Getting Back into Bulls Games
So, I decided this year, I really wanted to start following the Chicago Bulls again properly. Like, watching the actual games, not just catching highlights later. It’s been a while, and I felt like reconnecting with the team.
First thing I did was check my standard cable package. You know, flipped through the channels around game time hoping to just stumble upon it. No luck most nights. Seems like unless it’s a big national game on ESPN or TNT, my basic channels weren’t cutting it. That was a bit of a letdown right off the bat. I knew I needed something more dedicated.
Exploring the Options
Then I started looking online. Man, it gets confusing fast. There are so many streaming services now, all claiming to have sports. I looked into a few:
- Big Streaming Bundles: Stuff like Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, Fubo, Sling TV. They all offer live channels. The problem was figuring out which one actually had the channel that broadcasts most Bulls games locally. Here in Chicago, that’s NBC Sports Chicago.
- NBA League Pass: This sounded perfect at first. Watch any team, right? Wrong. Found out about the blackout rules. If you live in the team’s home market, you usually can’t watch their games live on League Pass. You have to wait like hours or days later. Defeats the whole purpose for me. There’s League Pass Premium too, but the local blackout thing was still a major hurdle.
This whole regional sports network thing was the key. I had to specifically find a service that included NBC Sports Chicago in my area. Some services might have it in one city but not another. It took a fair bit of clicking around different sites, checking channel lineups based on my zip code.
Making the Choice
I even thought about just upgrading my cable package. Called them up, and yeah, I could get the channel, but it meant jumping to a much pricier tier. Wasn’t thrilled about that.
Talked to a friend who’s also a Bulls fan. He mentioned he uses one of those live TV streaming services, I think it was YouTube TV or Hulu, and he gets the games fine. Said the quality was good, and it worked on his TV, phone, whatever.
So, I decided to give one of those a shot. Picked one that offered a free trial, just to be safe. Went through the sign-up, put in my location, and carefully checked the channel list again. Yep, NBC Sports Chicago was listed right there.
Finally Watching the Game
Come game night, I opened the app, navigated to the channel guide, found NBC Sports Chicago, and boom. There it was. The pre-game show was on, leading right into the live Bulls game. It actually worked!
It was definitely more hassle than I expected just to watch my local team. You’d think it would be simpler. And yeah, it costs money, no getting around that unless you just stick to the national broadcasts. But, going through the process, figuring out the regional channel was the main thing, and then finding a service that carried it reliably – that was the path for me. At least now I can actually watch the Bulls play ball.
