The NFL kicks off September 4, and because of how streaming rights are playing out, this year there are going to be some very unhappy fans scrambling to find a way to watch their favorite team.
While NFL games used to be available only on cable channels, the league now partners with cable networks and streaming services. That means in order to watch games exclusively available on Peacock, Netflix, and Prime, you'll need access to cable channels and those subscriptions.
If you’re used to getting all the action you can watch via Sunday Ticket, it’s no longer the same, either. YouTubeTV has secured the rights for NFL Sunday Ticket and it’ll cost you a pretty penny.
However, there is a cheaper way to go, according to new research from AllAboutCookies. Instead of ponying up for a certain streaming service that may give you more than you want, you can subscribe just to your favorite team's games this season. Uh, except for you Indianapolis Colts fans.
The football junkies at All About Cookies analyzed each team’s 2024-2025 NFL TV and streaming schedule and calculated the cost of watching a full season of games. Their key findings include:
The Jets have the most games on streaming services, with a total of five games.
Fans of six teams (Jets, Ravens, Steelers, Texans, Chiefs, and Giants) would have to pay over $130 for full-season subscriptions to watch their teams play.
The average amount fans will have to pay in full-season subscription fees is $94.17.
The Colts are the only team this year without any games on streaming services.
The NFL regular season consists of 272 total games, with 41 games exclusively broadcast on streaming platforms. That means 15% of games during the 2024-2025 season require fans to pay to watch them.
To help the second group of fans budget for streaming subscriptions this season, the researchers looked for three things:
- How many streaming-exclusive games each team is playing this season
- Which platforms those games will be on, and
- When in the season those games are scheduled. Using this information, they calculated how much each NFL fan base will pay in streaming subscription costs to catch every game of their squad this year.
Here’s what they found:
Pro advice on what to do
AllAboutCookies' Senior Content Marketer Josh Kobert, explained to ConsumerAffairs how this breaks down for the consumer.
If your favorite team is one that has even three games on streaming services, that's nearly 20% of their schedule. On the other hand, teams that have a lot of "prime" games on the schedule -- like the Ravens vs. the Bills, Jets, and Chiefs -- are likely to be ones that the NFL and their broadcast partners have identified as exciting squads that fans want to see.
"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," Kobert said. "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 contends even at that price point, it's significantly less expensive than the $380-$480 price tag for Sunday Ticket, and it's worth weighing whether or not it's worth those significant savings to risk 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 suggested.
"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 gotta have that NFL Sunday Ticket?
If you are so diehard of a football fan that you’ve gotta have it all, you can at a good price – but not for long.
ConsumerAffairs recently reported that Verizon, T-Mobile, and others are offering cutrate deals of their own, so check those out. YouTubeTV also has an $85-off deal for Sunday Ticket, but it goes away on August 29, so if you want it, don’t waste time.