This One-Day Pass Is the Best Way to Catch a Major Sporting Event Without Cable
It won't work for the Super Bowl, but it will work for March Madness.
ShanonG
Justin Pot Editorial Author
Experience
Justin Pot is a freelance journalist who helps people get more out of technology.
If you've ever searched online for a specific tech problem you've read Justin's work, because he's been doing it for a long time. Since 2009, he has written tutorials and essays about technology for outlets including WIRED, The Atlantic, PCMag, Popular Science, How-to Geek, and The Wall Street Journal. For Lifehacker, he mostly writes about software, with a particular focus on open source programs and indie apps.
Justin has a bachelor's degree in Communications and International Relations. He once worked in marketing for a software company and hated it, but it did teach him a lot about why software tends to get worse over time in large companies. He lives in Oregon with his cat (and his wife). He enjoys brewing beer, exploring nature, and spending time with friends. You can follow Justin on Mastodon and Bluesky, or sign up for his newsletter, Connectivity.
February 5, 2026
Add as a preferred source on GoogleWe may earn a commission from links on this page.
Credit: Sling
Table of Contents
If you're like most people in 2026, you don't have cable and only miss it occasionally—mostly when there's a specific live sporting event taking place and you need a way to catch it. What if you could get cable for a single day, then ditch it? That's the basic idea behind Sling's 1 Day Pass. For $5, you can get a day's access to ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and a few more channels besides. That array will cover quite a few nationally broadcast sporting events.
Unfortunately, like most everything related to watching live television in the age of streaming, this is more complicated than I'd like. A 1 Day Pass is only available for Sling Orange, which includes just a subset of Sling's overall offers. On top of that, Sling has always been a little bit confusing—an attribute it shares with the legacy cable companies still standing. But if you need one of the channels offered on Sling Orange, it's theoretically a good deal.
Credit: Sling
Given it's February, and you might be wondering whether you can use a 1 Day Pass to watch the Super Bowl without cable. Sadly, the answer is no: The big game is on NBC this year, and while Sling does offer NBC in a few markets, local channels aren't covered by Sling Orange The same goes for the winter Olympics, which will air on NBC and USA; you'll have to make a different plan to watch the Winter Games.
But March Madness is coming up too, and quite a few of those games are going to be available via a 1 Day Pass, so keep this service in mind if there's a single sporting event you want to watch, especially if you notice it's on ESPN, TBS, or TNT.
What do you think so far?
Now, could one argue that it's easier to install an ad blocker and search the internet for a pirated stream than it is to figure out how to legally watch something? Yes. Yes one could. But a Sling 1 Day Pass can save you from that temptation (not to mention accidentally downloading malware) for just $5.
Ready to do everything better? Get daily tips, tricks, and tech guides from our expert team.
