You can pay as little as $55 or as much as $800, depending on which games you want to watch and how you want to watch them.
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Dan Negley from Astoria, Oregon, asks:
I pay absolutely hideous prices for my cable/internet. About $280/month. I have heard about streaming services to bypass the big cable bill, but when you add three streaming services it seems like you end up with the similar pricing and less NFL football. What is the best way to watch TV these days for a guy that watches NFL and streams a few shows or movies?
Watching NFL games has become increasingly complicated: You’ll need CBS and Fox for most Sunday games. At least for the ones playing near you. For those that aren’t? You’ll need YouTube’s Sunday Ticket.
You can also rely on either ESPN or ABC for Monday games. Except for the Monday matches that are only available on ESPN.
Then you’ll need Amazon for Thursday games. You also have to take into account holiday games, which will be available through Amazon and Netflix, and international games, which are mostly available through the NFL Network.
“It doesn’t matter how you get your TV — cable, satellite, or streaming —the NFL is kind of making a chess game out of it,” said Luke Bouma,the owner of Cord Cutters News,which offers tips on how to watch television without cable.
The NFL’s decision to sell media rights to different companies has made the space increasingly fragmented. In 2021, Amazon signed a deal to be the exclusive carrier for Thursday night games for $1 billion a year.In 2024, Netflix confirmed it purchased the rights <a href="https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/nfl-netflix-christmas-deal-23b15784?mod=article_inline” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>to show some of the league’s Christmas games(which each game reportedly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/netflix-nfl-christmas-games-2024-broadcast-deb9fe0b” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>valued at $75 million). This year, Netflix is set to offer two Christmas games, while Fox will air one.
“It’s becoming very confusing for the average American to watch it,” Bouma said. “You’ve got to jump from streaming service to streaming service right in the middle of the day to be able to watch the next football game on a holiday.”
But Bouma said he understands the NFL’s strategy. “They’re a business, and people are driving dump trucks of money up to their front door.
While watching football has gotten more complicated, there are some silver linings.
“If you’re a football fan and you just want football all day, every day, there has never been more football on TV,” Bouma said. From late September or early October through Thanksgiving, there’ll be a live college or pro football game every night of the week, he said.
Where and when to watch NFL for the 2026-27 season
You can watch most Sunday afternoon games through CBS and Fox, which will generally broadcast in-market matches (meaning matches that are taking place closest to where you live). But if you want full access for out-of-market Sunday games, or games where teams play in other regions of the country, you’ll need to buy YouTube’s Sunday Ticket which can set you back hundreds of dollars.
You can’t pick and choose which games you want to watch through Sunday Ticket. If you want to watch your favorite team, but they don’t play where you live, then you have to get the whole package, said Jared Newman, the creator of Cord Cutter Weekly,a newsletter that gives people tips on how to save money on streaming services.
The good news is you may already have access to some NFL games if you’ve purchased a bundled plan from a streaming service. For example, Hulu+ Live TV contains access to ESPN Unlimited, one of the streamers that airs Monday night games. Some NFL games will air through Amazon’s Prime Video, so if you have a Prime membership, which many Americans do, you should be covered.
Here’s a general overview of the services you would need to stream most games, assuming you choose the cheapest tier.
There are some exceptions to the above. The first game of the regular season will be broadcast by NBC on a Wednesday. Using NFL+, you can watch games that are normally available through networks and services like ESPN, Prime Video and Netflix, but those will only be available on your mobile device or tablet. Thursday Night Football games are also available live on Twitch and on over-the-air TV stations in the home markets of the two teams that are competing, an Amazon representative told Marketplace.
Some places other than the NFL Network will also broadcast international games. Netflix will have an international game on Sept. 10. CBS will air an international game on Sept. 27. Fox will air an international game on Nov. 15. CBS and Fox will also air games on Saturdays later in the season, like on Dec. 19. There are also still games in Week 17 and Week 18 that have yet to be scheduled, according to the NFL website.
To save money, your best bet is still the TV antenna when it comes to those in-market Sunday games on CBS and Fox. “The cheapest way is the oldest way,” Bouma said.
You can significantly lower your costs depending on what you’re willing to forgo. A TV antennae and NFL+ might only set you back $55 for the whole season, and should cover many games. But if you want access to everything on streaming, that can cost more than $800.
