Real, live football is back tonight, as the Houston Texans and Chicago Bears meet in the 2024 NFL Hall of Fame Game. You’re unlikely to see many starters on either side of the field — that includes No. 1 pick Caleb Williams, who won’t yet make his debut for Bears — but it’s still a great opportunity to watch some of the younger players battle it out for roster spots. Or maybe more simply, it’s an opportunity to watch an actual football game, which many have been itching to do for months.
The game starts at 8:00 p.m. E.T. and will be televised on both ESPN and ABC. However, if you don’t have cable, we have put together a handful of different ways you can watch a live stream of the Texans vs Bears for free or for cheap.
You can watch a live stream of ABC (live in select markets) and ESPN (everywhere in the United States) with a free trial of Fubo (“Pro” channel package), YouTube TV (“Base Plan”) or DirecTV Stream (“Entertainment” channel package or above).
All of these services come with extensive channel packages that are intended to replace cable, so they’re fairly expensive long-term options (though still much cheaper than cable), but you can sign up for one, watch the game and then cancel your subscription without having to pay anything.
If you’ve already used up all your free trials for Fubo, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream, or maybe you’re saving those free trials for the actual NFL season, then the cheapest way to watch a live stream of the game is on ESPN+.
Though it isn’t free, it’s only $11 per month or $110 for the year. This includes dozens of live sports, including Monday Night Football games once the regular season rolls around, as well as all the 30-for-30 documentaries, original shows and more. If you’re looking for even more savings, you could bundle ESPN+ with Disney+ and Hulu, getting all three for just $15 per month.
If you live outside of the United States and China, you can watch a live stream of every NFL game–that includes the preseason, regular season and playoffs–on DAZN. Viewers in Canada get all NFL content as part of a regular DAZN subscription, while those in other countries around the world need Game Pass International, which is available by itself or as an add-on to DAZN.
Or, if you want to go another route, you can use a virtual private network (VPN), such as NordVPN, in order to access Fubo, YouTube TV, DirecTV Stream or ESPN+ from abroad.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.