Review: NFL Gamepass in Canada July 29 2015
I made the decision about 3 years ago to cut the cord and get rid of cable. Between Netflix and getting over-the-air signal for CTV and CBC, I didn’t think cable was worth it. But the one thing holding me back was live sports, especially football and hockey.
Which brings me to NFL Gamepass, the official source of live NFL games on the internet. The cost is $244.99 CAD for the entire season, but the playoffs are not available in Canada. This seems expensive, but isn’t much more than NFL Sunday Ticket.
Blackouts are in effect for the national games which include Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football (which is definitely the biggest letdown of the service).
Video Quality: When I first got the service, it was quite basic and you could only stream the games on a laptop or desktop computer. The quality was okay, but if I tried to watch on my TV with an HDMI cable, it was choppy and inconsistent.
Last year they have added apps for iOS and Android, which was a huge step forward. Now, I can stream from my iPad to my Chromecast and the quality of the feed is HD with a solid frame rate. I do not own an Apple TV, but you should be able to do the same thing.
Mobility: I’m no longer strapped to my couch at home to watch games, I can watch wherever there is Wi-Fi.
- Are the guys getting together to watch the early games? Before I wouldn’t want to miss my team playing, but now I’ll go and just watch my own team play on my iPad.
- Going away on a trip? I’m headed to Japan this October, but I won’t miss a game because of Gamepass.
Other Features: A couple other nice features of Gamepass are: split screen viewing and condensed games.
- Split screen viewing is great for fantasy junkies because you can watch 4 games at once, and then zoom into any game when your players are in the red zone.
- Condensed games are great if you miss a game, or you want to see a player for yourself before picking them up. They take out all the pre-snap and commercial breaks and shrink the time of a game to under an hour.
Blackouts: The blackouts can be inconvenient, but if you are in another country traveling (or appear to be from another country without blackouts), then most of the Canada restrictions are lifted and you get all the games. Also, using an antenna to get the over-the-air signal for CTV gets you some of the national games.
If you are a cord cutter, or someone who travels often, then I strongly recommend getting NFL Gamepass. Between the quality of the apps and being able to watch the action anywhere with Wi-Fi, the value is surprisingly good. Blackouts are inconvenient, but they aren’t a deal breaker. Overall the service has improved remarkably in the last few years and will most likely get even better in the future.
