The NFL season begins on September 4, and due to the current state of streaming rights, some very disgruntled fans will be trying to find a way to watch their beloved team this year.
While NFL games used to be exclusively available on cable channels, the league now collaborates with cable networks and streaming platforms. That is, in order to watch games that are only accessible on Peacock, Netflix, and Prime, you will need cable channels and those subscriptions.
If you’re used to catching all of the action on Sunday Ticket, things have changed. YouTubeTV has won the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which will cost you a hefty sum. To receive Sunday Ticket, you must first have a YouTubeTV subscription, which will cost you approximately $150 per month.
However, new study from AllAboutCookies suggests a less expensive option. Instead of paying for a streaming service that may offer more than you want, you can subscribe only to your favorite team’s games this season. Except for you, Indianapolis Colts supporters.
The football fans at All About Cookies examined each team’s 2024-2025 NFL TV and streaming schedules and calculated the cost of viewing a complete season of games. Their main findings include:
The Jets have the most games via streaming sites, with five.
Fans of six teams (Jets, Ravens, Steelers, Texans, Chiefs, and Giants) would have to spend more than $130 for full-season subscriptions to watch their teams compete.
Fans will spend an average of $94.17 in full-season subscription costs.
This year, the Colts are the only team that does not have any games available for streaming.
The NFL regular season consists of 272 games, 41 of which are televised exclusively on streaming platforms. This means that 15% of games in the 2024-2025 season will cost supporters money to watch.
To assist the second set of fans in budgeting for streaming subscriptions this season, researchers looked for three things:
How many streaming-exclusive games does each team play this season?
Games will be available on specific platforms and at specific times during the season. Using this data, they determined how much each NFL fan base will pay in streaming subscription fees to watch every game of their team this season.
Here is what they found:
Josh Kobert, Senior Content Marketer at AllAboutCookies, provided ConsumerAffairs with expert advise on how to navigate this situation.
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If your favorite club has even three games available on streaming services, that is roughly 20% of their calendar. Teams with a lot of “prime” games on the schedule, such as the Ravens vs. the Bills, Jets, and Chiefs, are more likely to be classified by the NFL and their broadcast partners as intriguing squads that fans want to watch.
“That also means the chances that those same teams wind up on the FOX and CBS ‘Game of the Week’ broadcasts is higher, which could result in even more free over-the-air national broadcasts,” according to Kobert. “If that applies to your favorite team, you’re probably looking at being able to watch a significant chunk of your squad’s games for just the cost of streaming subscriptions, which top out at around $130 based on our calculations.”
Kobert maintains that even at that price point, it is much less expensive than Sunday Ticket’s $380-$480 price tag, and it is worth considering whether the significant savings outweigh the risk of missing a few games.
“Of course, if you live in your favorite team’s target market and don’t care much about other games, focusing on just streaming and local broadcasts is a no-brainer,” he told me.
“On the other hand, if you live far away from your favorite team’s home market and/or your team isn’t playing many games on streaming platforms, Sunday Ticket may very well be worth the price to guarantee access to your favorite NFL team’s games.”
Still need that NFL Sunday Ticket?
If you are such a fanatical football fan that you must have everything, you can do it at a low cost – but not for long.
ConsumerAffairs just stated that Verizon, T-Mobile, and other carriers are also providing low-cost plans, so check them out. YouTubeTV also has a $85-off Sunday Ticket bargain, but it expires on August 29, so don’t wait too long.
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