Watch Bundesliga 2024 for free in the US: Trials, discounts, prices, plans for the German football league on ESPN+, Fubo

German football culture is unique from both a European and global perspective.

Although Bayern Munich is by far the biggest and most popular German club, the country is home to a number of teams with large fan bases, incredible atmospheres in the stadiums and a handful of unique ownership rules that give clubs a stronger connection to their local communities than anywhere else.

The league will be hoping to build on a thrilling campaign last season, in which Bayer Leverkusen won a historic first league title without losing a single game. Once jokingly nicknamed “Neverkusen” for constantly finishing second, the club shed that derisive nickname when Xabi Alonso led the club to domestic triumph.

Bundesliga fans in the United States will have unique access to every single game of the German top soccer league in the 2024/25 season and will be able to watch the games from start to finish, while teams from across the Euro 2024 host country hope to become the next club to surprise the soccer world.

How to watch the Bundesliga 2024/25 in the USA: TV channel, live stream

• TV channels: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes
• Streaming: ESPN+, Fubo

Disney owns the exclusive rights to all Bundesliga and DFB Pokal games in the USA.

The only way to watch all games of the 2024/25 season is through the streaming service ESPN+, which offers access to all games.

Some Bundesliga games will also be broadcast on television. Select games may be available on Disney-owned channels such as ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, all of which are accessible on Fubo.

How to watch the Bundesliga for free in the 2024/25 season

The only way to watch Bundesliga games for free in the 2024/25 season is to sign up for the Free trial from Fubo to access games selected for televised broadcast.

Starting with the 2024/25 season, ESPN+ will no longer offer a free trial subscription to the general public.

However, some mobile and internet providers offer special deals to get ESPN+ for free. Spectrum is partnering with ESPN+ to offer the streaming service for free to Select Plus customers.

How much does it cost to watch La Liga on ESPN+?

A subscription to ESPN+ is the only way to watch all the games of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season. While ESPN does show some games on TV, these are rare, as La Liga is often shown on TV on Spanish-language channels and ESPN covers many other sports on its English-language platforms.

Since the start of the season, a subscription to ESPN+ alone costs $10.99 per month. There is also an annual option for $109.99, which works out to about $9.17 per month, a savings of just under $2 per month, or about 17 percent.

However, you can bundle ESPN+ in a package with two other Disney streaming services, Hulu and Disney+. The basic version costs $14.99 per month, while the premium version with no ads costs $24.99 per month and gives the user access to all three services. There is no annual option for the Disney package.

Student discount for the Bundesliga on ESPN+

Currently, Disney does not offer a student discount for a subscription to just ESPN+ or the Disney bundle.

There is a student discount just for Hulu, but at the time of this writing it has not been extended to other Disney offerings.

How to watch the Bundesliga on other cable or streaming services

ESPN+ remains the only way to watch all matches of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season, but games scheduled for television broadcast on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPN Deportes can be accessed via a number of platforms.

All cable and streaming services that offer ESPN channels also provide access to all streaming broadcasts of the same channel on WatchESPN.

Fubo

Fubo offers a free two-week trial This gives the viewer free access to all channels of the streaming service for 14 days.

The basic Fubo Pro package includes 183 channels for $79.99 per month, including many of ESPN's core English-language channels.

Upgrading to Fubo Elite will add many of ESPN's English-language subsidiary channels, such as ESPNU and ESPN News. While these channels are not often used for European soccer coverage, occasionally games may be temporarily moved to these channels to work around unforeseen events, such as overtime of previous live coverage or other occurrences.

Sling TV

* The price shown is the regular price for each plan. All Sling plans are half price for the first month. The discounted price is not shown.

Sling splits its channels into two base packages plus a Sling Latino add-on, meaning fans can't get all the necessary channels in one deal. Sling Latino can only be bundled with Orange or Blue, not both, and therefore it is impossible to get it all together.

However, the split offered by Sling allows fans to have cheaper options if only some of the channels are desired.

YouTube TV

The basic YouTube TV package includes all ESPN channels except ESPN Deportes, which requires an additional Spanish Plus add-on.

One advantage of YouTube TV is that the basic package includes other channels with extensive football coverage, including USA Network (Premier League), CBS Sports (Serie A, Champions League), beIN Sports (Ligue 1) and Fox Sports (international football).

DirecTV

If Bundesliga fans prefer traditional cable TV, DirecTV with satellite is a less flexible option. Customers must commit to a yearly contract, but have the convenience of a single home for all channels.

All traditional ESPN channels are included in DirecTV's basic entertainment plan, with the exception of ESPN Deportes, which is included in the Spanish-language add-on.

Facts & figures about the Bundesliga

Who are the biggest Bundesliga clubs?

Bayern Munich have completely dominated the modern era of German football, but the league was once one of the most competitive top-flight European leagues on the continent. Of the 33 league titles won by Bayern, by far the most of any German club, 17 have been won since the 2000/01 season, and all but one since 1970.

Before the turn of the millennium, Bayern was just one of many German clubs fighting for the championship title. 16 German clubs have won multiple championship titles in their history, more than any other of the five major European leagues.

How many games are played in a Bundesliga season?

A traditional Bundesliga season is played in a round-robin format, but differs from other leagues in a number of ways. The most notable is that there are only 18 teams in the German top division instead of the usual 20. Secondly, the relegation structure provides for a playoff for the 16th team against the last qualifier from the lower league.

If the 18 clubs play each other in a home and away match, each team will play 34 games per season. Multiplying that by all 18 clubs and dividing by two to account for double entries from both clubs gives 289 games in total per season.