Watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers live without cable on the device of your choice, including Apple TV, Samsung Smart TV, Roku, and more.
Table of Contents
NFL fans in Tampa can watch the entire season, including the NFL playoffs, on Fubo, DIRECTV STREAM, YouTube TV, or Hulu + Live TV. Our top overall pick for watching the Bucs, DIRECTV STREAM, is the best overall Tampa sports option. The service live streams the important NFL and college football channels and offers Bally Sports Sun, the regional sports network that broadcasts in-market Lightning, Miami Heat, and Rays games.
Out-of-market Bucs fans can follow the team by adding NFL Sunday Ticket to an existing YouTube TV subscription (+ $349)
Watch WTVT, FOX 13, CBS, NBC, ESPN, and upgrade for Bally Sports Sun, ACC Network, and SEC Network. | $74.99 / month | Free 5 Day Trial |
Watch WTVT, FOX 13, CBS, NBC, ESPN, plus ACC Network and SEC Network. | $74.99 / month | 7 Day Free Trial |
Watch Bucs games on WTVT-TV FOX Tampa 13. | $35 / month | Explore offers |
OUT-OF-MARKET. Watch the Bucs out-of-market with NFL Sunday Ticket. | $449 / year | Signup for Sunday Ticket |
Important channels
The most important channels for Bucs fans will be CBS, FOX, ESPN, and NBC, and of all these, FOX, the channel with rights for most NFC games through 2033, will be the most important for watching the Bucs week in and week out. NFL coverage for each channel:
- CBS – In-market AFC games / some NFL Playoff games / Super Bowl LVIII
- FOX – In-market NFC Games / some NFL Playoff games
- ESPN – Monday Night Football / some NFL Playoff games
- NBC – Sunday Night Football / some NFL playoff games
The table below documents the live TV streaming providers that carry the most important channels for watching the NFL. Note: Sling TV carries FOX and NBC, but only in select markets.
| Fubo | DIRECTV STREAM – Choice | Sling Orange & Blue | Paramount+ | Hulu + Live TV | YouTube TV | |
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| $74.99 / month | $99.99 / month | $50 / month | $5.99 / month | $69.99 / month | $72.99 / month |
Top picks
Across much of the state of Florida, and when the Bucs are on national TV, or in a regional game with extensive geographic coverage, these streaming services will be great options for Bucs fans.
Fubo offers full coverage of the Bucs, Gators, and Seminoles from the Tampa, Orlando, and Tallahassee markets (Thursday Night Football the exception outside of Tampa).
fuboTV offers the channels you need to watch most major NFL action, including Buccaneers games on local FOX and CBS affiliates, like WTVT-TV FOX 13 Tampa.
Unless the game is a nationally televised game, like Monday Night Football or a playoff game, you need to be in-market for the game in order to watch the Bucs on Fubo. See this post for a detailed rundown on whether NFL games are broadcast nationally or regionally.
As an added bonus for Tampa and Florida sports fans, Fubo carries the channels needed to watch not only the Rays and Lightning, but also the Gators and Seminoles this season, as well as a 4K upgrade for supported devices.
The major downside with Fubo is the lack of TBS and TNT, which means gaps in NHL, NCAAB, and NBA coverage, and the DVR cap at 1,000 hours which is way behind most competitors. Having said that, as someone who has watched a ton of live sports on Fubo and auto-recorded Ohio State games, I have never come close to maxing out the DVR, so this won’t be a deal breaker for most fans.
Read our fuboTV review for sports fans.
Watch Bucs games that air on FOX 13 Tampa only with Sling Blue.
Yes, you can watch in-market Tampa Bay Buccaneer’s games on Sling TV, with Sling TV Blue.
Although Sling Blue doesn’t offer all the channels you need to watch every Tampa Bay game, affordability will be a decisive factor for some fans. You can get FOX 13 Tampa on Sling, but not NBC 8, WFLA-TV for Sunday Night Football broadcasts.
