Last year, watching all the NFL action required football fans to sign up for a host of different services. You needed cable, satellite or a streaming service to get the games on CBS, Fox, NBC, ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network and then subscriptions to Peacock for its exclusive games, ESPN Plus for its exclusive game and Amazon’s Prime Video for Thursday Night Football.
In 2024, things may get even more complicated, as you’ll also need to have Netflix, which will be the home of two Christmas Day games.
With the NFL schedule now officially released, here are the networks and services that’ll be airing games this season:
CBS: Games on Sunday plus Thanksgiving and playoffs (can also be streamed on Paramount Plus)Fox: Games on Sunday, plus Thanksgiving, playoffs and Super BowlNBC: Sunday Night Football, plus the opening game, Thanksgiving and playoffs ESPN: Monday Night Football and two playoff gamesABC: Some exclusive Monday Night Football games in Weeks 3, 4 and 15.
ESPN Plus: Exclusive Monday Night Football game in Week 7 between the Chargers and Cardinals (also can watch some Monday Night Football games).Peacock: Exclusive game in Week 1 between the Eagles and Packers in Brazil (also can watch NBC games).Prime Video: Thursday Night Football, Black Friday game and a Wild Card playoff gameNetflix: Two Christmas Day gamesNFL Plus: NFL Network games
This list also doesn’t include the RedZone Channel or YouTube TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package for watching Sunday games that aren’t broadcast in your local market.
Pricing it out at today’s rates, it seems the cheapest way to get NFL action on your TV will require a bevy of subscriptions:
Peacock Premium: $6 per month (NBC and Peacock games)Paramount Plus Essential: $6 per month (CBS games)
Prime Video: $9 per month (Prime Video games, though this is a subscription to just Prime Video and not the full Amazon Prime)
Netflix Standard with Ads: $7 per month (Christmas Day games)
ESPN Plus: $11 per month (Week 7 game, a couple of Monday Night Football games and ESPN’s playoff games)NFL Plus: $7 per month (NFL Network)
Those who want RedZone can get it through NFL Plus Premium, which is $15 per month.
ESPN and Fox don’t offer direct streaming options just yet. But in a possible twist that could help fans looking to avoid cable, satellite or pricier streaming services, there’s that forthcoming sports streaming service from Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, which would cover the ABC, ESPN, Fox and ESPN Plus games. This option, called Venu Sports, is set to come out later this year, though no launch date or pricing details have been revealed.
Given that YouTube TV runs $73 per month — and includes CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network — if this new sports streaming service is less than $60 per month, it could be cheaper and make more sense to sign up for it and then get subscriptions to Peacock, Paramount Plus and NFL Plus to fill in the football gaps than to just get YouTube TV (particularly if you opt for annual plans for those three streaming services, which offer slight discounts versus their monthly rates). But we’ll have to wait to see there.
Otherwise, getting Fox and ESPN would likely require you to consider something like YouTube TV or Sling TV, the latter of which runs about $60 per month for its Orange and Blue package.
In any event, you’ll assuredly need Prime Video for Thursday Night Football and its Wild Card playoff game and Netflix for Christmas Day. Plus Peacock for Week 1 and ESPN Plus for Week 7.
Adding it all up — and even if you wait till October to add ESPN Plus and December to get Netflix and you opt for YouTube TV for the traditional TV channels — you’ll be looking at a minimum bill of $88 for the first month of football (YouTube TV, Prime Video and Peacock) — and that doesn’t even include RedZone ($11 per month extra for YouTube TV as part of its Sports Plus add-on) or Sunday Ticket.
Dropping Peacock after Week 1 would save you $6 per month, but you’d need to add ESPN Plus at $11 in October and then Netflix and its $7 per month plan for its games in December.
Watching football in the age of streaming isn’t easy. And it also won’t be cheap.
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