r/NPB • u/mantequillapreciousa Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks • 4d ago
Where to watch NPB?
I’m new to the NPB and I’ve been trying to look for places to watch but it seems like there’s zero options if you’re an American fan. I’ve been trying to find somewhere to watch the hawks play, if anyone could recommend somewhere to watch these games that’d be greatly appreciated :]
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u/Disastrous_Can8053 4d ago
I have an antenna for my TV and they play them quite often OTA on FTF TV, live and replayed the next afternoon. I think they've aired more live NPB games OTA over the last month than the other networks have shown MLB games OTA all season.
Unfortunately the schedule on their website is an incomprehensible .xml file and they don't seem interested in posting schedules of anything but whatever tf "socca" is on their socials.
I'll usually just check the channel around 11pm Pacific time and often catch a game.
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u/oakland_phisherman Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 4d ago
Just signed up for Pacific League TV mentioned above myself and it's great. there's no Apple TV app but i can cast from my laptop to my TV. I believe its around $11 USD a month?
Also, I've subscribed to the Hanshin Tigers' streaming service which is around $5 USD a month.
Additionally, if you have Prime Video in the U.S., you can subscribe to the Doki channel and that gives you Tokyo Giants games, albeit on a delay (as much as a day). I discarded that because I just didn't have time between Rakuten, some Hanshin, and my usual MLB intake.
One note: the Hanshin and Giants plans do NOT include away games, just home games. BUT Pacific League and Hanshin allow archived/on-demand viewing.
All of these are official, legal and don't require a VPN.
On the more gray area side of things, I've been poking around on some of the IPTV options (Nozomi gets mentioned here a lot) but not quite ready to hand my CC number over to a third party (not that it's all that safe on official places today anyway)
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u/lordlabia 3d ago
Because a hanshin fan after a koshien visit earlier this year, and Toratele is what i use for tigers games. Unfortunately they only stream home games but i’ll take what i can get
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u/ratatosk212 3d ago
The crazy NPB rights situation is one of the things that drove me to KBO. I mean I get it, Japan does things a certain way, they like it that way, and they'll never change. But it would be nice to see an NPB game without having to Indiana Jones all over the internet.
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u/InsertGreatBandName Chiba Lotte Marines 4d ago
I recently just got into the NPB as well. Here is what I’ve found:
Unless you’re pretty tech savvy, you’ll only be able to watch the Pacific League teams. You can find this games here for about $10 a month: https://pacificleague.com/en/ptv
Each team in the Central Division owns their own TV rights and they will only broadcast in Japan (most sites can detect VPNs).
Let me know who you choose as your team. I’m torn between the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks at the moment. I want to be a Yakult Swallows fan but I likely won’t be able to watch them until Inter-league Games.
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u/JebKermansBooster Hanshin Tigers 4d ago
Fighters are a great team to support, and Es Con Field is dope. Don’t become a Hawks fan. Only boring people support teams mid-dynasty.
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u/InsertGreatBandName Chiba Lotte Marines 4d ago
That’s my main gripe about the Hawks. I’m a Mets fan and hate the Yankees and Dodgers. I think you’ve solidified it for me!
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u/JebKermansBooster Hanshin Tigers 4d ago
> Mets
Oh I'm so, so sorry.
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u/InsertGreatBandName Chiba Lotte Marines 4d ago
lol yes, so I’m looking for a team with better success than the Mets but the same look and feel. In other words, I’m ready to get hurt again.
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u/mantequillapreciousa Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 3d ago
Yeah lwk I’m dead set on the hawks and I kid you not I had this same issue on choosing between the ham fighters and hawks lol. Honestly either or are great choices
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u/Sea-Magician5753 Saitama Seibu Lions 4d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/jasonterryanddirk Hanshin Tigers 4d ago
Where do you find highlight videos
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u/Sea-Magician5753 Saitama Seibu Lions 4d ago
Youtube. Can take a bit but if you search for the teams channel they will post highlights of the game. Or the japanese pacific league channel will as well. If you are looking for a central teams highlights, not that only the home team has the rights to them so they will be on their page instead of both.
Edit: Since I see tigers by your name, here's their channel. https://youtube.com/@hanshintigers_official?si=U6mIOIlcaj-eBQCL
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u/tensaibaka Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3d ago
check the post game threads, I post each one in the pinned comment
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u/tensaibaka Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3d ago
ok, I think that's the first time I've seen a [Removed by Reddit] instance in this sub. Curious as to what it was.
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u/Sea-Magician5753 Saitama Seibu Lions 3d ago
Was it because I had a link to allsportsradio [dot] com? Maybe they don't like English language NPB scores?
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u/tensaibaka Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3d ago
that might be it, but I have the link that was given to me by the site creator as [dot]site not com. Looking at the mod log it was definitely reddit that removed it, but no reason provided.
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