Comparing DAZN vs TSN for Watching the NFL

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Are you having a hard time comparing DAZN vs TSN for watching the NFL?

You’re in good company! In fact, every day thousands of NFL aficionados try their best to decide on the best platform to watch the key games and playoffs of the season only to find no real answers.

Watching sports on TV should be an exciting and positive experience, yet finding yourself in this annoying decision-making process can take some enjoyment away. Especially when you’re tying to get the best bang for your buck.

But don’t worry, you came to the right place for answers.

Below, you’ll find a list including the main differences between one platform and the other, so that you can weigh their importance and finally subscribe to the service that makes you the happiest overall.

When comparing DAZN vs TSN for watching the NFL, you should take into account the pricing of each service, the variety of the programming, the availability of the platform, and the features offered. Also, you should consider the broadcast resolution and the possibility of a free trial.

Keep reading to get in the game!

#1 Pricing

Pricing is usually the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they think of hiring a new streaming/broadcasting service. Most platforms out there offer competitive and affordable prices, but still, even if most subscriptions are under $25, wanting the biggest bang for your buck is only natural.

Just like everything else on the market, the membership price for each one of these services is ever-changing, and will likely be raised as the years go by. At the time of writing of this article, DAZN goes for $24.99 per month, or $19.99 per month if you lock in with a 1-year subscription.

A bunch of $100 bills
Sometimes, annual subscription plans are a good way to save money, but you have to do some research beforehand

TSN, on the other hand, goes for $19.99 per month, $12.49 per month on a 4-month subscription, or $16.66 per month on a 1-year subscription.

Both platforms have similar prices, and they both cover the NFL, so if you were to base your decision on their cost alone, you’d be in a very tough spot. But since there are many more factors to consider, I suggest you keep reading to make a more informed decision.

#2 Variety

Variety programming is what makes or breaks a streaming platform, as this not only determines the monthly price but also how attractive it is to subscribe to.

In this regard, both platforms do very well in their respective areas, and they both have their strengths and weaknesses. However, in terms of diversity, and coverage, DAZN takes the lead as it offers a wide range of disciplines and sports that TSN doesn’t.

Two men sparring
If you’re looking for variety, you might have your work cut out for you

While the former has boxing, MMA, cricket, tennis, soccer (including some European leagues), and much more, the latter is more focused on Canadian and American sports, such as Hockey, American Football, Basketball, and Baseball. They also offer coverage of the X-Games, the UFC, and several other sports, but they’re not their main focus.

If you’re only comparing DAZN vs TSN for watching the NFL, either service will do the trick. But if you also want to get the most additional content for the money you’re paying monthly, DAZN might be the better choice.

#3 Region Availability

Region availability is also a key factor that you need to consider when comparing DAZN vs TSN for watching the NFL, as surprisingly, one of these services is not present everywhere.

A collage of a map of the world
DAZN has a much wider area of coverage than TSN

Believe it or not, while you can stream DAZN from over 200 countries, TSN is only available in Canada. I know this alone might be enough to drive most of the market towards DAZN, and it’s honestly surprising that in this day and age, a sports streaming platform is still geo-blocked. However, even if you live outside of Canada, you’re not out of options.

If, for whatever reason you don’t want to subscribe to DAZN to watch the NFL, you can still access the TSN as a non-Canadian with the help of a VPN. These services, which stand for “Virtual Private Networks”, allow you to enjoy international content from anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds.

That being said, as wonderful as they are, VPNs are not perfect. Most streaming services have safety measures against this software, which immediately block users from entering their platform through them. And while there are tricks to avoid this and providers with features like obfuscated servers – sooner or later, you’re bound to encounter technical difficulties caused by this.

In summary, if you like DAZN so far for all intents and purposes, do not hesitate to subscribe to it. And if you prefer TSN and would like to use it with a VPN from outside of Canada, you can also go ahead and do that.

Just bear in mind what I said about the issues you might encounter along the way.

#4 Features

Features, along with program variety, are in my opinion what justifies the price of a streaming platform’s monthly/yearly subscription.

In this day and age, it’s hard to have a streaming platform not offer a wide range of them to satisfy even their most demanding subscribers. However, some features are useful, and others might not be that much so, which is why evaluating them before paying is essential.

