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Update: The NRL season was suspended on 23 March due to the coronavirus outbreak
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. Plus some teams are favoured more than others. 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. By purchasing an NRL Live Pass, you do get to stream every single NRL Premiership game live to your phone or tablet.
Below we have a more thorough rundown of all your options.
Live stream every NRL game on Kayo: Start your 14-day trial now
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.
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.
Foxtel Now
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Kayo Sports
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Take Kayo Sports' Basic or Premium plan for a spin and stream over 50 sports live completely free for 14 days.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
If you're travelling outside of Australia, you can stream the NRL Premiership on PC, iPhone, Android or TV (using Chromecast or AirPlay) with Watch NRL's app. Sign up now.
View detailsThe 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.
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.
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
Hi, regarding live streaming NRL games live, I notice on a different website the tablet needs to b a certain size and brand, is this true? Or as long as it’s running Android 4.2 or above? I’m not a Telstra customer…can I live stream the games with Wi-Fi at home without maxing out my data? Cheers
Hi Brendan,
Thanks for your question. You don’t need a specific brand of tablet to stream NRL games live, though the tablet must be less than 7 inches in size (measured diagonally across the screen).
If you’re streaming games on your home Wi-Fi connection, the average match is going to use up approximately 900MB of data if you’re on a tablet, and approximately 400MB of data on a smaller phone. Whether this will max out your data will depend on how large your home broadband data cap is.
I hope this helps!
Regards,
Matt