Here are some examples of what you might end up paying for the 2026-27 season, depending on which streaming services you choose. These amounts are based on cheapest streaming tiers available and the NFL’s schedule, which is subject to change and still has some unscheduled matches.
How to watch everything, with some restrictions: $174 to $344
A basic TV antennae, which might cost $20, should cover most of the in-market games on Sundays and the Super Bowl, which will air on both ABC and ESPN.
If you want access to live out-of-market Sunday games, there’s no way out of YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket, which costs $240 for new subscribers and $378 for returning subscribers. You generally can’t opt out on a monthly basis, so if you want Sunday Ticket, you’re going to have to pay for the full season. But partway through the last season, YouTube did offer a discounted deal to watch the remaining games
The NFL Network and its streaming service NFL+ will have most of the international games, along with the matches that other networks and companies have the rights to, like Monday games that air on ESPN, Thursday games from Prime Video, and even the holiday games But the games that other companies have the rights to can only be streamed through NFL+ on your phone or tablet.
The cheapest NFL+ plan starts at $7 a month, and you’ll need access to it for five months, from September to January. That’ll set you back $35. So in total, the price tag will be $295 if you’re a new user and $433 if you’re a returning user.
But if you’re a student, YouTube’s Sunday Ticket costs $119. That will lower your total costs to $174.
If you want to watch games on a TV screen: $336 to $604
If you actually want to watch these games on a TV, you’ll need a Prime Video subscription to watch Thursday games and the NFL’s Black Friday matchup.
You’ll also need a Netflix subscription to watch Christmas games, a Thanksgiving Eve game, and a special international game in September.
To watch most international games, you will still need an NFL+ subscription or access to the NFL Network. Those NFL Network games are slated to air in October and November.
To watch out-of-market games, you’ll also still need YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket. And while some games are simultaneously broadcast on ESPN and ABC, some are only available on ESPN, whose subscription service ESPN Unlimited costs $30 a month. There’s at least one game each month, between October and January, that’ll only air on ESPN.
So if you paid for a $20 TV antenna, along with Prime Video, Netflix, ESPN Unlimited and NFL+ only during the months you needed them, that would cost you $226. Adding in Sunday Ticket will up the cost between $119 and $378 for a total that ranges between $345 and $604.
If you wanted to stream everything: $555-$814
Your price tag would be $436 if you purchased subscriptions for Paramount+, Fox One, Peacock Premium, ESPN Unlimited, Netflix, Prime Video and NFL+for the months you needed them up until January. Sunday Ticket costs between $119 and $378. To watch the Super Bowl, let’s assume you used a free trial from a provider that offers live TV. That brings your total to between $555 and $814.
Depending on where you live, you might be able to watch most in-market Sunday games on just one network.
“In some cities, most of the games are just on Fox, and so you don’t necessarily need CBS or vice versa,” Newman said. “I know here in Cincinnati, occasionally you’ll get a Bengals game on Fox, but most of them are on CBS. So potentially you could just sign up for Paramount Plus and get most of the Sunday games.”
And for those of you who want to watch out-of-market Sunday games, but will have to pay more for Sunday Ticket because you’re a returning user, be on the lookout for any deals. “If you’ve had it before, it may be worth turning off auto renew and seeing if they offer you some kind of retention offer because they’ve done that in the past,” Newman said.
YouTube also offereda discounted Sunday Ticket deal last November after the season already began.
You might be able to bundle some streaming services. There’s a package for ESPN Unlimited and Fox One for $40 amonth, which is $10 cheaper than buying both of them separately, said Jared Newman of Cord Cutter Weekly.
Some services and memberships also offer free streaming subscriptions, Bouma said.
For example, the Walmart+ membershipallows you to get a free subscription for either Paramount+ or Peacock, and T-Mobileoffers a free Netflix subscription, Bouma said.
Other phone providers can help cut your bill, like Verizon, which offers discounted deals on streaming services, Bouma added.
And because some services will only stream a couple of games, you can sign up for those months and then cancel, Bouma said. Many American consumers are used to the cable model, which would lock you into one-year contracts, Bouma said.
“So I would encourage people to take advantage of the free trials, take advantage of the lack of contracts. Don’t be afraid to try something and say this isn’t for me and cancel it,” Bouma said.
If you’re looking for a live TV package, there are options from DIRECTV, Youtube TV and Hulu + Live TV, which provide free trials.
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