The AFC Championship Game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos will take place on Sunday, January 25 at 3 PM ET (12 PM PT / 8 PM GMT) at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado. Interested? You’re in luck, since there are plenty of ways to follow the action live. Below, we’ll show where you can watch the AFC Championship Game online.
We’ll only be recommending official NFL broadcasters for the AFC Championship Game. Unlicensed streams are an inevitability for major sporting events like this, but come with some pretty significant downsides. First, the quality is often lacking, with stuttering, low-resolution video. Second, these streams are prone to mid-match takedowns, meaning you might not even get to see who wins. There are several ways to watch the AFC Championship Game for free anyway, so you have nothing to gain by using unlicensed streams.
The AFC Championship is only available on geo-blocked streaming platforms. This means that if you’re traveling abroad and there’s no official broadcaster where you are, you’ll need a VPN to watch on your usual services back home.
How to watch the AFC Championship Game abroad with a VPN
New to VPNs and not sure where to start? Unblocking geo-restricted content abroad is actually fairly simple once you know how.
Here’s how to stream the AFC Championship Game from anywhere:
- First, choose a suitable VPN. We particularly recommend NordVPN but Surfshark and IPVanish are both strong alternatives.
- Download the VPN software, making sure to get the right version for your operating system.
- Connect to a server in the relevant country. For example, you’d use an American server to unblock Paramount+ or a British one to access Sky Go.
- Try loading a previously inaccessible geo-locked site. You should be able to browse as though you were actually in the required country.
- Doesn’t work? Clear your cookies and cache then reload the page. It may also be worth trying another server in case your current IP address is blacklisted.
As the AFC Championship match will be broadcast live, it’s important to test your VPN before the match actually starts. This ensures you’ll have enough time to get help from customer support and significantly reduces the risk of you missing part of the game if anything doesn’t work as expected.
How to watch the AFC Championship Game online
Football is becoming more popular outside of the US, and accordingly, it’s getting easier to watch the NFL abroad. Below, we’ll explain where you can watch the AFC Championship Game from a selection of different countries.
USA
The AFC Championship Game will broadcast live on CBS. If you have a cable TV subscription that includes CBS, you need only sign in via your TV provider to watch at no extra cost.
Don’t have cable TV? The good news is that you can live stream CBS on Paramount+. To watch live, you’ll need either the ad-supported Paramount+ Essential plan (USD $8.99/month) or the ad-free Paramount+ Premium plan ($13.99/month). Unfortunately, neither comes with a free trial.
It’s also worth knowing that Fubo (from $55.99/month), Hulu ($82.99/month), and YouTube TV ($82.99/month) all include CBS. What’s more, all of them offer free trials for new subscribers so this is another way you can watch the AFC Championship Game for free, provided you cancel in time.
Keep in mind that all of the above services are region-locked. This means that if you’re outside of the US, you’ll need a VPN to use them. NordVPN comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee that allows you to watch risk-free. If you’re unsatisfied, just cancel during this time to receive a full refund.
UK
Sky Sports will air the AFC Championship Game live and existing subscribers can stream all of the action online via Sky Go. The problem is that to get Sky Sports, you need Sky TV, which is expensive and takes several weeks to be installed.
If you like, you can sign up for a Sky Sports pass on Now (£14.99 per day or £34.99 per month). Fans in the UK also have the option of NFL Game Pass which now only costs £14.99 for the rest of the season.
Sky Go and Now TV are region-locked and only available in the UK. However, you can watch from abroad using a VPN.
Canada
There are a few different ways to watch the AFC Championship Game in Canada. The first is to use CTV: this service is free but you’re required to login with your cable provider details before you can start streaming. It does not allow you to login with any over-the-top services, so if you don’t have cable TV, CTV simply isn’t an option.
You could also watch this match on DAZN. The base subscription tier includes NFL Game Pass and currently costs just CAD $9.99 a month.
Additionally, the AFC Championship Final will be broadcast live on RDS and TSN. Similar to CTV, these platforms allow you to watch for free if you sign in with your cable provider details. However, they also offer a standalone subscription for $24.99 a month. There isn’t any trial period or money-back guarantee, but RDS is the only Canadian service broadcasting NFL coverage with French commentary.
All of the above services are geo-restricted, so you’ll need a VPN to use them outside of Canada.
Australia
For Australian football fans, it’s easy to watch the AFC Championship Game. Better still, you can do so for free on 7plus, via the 7mate channel. All you need to do is sign up for a free account and you’ll be able to stream the game live.
Note that Patriots vs Broncos will also be shown on ESPN. If you’re already a Foxtel TV customer, you can sign into the Foxtel Go app and watch at no added cost. Otherwise, you’d need the Foxtel Now Sports + Movies bundle (AUD $58/month for the first 12 months and $84/month thereafter).
Alternatively, users can sign up for Kayo, which costs $30 AUD per month following a 7-day free trial. The above services are all geo-restricted, so you’ll need to either be in Australia or connected to an Australian VPN server.
Can I use a free VPN to watch the AFC Championship Game?
Free VPNs don’t work with the streaming platforms showing the AFC Championship Game. You won’t have much choice in terms of server locations and the IP address you’re assigned will, more likely than not, have already been blacklisted by the streaming service in question. Add to this the limited data and heavy bandwidth throttling from most free VPNs, and streaming is effectively impossible.
It’s also important to be wary of security and privacy-related risks with free VPNs. Weak encryption and a lack of protection against leaks can put your data in the hands of hackers and snoopers. The free VPN may log your browsing activity and share it with third parties. The best VPNs all offer generous money-back guarantees, so you can try them risk-free and avoid risky free VPN services.
Who is favorite to win the AFC Championship Game?
The New England Patriots are strong favorites to win the AFC Championship Game, despite the Broncos having home advantage. The favorable odds are due to an unfortunate injury to Broncos quarterback Bo Nix sustained in the AFC Divisional Round win versus the Buffalo Bills. The injury, a broken ankle bone, means Nix is now ruled out for the season.
It’s a shame because, with both teams having finished the regular season with impressive 14-3 records (the Broncos finished as No.1 seed and the Patriots as No. 2 seed), the AFC Championship game was set up to be a closely-fought contest. That’s still possible, though the forced quarterback change from Bo Nix to Jarrett Stidham will be a challenge to navigate for Broncos head coach Sean Payton.
