Why You Can Trust CNET How to watch Royals baseball in 2019 without cable
From streaming Fox Sports Kansas City in KC to watching MLB.TV out of market, cord-cutting Kansas City Royals fans have plenty of options for following their club this season.
With young talent like Whit Merrifield on the roster, the Kansas City Royals hope to contend -- if not this year, then soon -- for another title.
The Kansas City Royals haven't given their fans much reason to cheer since winning the World Series in 2015. They bottomed out last season, losing more than 100 games and finishing dead last in the AL Central.
In 2019 the Royals are in the middle of another rebuild, but with young talent on the roster like Hunter Dozier, Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi and Jorge Soler, the rebuilding could go quicker usual. The team might not win much this year, but it should be fun to watch.
If you're a Royals fan who also happens to be a cable TV cord-cutter, you have a number of ways to keep up with the action -- whether you're in Kansas City or an out-of-market follower of the club.
Stream the Royals live in the Kansas City market
In 2019, Royals games will be shown on Fox Sports Kansas City in the Kansas City market. All of the major live TV streaming services, starting with Sling TV for just $25 per month, offer Fox Sports Kansas City.
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Fox Sports Kansas City is included in Sling TV's $25-a-month Blue package as an alternate channel to Fox Sports Midwest, which carries cross-state St. Louis Cardinals games. (The plan is currently discounted to $15 a month for the first three months, which gets you almost to the All-Star break.) For national broadcasts, Sling TV's Orange plan includes ESPN and ESPN2, and the Blue plan includes Fox and FS1. Both plans offer TBS. The MLB Network is available as part of the Sports Extra add-on, which costs $5 a month for Sling Orange customers or $10 a month for Sling Blue customers.
FuboTV costs $45 per month and includes Fox Sports Kansas City. Click here for a list of the regional sports networks that FuboTV carries. It also offers Fox, FS1 and TBS for national broadcasts, but not ESPN, ESPN2 or MLB Network.
Hulu with Live TV costs $45 a month and includes Fox Sports Kansas City. Click the "View all channels in your area" link on its welcome page to see which local channels are offered in your ZIP code. For national broadcasts, Hulu with Live TV offers ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1 and TBS but not MLB Network.
YouTube TV costs $50 a month and includes Fox Sports Kansas City. It also includes the channels that carry national baseball broadcasts: ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1, MLB Network and TBS. Plug in your ZIP code on its welcome page to see if Fox Sports Kansas City is available in your area.
PlayStation Vue's $50-a-month Core plan includes Fox Sports Kansas City. The Core plan also includes ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1 MLB Network and TBS for national broadcasts. You can see if Fox Sports Kansas City is available in your area here.
DirecTV Now's $70-a-month Max package includes Fox Sports Kansas City. It also includes ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1 and TBS for national broadcasts but not the MLB Network. You can use its channel lookup tool to see if Fox Sports Kansas City is available where you live.
All of the live TV streaming services above offer free trials and allow you to cancel anytime, and they all require a solid Internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our massive live-TV streaming services guide.
Out-of-market Royals streaming
If you are a Royals fan living outside of Kansas City, you can't watch the Royals on Fox Sports Kansas City. You can, however, stream their games live with an MLB.TV subscription.
You've got two options:
- Pay $119 a year (or $25 a month) to be able to watch every out-of-market game live or on demand, and the in-market (home) team with a 90-minute delay from the end of the game.
- Pay $92 a year to watch a single, out-of-market team. In this case, the Royals and nobody else.
Both MLB.TV plans also include streams of home and away radio broadcasts. The radio broadcasts aren't subject to the blackout rule, so you can listen to home team games live.
