This One-Day Pass Is the Best Way to Watch a Major Sporting Event Without Cable.
If you, like most people in 2026, don’t have cable TV and only miss it occasionally—mostly when there’s a live sporting event on and you need to catch it—what if you could sign up for cable for one day and then cancel it? That’s the idea behind Sling’s “Day Pass.” For $5, you get one day of access to ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and a few other channels. This bundle covers quite a few sporting events broadcast nationwide.
Unfortunately, like so much about watching live TV in the streaming era, it’s more complicated than you’d like. A one-day pass is only available for Sling Orange, which only includes a portion of Sling’s overall offering. Furthermore, Sling has always been a bit confusing—a trait shared by legacy cable companies that still exist. But if you need one of the channels offered by Sling Orange, it’s theoretically a good deal.
Since it’s February, you might be wondering if you can use a one-day pass to watch the Super Bowl without cable . Unfortunately, the answer is no: this year’s game will be broadcast on NBC, and while Sling offers NBC in some areas , local channels aren’t included in the Sling Orange package. The same goes for the Winter Olympics, which will be broadcast on NBC and USA; you’ll have to make a different plan to watch the Winter Games .
But March Madness is coming, and many of those games will be available with a one-day pass, so keep that service in mind if you want to watch any specific sporting event, especially if you notice it’s on ESPN, TBS, or TNT.
Is it easier to install an ad blocker and search the internet for a pirated version than to figure out how to watch something legally? Yes. It is. But a one-day Sling subscription can protect you from this temptation (not to mention accidentally downloading malware) for just $5 .