By upgrading to Sling Orange & Blue, cord cutters can add ESPN, but the lack of CBS and NBC make it hard to recommend Sling Blue to diehard Tampa fans who need to see every game.
Read our full Sling TV review.
DIRECTV STREAM “Choice” offers full coverage of the Bucs, Gators, and Seminoles from the Tampa, Orlando, and Tallahassee markets (Thursday Night Football the exception outside of Tampa).
DirecTV Stream covers your bases for streaming the Bucs, with the channel lineup local fans need to watch the NFL all the way through Super Bowl LVIII.
However, some sports fans will want to pay a little extra for DirecTV Stream “Choice” because the premium package includes Bally Sports Florida and Bally Sports Sun, the local regional sports networks (RSN) for Tampa. These two RSNs carry:
- Tampa Bay Rays baseball
- Florida Marlins baseball
- Tampa Bay Lightning hockey
- Florida Panthers hockey
- Orlando Magic basketball
- Miami Heat basketball
If you are a MLB or NHL fan, and want in-market action, it is hard to beat DirecTV Stream. DIRECTV STREAM offers unlimited DVR, but some in the media have been critical of the fine print.
Read our DirecTV Stream review.
NFL+ offers complete coverage of the Bucs season on mobile and tablet only, all the way through Super Bowl LVIII in Vegas.
Local fans in Tampa can watch Buccaneers games on mobile and tablets with NFL Plus.
NFL Plus also features every nationally televised Bucs game, including playoff games. Read our NFL Plus review.
Hulu + Live TV offers full coverage of the Bucs, Gators, and Seminoles from the Tampa, Orlando, and Tallahassee markets (Thursday Night Football the exception outside of Tampa).
Yes, Hulu + Live TV gets you the channels you need to watch the Bucs in-market, and when the team appears on national TV.
Read our Hulu + Live TV review.
YouTube TV offers full coverage for local Bucs fans, plus for out-of-market fans with the addition of NFL Sunday Ticket.
YouTube TV is another great option for watching NFL games, including the Bucs. The addition of ESPN in 4K will be hard to pass on for many cord cutters, but be careful – a Google account is required to sign up, which is time consuming if you don’t have one already.
YouTube TV is the home of NFL Sunday Ticket, which means its the only game in town for watching the Bucs out-of-market.
Read our YouTube TV review.
Out-of-market
For fans that live far away from Tampa Bay, but still want to watch the Bucs every week, you have two options.
- Wait for the Bucs to be on national TV, or hybrid regional games. We estimate these options would cover 4-5 games a year now that Tom Brady hung it up.
- Buy NFL Sunday Ticket to guarantee access to Bucs broadcasts every Sunday. NFL Sunday Ticket is now available through YouTube TV for $349.
NFL Sunday Ticket gets Bucs fans regular season coverage for $349 with a YouTube TV subscription and $449 without. There are several “package” options that include NFL Red Zone for an extra fee.
Bucs player to watch – #6
The Bucs signed Baker Mayfield to compete for the starting quarterback job after the retirement of Tom Brady. Mayfield, the former Oklahoma Sooner standout, who was the first pick of the 2018 NFL draft, will have a good chance to become the starter. His bombastic, gun slinger style will be fun to watch this season, so keep an eye out for #6 when watching the Bucs.
FAQ
Bucs fans take note: even when you cut the cord and ditch cable, NFL TV coverage is still determined regionally for most regular season games. This means that only Tampa Bay, and some markets close by, will reliably get the Bucs game every week on their local FOX affiliate. In Tampa Bay, the local FOX affiliate is WTVT, FOX 13.
The fact that Tom Brady retired will decrease the TV coverage area for Bucs fans significantly which means NFL Sunday Ticket will be a better buy for out-of-state Bucs fans this season.
We predict these markets will get the most in-market Bucs games: Ft. Myers, Orlando, Sarasota, and Tallahassee.
97.9 FM WXTB is the Flagship radio station for listening to Bucs games in Tampa. For a list of Bucs radio partners across Florida, click here.