A man using a remote controller
Ideally, you’d only pay for features you need, but if you’re already buying the whole package, you might as well spend your money on something that meets your areas of interest

Up until a couple of years ago, out of the 2 platforms, DAZN was the only one that offered streaming and content playing from smartphones and other mobile devices, which gave them the upper hand. However, these days TSN offers that as well, so you could say the playing field has been leveled in that regard.

That being said, there are other areas where TSN needs to do some catching up, such as past-event availability. While DAZN offers both live-streaming events and a complete library of games and events that can be rewatched on demand, TSN is much more focused on live matches.

This is not to say that they’re not planning to eventually offer a similar library, but as of today, it doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

So, if you’re interested not only in live NFL events but also in being able to watch other games you might have missed due to work or other life responsibilities, DAZN should definitely be your go-to.

#5 Broadcast Resolution

Broadcast resolution for both of these platforms can be a little tricky to cover, as they’re pretty hush-hush when it comes to it.

Also, it’s important to remember that, while a lot of the programming available on both services can be streamed in 4K, live events are a completely different matter. And since you’re looking for the best NFL broadcasting service out there, I bet you’re also interested in living the playoffs as they happen.

The word “PLAY” in low resolution surrounded by pixels
Modern streaming resolutions are very crisp, but live-streaming hasn’t caught up to these standards yet

While TSN hasn’t given an actual resolution for live-streaming, they’ve said that they have an adaptive resolution feature in place for their mobile device app. This allows the platform to constantly adjust quality settings based on the user’s available network speed and coverage. DAZN also offers this feature, but you might have to change your device settings to enable it.

Now, you might be wondering why live-streaming in 4K is not a thing, and the answer is very simple – network speeds and bandwidth.

As you may know, the higher a picture’s resolution is, the more data it packs, as it has several more pixels. To put this into perspective, HD resolution (1280×720p) has a pixel count of 921,600, whereas 4K Ultra HD (3840 × 2160p), has a pixel count of 8,294,400, which is exactly 9 times more. This means that Ultra HD is much harder to broadcast live to thousands of users watching a game.

If either streaming platform chose to go this route, you’d likely experience delays, visual artifacts, or even complete signal loss, causing you to miss the game. This is why most live-streaming services decide to broadcast their events in either HD or Full HD resolution instead.

#6 Free Trial

Last, but not least, let’s talk about the possibility of trying before buying (or subscribing in this case). Being able to learn your way around a streaming platform in order to know whether it fits your needs and feels comfortable is essential. This is why most services out there have a free-trial period.

However, this is neither law nor a general rule, and you’re always likely to encounter a platform that does not allow you to do this.

Bummer, I know.

Several free trial icons
Being able to try a platform you like before paying for it is a nice option that you should always take advantage of

Sadly, in this comparison of DAZN vs TSN for watching the NFL, the latter falls short, as it does not offer a free-trial period, which might be enough to discourage most people from subscribing.

While TSN has not explained why they refuse to offer this to their potential customers, I assume it’s due to their business model not being able to fit this into their daily operations. Also, since this service is part of a larger Canadian TV network, there are possibly additional regulations for free trials that need to be hashed out.

Whatever the case may be, if you’re trying to gauge how comfortable you are with a streaming service prior to paying up, you’ll have to go with DAZN and their trial period.

Conclusion

That about covers it!

When you’re comparing DAZN vs TSN to determine which one is better for watching the NFL, you might find yourself in a bit of a pickle, as they both have great elements in their favor.

I hope this piece has helped you better understand the main differences between both platforms, so you can make an informed decision and subscribe to a platform that makes you happy. Remember, you can always watch TSN content with a VPN, even if you’re outside of Canada, you’ll just have to jump through a couple of hoops in the process.

Thank you so much for sticking with me all the way to the end. If this article piqued your interest and answered your most burning questions, you’ll be glad you know that there’s new content to learn from every week. While we put the finishing touches to our latest work, please check out our other resources available below to become a Tech Detective yourself!

On the site, we have all sorts of solutions for daily Tech issues, such as audio out of sync on DAZN, or constant aspect ratio technical difficulties on Netflix.

I wish you all the best!

— Gerry.