The San Francisco 49ers will be playing in a football game today. It is a preseason football game, which means expectations should be lowered, but it is a football game nonetheless.
We mentioned this in the feed (that new feature to the right of our posts, which lets us send out some more punchier content), but it’s probably appropriate to dedicate a post here on how to watch the 49ers if you want to see your favorite team in the preseason.
First, a disclaimer on the inaugural game. Don’t expect to see the familiar faces like Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Nick Bosa, and others. Kyle Shanahan hasn’t given an official decision, but it sounds like he’s leaning towards benching more starters than playing them.
Now, with that in mind, how do you watch this?
If you live in the Bay Area, you should have no problem. The game will be on local broadcast, and you can just turn your TV to it. For those of you outside of there, you will need to do a bit more work.
And that’s getting an NFL+ + Subscription. The basic subscription at $6.99 will give you access to the broadcast of the 49ers game. You will not get replays, but you will get to watch the live out-of-market games (which is what we are looking for). There was a free trial for a week, but it doesn’t look like such a thing exists anymore (this might be regional. If you confirm there’s a free trial option, let me know in the comments and I’ll update this with that information).
If you want to go up a tier, you can get NFL + Premium, which will give you NFL Redzone. This would also give you access to replays. Sure, it sounds nice, but it might be overkill if you just want to watch the preseason.
The $6.99 might seem ridiculous, but it’s a heck of a lot better way than how it was a few years ago. Back in the 2010s, you could get all the preseason games for $20 or so. Once the NFL decided they didn’t get enough money with that tactic, they made it a cash grab to GamePass, making a month or so of the service exponentially more expensive. I’ll take $6.99.
It doesn’t seem like any of the 49ers’ games this year will be nationally televised, so popping in and out, or just waiting until the third preseason game to get a subscription, probably isn’t going to be a good strategy this year. Their second game is on NFL Network, but from the looks of things, it’s not going to be a national broadcast.
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