Do you have all the services required to watch the NFL this season? If not, here is a breakdown of the platforms you need and what they will cost.
Thursday night’s Rams-49ers matchup in Australia will air exclusively on Netflix. The streaming service will carry five matchups this season, including games on Thanksgiving Eve, Christmas Day and in Week 18.
Because of Netflix’s schedule, NFL fans will need subscriptions in September, November, December and January — four of the season’s five months. Netflix will not carry a game in October.
A monthly Netflix subscription costs between $8.99 and $26.99, depending on the plan.
Fans will again need Amazon Prime for five months, from Week 2 through the Wild Card Round, at $14.99 per month.
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Those with standard cable or satellite packages will continue to receive weekly games on Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN/ABC. However, depending on the other content they consume, fans may have more economical alternatives.
YouTube now offers a $64.99-per-month Sports Plan that includes local channels, ESPN, TNT, TBS, FS1, Big Ten Network, SEC Network and more. New users can subscribe for $49.99 per month during their first six months.
Fans can also subscribe to each service individually.
They can bundle Fox One and ESPN Unlimited for $39.99 per month, providing access to games on Fox, ESPN and ABC. Paramount+ costs an additional $8.99 per month for CBS games, while Peacock costs $12.99 per month for the games on NBC.
That option costs roughly the same as the YouTube TV Sports Plan. Both routes would still require separate Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions.
In total, fans are looking at spending at least $450 to $500 to watch all the nationally televised games this season.
Fans who seek games that are not nationally televised in their area will need NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube. The package costs $336 for the year, or $240 for new subscribers.
That is the context behind the memes suggesting it will cost roughly $800 to watch the NFL this season.
Not ideal.
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NFL teams have already priced some working-class families out of attending games through surging ticket prices. Now, streaming those same games from home has become prohibitively expensive.
While rising costs have not yet diminished the NFL’s popularity, that does not mean they will not eventually.
The NFL product is hardly operating at peak efficiency. The addition of more windows and days of the week, including Wednesday and Friday games, has further diluted the product.
It has also contributed to shorter rest periods, sloppy play, and, potentially, more injuries.
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In theory, charging consumers more for an increasingly inferior product is not a sound strategy. Perhaps the NFL is sufficiently entrenched to withstand the consequences.
Or perhaps fans will eventually pursue a cheaper, more convenient form of entertainment.
With its prices and proliferation of streaming requirements, the NFL is giving them ample reason to consider it.
