Basho videos and streams, aka. "Where can I watch sumo?"
Forewarning:
Recently NHK have been really cracking down on streamers and video makers; pretty much every basho at least one of the guys below will have some problems. They tend to go after the biggest and then continue to hound them for a while. This means the links below might not be fully up to date as accounts get deleted and people move services.
- NattoSumo
- Youtube: No longer posting on Youtube
- Telegram: https://t.me/NattoSumo
- Ugetube: https://ugetube.com/@sumochanko
Shows makuuchi, juryo and makushita digest format videos. Videos are backed up in his Discord server (link on the "Discord and Guilded servers" page) and Telegram channel. He's been banned from pretty much every video site at this point, but something is in the works.
- Kintamayama
https://www.youtube.com/@MordDresner
https://rumble.com/user/Kintamayama
Similar digest videos to Natto, but only for makuuchi division. Has been doing videos for a long time so plenty of older basho to work though. A pillar of the sumo community.
Kintamayama's long running channel was taken down in January 2023. He saved all his videos (as did a few other people) but he's not done anything with them yet. He made a new Youtube channel but that was also deleted. He seems to be using Rumble now, the link can be found above.
- So Desu Ne, formerly MbovoSumo
https://www.twitch.tv/so_desu_ne
https://kick.com/dondondondon
The artist formerly known as Mbovo. Formerly on Twitch but now on Kick with seemingly no troubles. One of the only people still doing English NHK commentary streams.
- Jason's All-Sumo Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/JasonsinJapan/
https://www.youtube.com/@sumojason
Uploads 4 or 5 matches from each day to Youtube and gives a little bit of a preamble about each match beforehand. Doesn’t have every match, but he’s been going a while so there’s a lot of videos to watch.
His very long running channel was deleted in January 2023. He's moved to a new channel, "Sumo Jason", which you can find above.
His old channel was saved in time and can be found at:
https://archive.org/details/jasons-all-sumo-channel-archive
and a torrent can be downloaded here: https://1fichier.com/?g1cowxdegfx5q3s65gjz (don't use the torrent on archive.org, it doesn't contain all the files)
- Midnight Sumo
https://www.twitch.tv/midnightsumo/
https://www.youtube.com/@MidnightSumo/featured
Abema live coverage on Youtube. Recently had big troubles with Twitch so is hoping to try Youtube for July 2024.
- Karla Sumoist (Karla Marx)
https://www.twitch.tv/karla_sumoist/
AbemaTV live coverage on Twitch. Shows ALL divisions, starting early in the morning Japan time with Jonokuchi, all the way through to Makuuchi in the evening.
- Leo Dickinson
https://www.twitch.tv/leodickinsonvt Twitch stream
https://www.youtube.com/c/LeoDickinsonSumo Youtube
Abema live coverage on Twitch with recap videos on his Youtube. Starts streaming the lower divisions, then does his own commentary for the top division.
- Sumocuts
- Telegram: https://t.me/SumoCuts
- Odysee: https://odysee.com/@SumoCuts:a (NHK deleted a lot of the videos here sadly)
Mostly a Telegram channel but with a lot of great content beside just daily highlights, like amateur tournaments, charity tournaments and rikishi featuring on other TV shows. Check him out!
- NHK World Grand Sumo Highlights
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/live/ (stream the channel live)
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/ (highlights uploaded here after about a day)
The official NHK highlights of the English commentary NHK World makuuchi broadcast. Highlights of that day’s action (that day in the west at least) air live at 4:30pm UTC, and are then uploaded to the website about a day later. You can watch it on TV if your plan includes it, via the NHK World app, or in your browser, all for free.
- NHK Plus
This seems to be NHK's equivalent of BBC iPlayer (or any other TV network's VOD service). You can watch the full (as in 2 hours long) NHK broadcasts with Japanese OR English commentary for free whenever you like (not sure on retention time though).
So what's the catch? You need to be in Japan and sign up for an account. You can get around this with a VPN (I tested with Proton's free VPN and it worked fine), and just sign up for an account using any Japanese address and a made up name (I used a gyoji's name and the address of the Tokyo Hilton hotel, and there are guides on Reddit on how to sign up if you're stuck). It seems like the account only lasts for so long before it needs you to verify it somehow, but just make another one and start over.
- Davit Tulashvili aka. Sumo Live
https://www.twitch.tv/davittulashvili
NHK live coverage on Youtube. Starts down in the lower divisions (Sandanme/Makushita) up until Makuuchi. Gets hit with copyright strikes constantly, so this link may not work as you're reading this.
- Sunday Morning Sumo Show
https://youtube.com/@sundaymorningsumoshow
Join their Discord (linked on the page) for archives of their shows.
- Miselet
https://vk.com/miselet and https://www.dailymotion.com/holaabema123
AbemaTV/NHK match videos on VK and DailyMotion. You can only watch videos hosted on VK shorter than 25 minutes without making an account, which requires mobile verification. Videos are uploaded to the DailyMotion account, but gradually.
Defunct/Status Unknown Providers:
- Mt. Fuji Sumo (on hiatus)
https://www.youtube.com/c/mtfujisumo/ - currently on hiatus
Highlights of lower division matches, but seems to be defunct now.
- D i (Seems to be unused now)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe5bUVd4IZ6z80to7yvB6ww and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2CljKqwptIBkCZsOn6YHZg
AbemaTV live coverage on Youtube. Seems inactive now, I believe this is the same person running the Miselet channels linked above, so try there.