Categories: Politics

How to watch the 2019 Super Bowl on streaming and TV

Everything you need to know to watch or stream the Big Game (as well as the Puppy Bowl and Kitten Bowl).

Super Bowl LIII (a.k.a. Super Bowl 53) is upon us. And just like any other year, 2019’s Big Game brings with it the usual array of controversy, marketing blitzes, and, oh, yeah, football.

This year’s Super Bowl will air on CBS on Sunday, February 3. Kickoff is at 6:30 pm Eastern / 3:30 pm Pacific.

In case you’ve missed the endless hubbub over this year’s unexpected matchup, the New England Patriots will be stepping into the Super Bowl arena for the ninth time since 2001.

They’ll be facing the Los Angeles Rams, in a kinda-sorta repeat of the 2002 Super Bowl — the Rams were from St. Louis back then (and the Patriots defeated them 20-17). Thanks to the Patriots’ overall dominance in the Super Bowl for the past two decades, public sentiment seems to favor the Rams in 2019, even though they secured their Super Bowl standing via a highly contested NFC championship win against the New Orleans Saints, benefiting from a missed call that was so intensely controversial, it has prompted the NFL commissioner to consider changing the league’s rules.

But whoever wins will be walking away with at least one unprecedented milestone: If Patriots head coach Bill Belichick wins, he will become, at age 65, the oldest coach in history to win a Super Bowl. And if Rams coach Sean McVay wins, he will become the youngest coach in history to win the Super Bowl, at the wizened age of just 33.

In additional to the usual television broadcast, CBS will be making room for streaming viewers: The game will stream live for free on CBSSports.com; it will also stream on CBS All Access, which requires either a subscription or a seven-day free trial. You can also access the game from the CBS Sports app, (downloadable from Google Play or Apple), or from streaming subscriptions that include CBS.

If you’re only watching the game for the non-football parts, you’ll want to tune in before the 6:30pm kickoff to catch Gladys Knight singing the national anthem — and then gauge whether sticking around for Maroon 5’s controversial halftime appearance is worth it.

If cuddly animals are more your style, then you can skip the gladiators altogether and turn on the Hallmark Channel, where the 6th annual Kitten Bowl will be airing at 2pm Eastern. An hour later, you can flip to Animal Planet for the 15th annual Puppy Bowl at 3pm Eastern. (The Puppy Bowl will then re-air several times throughout the rest of the day.) But if you want to stream either of these events, you’ll need a cable login or a subscription (or free trial) to a streaming service like DirecTV Now that carries one or both of their channels.