kayo: Start your 14-day trial now

Stream the NRL with Kayo Sports

Kayo Sports has access to all the Fox Sports content, as well as everything coming into the country through beIN SPORTS and ESPN. It includes over 50 sports live and on demand, plus all the supplementary programming such as chat shows and news. Notably, everything from the Fox League channel is available to watch on replay, live or in highlights packages. The streaming platform also offers every game of the finals. The grand final isn’t available to stream live, as it is exclusively shown on free-to-air, but a replay will be on Kayo Sports.

Kayo Sports really stands out from the crowd not only for the quality of its HD streaming, but also thanks to some rather excellent sport-specific viewing features. This includes SplitView (four sports at once on the same screen), Interactive Stats, No Spoilers (hide scores mode), Key Moments (a timeline of important events in a game you can jump to), picture-in-picture mode, choose your own camera and plenty more. You get all of the details in our Kayo Sports review.

Kayo works with Macs and PCs, as well as iOS and Android smartphones and laptops. It can also be watched on a TV via Chromecast, Apple TV, Android TV, Telstra TV, Sony Bravia TV and Samsung TV (2017 or later). You can choose a $25/month subscription to be able to watch on two screens at the same time or pay $35/month to enjoy three simultaneous streams.

A 14-day free trial is available for new customers, which is easy to sign up for and cancel.

Get to know Kayo with our guides

• Compare Kayo's price, content and features
• Explore 12 features coming to Kayo Sports in 2019
• Every sport available to stream on Kayo
• A guide to Kayo's data consumption
• Comparing Kayo vs Optus Sport
• Comparing Kayo vs Foxtel vs Foxtel Now
• Answering Kayo's five biggest questions

Live stream NRL with Foxtel

Foxtel broadcasts every game of the NRL Telstra Premiership, with the exception of the grand final. To tune in, you will need the Sports HD and Foxtel Plus packs, for a combined cost of $74/month.

Once that’s done, you will be able to stream matches with your laptop or mobile device via the Foxtel GO app. The app is free with your Foxtel subscription. All you have to do is download it from Google Play or the App Store and enter your Foxtel ID. To stream on your laptop, check out the Foxtel website.

Kayo Sports

Live stream the NRL in HD with Kayo's FREE TRIAL and no lock-in contract

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Stream NRL on Foxtel Now

League fans can also stream NRL matches with Foxtel Now. To get FOX League, you will need the Sport pack, which costs $29/month. However, subscribers also need the Essentials pack to be able to access sports content. Essentials costs $25/month and comes with a great selection of Pop and Lifestyle channels. Consequently, you will pay a minimum of $54/month to stream NRL games with Foxtel Now.

The streaming service is available on PCs/Macs, mobile devices, Chromecast/AirPlay, PS4, Telstra TV, and the Foxtel Now box.

Watch the NRL live on free-to-air

If you’re a casual NRL fan, free-to-air coverage might be enough to satisfy your cravings. You can watch three games per round on the Nine Network. This includes one Thursday night match, one Friday night fixture and a Sunday afternoon clash. One additional game per round on Saturday night will be shown for the last five rounds of the season. Nine Network also broadcasts every game of the finals series including the grand final.

NRL grand final details

The 2020 grand final will be held at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Kick-off is scheduled for 7:30pm AEDT on Sunday 4 October. The only way to watch it live is on Channel 9. You can also live stream the NRL Grand Final on the 9Now app.

Stream NRL matches from outside Australia

If you’re outside Australia when your favourite team is playing, you can still stream NRL matches live or on demand with WatchNRL. The platform is only available outside the country and it comes with three subscription options. During the regular rounds, a weekly pass costs $19, a monthly subscription is $33 and a membership for an entire year is available for $189. During the finals, the weekly pass rises to $25, or you can get the entire finals series for $85. For the grand final, the weekly pass is abolished altogether and the $33 monthly pass is the best you can get.

You can watch on your laptop on the WatchNRL website or download the app to your mobile device. WatchNRL is also compatible with Chromecast and AirPlay.

Stream NRL matches with NRL Live Pass

The NRL Live app serves as your gateway to the world of NRL streaming. You can download the app for free on Apple, Android and Windows mobile devices. Without forking over a cent you'll have access to live scores and statistics, match highlight videos and up-to-date news and reports.

To get the full NRL Live experience, though, you'll need to subscribe to the NRL Live Pass which lets you live stream all Telstra Premiership matches, including representative games and the finals series, as well as all Nines and All Stars events. Live streams of the NRL grand final and the State of Origin series are not available via the NRL Live Pass, though you can watch full match replays of these after the fact.

• What does an NRL Live Pass subscription get me?

