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HOW TO WATCH OWLS GAMES ONLINE
Navigating how to watch Sheffield Wednesday in America can be extremely tricky, and this season (24/25) it's even more murky than usual.
With the announcement of a new Sky Sports deal in the UK there will be a ton more EFL games shown back home on Sky Sports. But how does that effect us in America?
iFollow is where most games will be shown
iFollow continues to be the primary source for EFL Championship games, it will show any EFL Championship game not chosen for International Broadcast. There is one weird exception to this - Sky Bet Championship matches selected for international broadcast during Championship midweeks can still be streamed internationally, apart from in the USA (and a bunch of other weird international territories). Don't ask us why this is, but that sentence is taken direct from the EFL website.
New US Broadcaster
If you live in the United States its time to cancel your ESPN + subscription as the new local broadcaster is CBS Sports / Paramount Plus. They will show any game that Sky Sports show on their main channels (not the new Sky Sports + service). CBS have committed to show a minimum of 155 championship games, which is about the same as ESPN had last season. All the extra games that are in the new UK Sky deal and shown on the Sky Sports + service will likely go on iFollow for us overseas.
That "minimum of 155 games" CBS committed to in the US press release has recently been clarified in correspondence with the EFL - '...All other Championship matches outside of that [155] can be live streamed by the Club on a co-exclusive basis meaning that they will be available on iFollow and could [also] be shown by CBS, but they have no obligation to do so and it would not stop the matches being available on iFollow.' Which sounds like there may be possibilities of both iFollow and CBS showing games but in general if its on CBS / Paramount, it wont be on iFollow.
Local broadcasters elsewhere in Americas
For our supporters based in Canada we now know that DAZN has the rights for this season. In Brazil, Argentina and the Caribbean the games will be shown on Disney ESPN.
How to subscribe and costs
If you haven't signed up for iFollow yet, then you have missed the very short 4 day early bird period where they froze last seasons price of 140 GBP. It is now 180 GBP for the season, or you can pay per game at 10 GBP.
CBS are spreading the EFL Championship games across a few of their channels, including CBS Sports Network, Paramount+ & CBS Sports Golazo Network. You may have one of those in an existing cable subscription but if you want all of them you're going to have to subscribe to the basic Paramount Plus package at $5.99 / mth.
Will the coverage be better?
Yes! It looks like all games will get at least 4 cameras, with the CBS games getting full broadcast treatment, including replays and what you've come to expect from their world class presentation. CBS have committed to having highlights shows, studio programming and even something which sounds a bit like Soccer Saturday on their Golazo network. So, while the cost may be more expensive this year at least the product will be better. Just cross your fingers we can watch as many games as usual.
Still have questions?
Feel free to chat to us on X @OwlsAmericas or drop a question in our Facebook Forum and we'll try and help.
We're hoping that this Upcoming TV Games page will work soon, which should tell you what games will be on TV and where to watch it.
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