  While anyone can watch video highlights and view live scores for free through the NRL Live app, only NRL Live Pass subscribers can stream matches as they happen, directly to their phone or tablet. With an NRL Live Pass subscription, you also get access to live streams of post-match press conferences as well as full match replays just 12 hours after the final whistle.

  For NRL history buffs, there's also an archive of over 400 NRL Telstra Premiership matches from 2013 onwards available to watch on demand. Best of all, if you miss a live stream, you can set it so the app hides the scores for played matches, giving you a chance to go back and watch the replay without knowing the outcome.

  Fans that attend NRL games in person are also eligible to access NRL Live Pass premium content for free during the match, regardless of whether they have an active NRL Live Pass subscription or not. With geolocation services activated on your mobile device, the NRL Live app will automatically detect if you are in the vicinity of an eligible venue and advise you of how to claim the free offer.

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• How much does it cost?

  There are two ways of subscribing to NRL Live Pass: a Weekly Pass will set you back $3.99/week while an Annual Pass goes for $99.99.

  However, if you're a Telstra mobile customer, you won't need to pay a thing; all Telstra consumer and small business postpaid mobile plans, consumer mobile broadband plans and prepaid services that maintain more than $30 of recharge credit come with a free NRL Live subscription for the 2020 season. To activate your free subscription, all you need to do is log in to the NRL Live app from your Telstra mobile device and click the "I'm a Telstra customer" button.

  It's also worth noting that Live Pass subscriptions auto-renew unless you explicitly opt out, so make sure to change your settings if you don't want to be charged indefinitely.

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• Which devices are compatible with NRL Live Pass?

  NRL Live supports a wide range of mobile devices through its respective mobile apps. For Apple users, the Official NRL app requires an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 9.0 or later. Android users need a smartphone with Android 4.4 or higher or a tablet with Android 4.2 or higher to run the Official Android NRL app. Users on Windows Phone, meanwhile, need to be running Windows Phone 8 or higher to access the Official Windows NRL app.

  

  NRL Official App from iTunes Store

  Stream the NRL through the official app with a weekly pass, yearly pass or for free as a Telstra customer.

  View details

  Due to Telstra's agreement with the NRL, the NRL Live apps are subject to a number of limitations. The maximum display size of live streams is seven inches diagonally, with full-screen mode disabled on devices with displays larger than seven inches. You also can't output live streams to your TV through streaming devices like Google Chromecast or Apple AirPlay. These restrictions do not apply to highlights videos or full match replays.

  Support for non-mobile devices is limited to Windows and Mac laptops running a compatible web browser. Supported browsers include Internet Explorer 9+, Mozilla Firefox 28+, Google Chrome 31+ and Safari 6+.

  Additionally, each NRL Live Pass subscription supports access for a maximum of 10 devices at a time in order to prevent excessive account sharing.

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• How much data does NRL Live use?

  Watching matches and other videos through NRL Live can use up quite a bit of data. If you're streaming on the go, it's important to be aware of the toll it'll take on your monthly data cap. As a guide, streaming an 80-minute NRL match to a tablet typically uses around 900MB of data while on a smaller phone screen that drops to around 400MB.

  Once again, Telstra customers are at an advantage here. If you're on a BigPond ADSL, Cable, NBN or Telstra mobile Internet connection, all NRL Live video content is unmetered – in other words, it won't count against your monthly cap. However, this offer does not apply to Telstra mobile broadband dongles, Wi-Fi hotspots or business broadband plans.

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List of NRL teams

• Sydney Roosters
• South Sydney Rabbitohs
• Manly Sea Eagles
• Brisbane Broncos
• Melbourne Storm
• St. George Illawarra Dragons
• Parramatta Eels
• Wests Tigers

• Canberra Raiders
• New Zealand Warriors
• North Queensland Cowboys
• Gold Coast Titans
• Newcastle Knights
• Canterbury Bulldogs
• Cronulla Sharks
• Penrith Panthers

Why are there bye rounds in the NRL?

In response to the demands of State of Origin on the regular season competition, bye rounds were introduced. This takes the pressure off the teams during the State of Origin period, where the elite players are removed from the competition. It also gives players a bit of extra time mid-season to get any niggling injuries under control.

What is the NRL Magic Round?

In 2020, the NRL is continuing the successful Magic Round concept introduced last season. It involves every team competing at the same ground over three action-packed days at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Last season it was held over four days but Thursday night has been scrapped this time around.

From Friday 1 May to Sunday 3 May fans can witness each of the eight Magic Round games unfold. The only place to watch every rugby league game live during the Magic Round is Fox League. You can watch Fox League via Foxtel iQ, Foxtel Now and Kayo Sports, all three of which are compared on this page.

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Picture: Brett Taylor/Flickr