No professional support has been more savvy and enthusiastic about offering new ways to present football games to fans. There are more options than ever for watching–and streaming–NFL games in 2024. Our in-depth guide will show you all the ways you can watch every game of the season without needing to pay for an expensive cable or satellite TV subscription.
Unlike the NBA, NHL, or MLB, the NFL plays a simple 17-game schedule, with each team playing one game a week. That lends itself to predictable TV programming. The league splits the Sunday afternoon telecasts by conference: generally, AFC games air on CBS, and Fox televises the NFC games.
NBC hosts the popular Sunday Night Football broadcast, which generally kicks off each week at 8:15 p.m. ET. All you’ll need is an over-the-air TV antenna and reasonable proximity to a broadcast tower. You’ll find our top antenna picks here.
Amazon Prime Video is the home of Thursday Night Football (TNF). That means that along with Monday Night Football on ESPN, cord-cutters will only be able to see two of the NFL’s most iconic shows via one of the streaming options discussed below. You’ll also need a streaming package to catch the five international games to be played in October and November (in Sao Paulo, London, and Munich respectively), which will air on the NFL Network and NBCUniversal’s premium video streaming service, Peacock.
And Netflix enters the fray this year, becoming the exclusive host of a Christmas Day double-header.
If this abundance of TV offerings has your head swimming like you just took a bone-crushing hit from Lawrence Taylor, check out 506Sports.com or Sports Media Watch. Each site lists which game is on which channel for each week of the season. Bookmark them for easy access.
Amazon Prime Video will stream all Thursday Night Football games for the 2023 NFL season.
Streaming services offering NFL games
Even if you don’t have a cable subscription or a TV antenna, you still have plenty of options for catching all the pro pigskin action. Streaming options continue to expand each season, offering plenty of ways to tailor your viewing. But while we highlight what each service offers, the availability of individual channels’ live content can vary by market. It pays to check via each service’s website to see what it offers in your area before subscribing. You’ll find TechHive’s picks of the best streaming services at the preceding link.
As I’ve already mentioned, Amazon hosts Thursday Night Football, so you’ll need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to watch those matches. While only the hardest of hardcore football fans will sign up solely for NFL games, membership does offer lots of other benefits, starting with free expedited shipping on Amazon purchases; Amazon music, movies, and TV shows; video games; and a Grubhub+ subscription. Subscriptions cost $15 per month or $139 per year.
DirectTVStream offers CBS, NBC, Fox, and ESPN in its $79.99-per-month Entertainment package. New subscriptions come with a $30 discount each month for first 3 months, before reverting to whatever the current monthly price is.
Sling TV splits ESPN and Fox into separate channel bundles. You’ll need the Sling Orange and the Sling Blue package to get both.
Fubo will give you CBS, FOX, and NBC for all Sunday games, as well as ESPN for Monday Night Football and the NFL Network as part of its PRO package, which costs $74.99 per month. For an additional $10.99 per month, you can also get NFL RedZone via the service’s Sports Plus add-on.
Hosted by Scott Hanson and existing only for about a seven-hour window each Sunday, RedZone airs nothing but the day’s highlights (mostly touchdowns, as the name suggests) at a frenetic pace that perfectly evokes the adrenaline rush of a game-winning drive. Here’s an easy guide to signing up for NFL RedZone.
Both Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV include CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, and NFL Network in their subscriptions, for $76.99 and $72.99 per month respectively. YouTube TV is offering the first four months for $52.99 per month right now. YouTube TV also offers NFL RedZone as part of its Sports Plus add-on for an additional $10.99 a month. Additionally, YouTube has the rights to offer NFL Sunday Ticket, which will let you stream all Sunday out-of-market NFL games.
Verizon subscribers–new and existing–can claim an offer for a free season of NFL Sunday Ticket if they’re willing to jump through some hoops. We have a detailed story on Verizon’s free NFL Sunday Ticket offer at the preceding link.
Netflix, which created the popular Quarterback documentary, has deepened its ties with the NFL through a three-year deal to host the league’s Christmas package. This year, that includes the Kansas City Chiefs at Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans. Netflix offers three paid plans: Standard with ads ($6.99 a month), Standard ($15.49 a month), and Premium ($22.99 month), with perks such as additional device support, the ability to add members, and spatial audio tacked on as you move up the tiers.
Paramount+ streams CBS’s NFL telecasts to subscribers of its $5.99-per-month Essential plan. We have another story that provides even more details about watching NFL games on Paramount+.
Peacock will exclusively carry the September 6 primetime matchup between the the Greenbay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles. It will also stream all NBC Sunday Night Football games, including the playoffs, and the Football Night in America studio show. A Peacock Premium plan costs $7.99 a month; a Premium Plus Plan, $13.99 per month, removes ads and enables you to download and watch select titles offline.
Sling TV’s Orange and Blue package gets you NBC, Fox, ESPN, and the NFL Network for $60 a month. Currently, the company is offering the first month for half off.
What’s included with an NFL+ subscription?
NFL+ is the NFL’s streaming service, which replaced its popular subscription package, NFL Game Pass. A $6.99-per-month ($49.99 per season) NFL+ subscription allows you to watch local and primetime games live on your mobile devices. It also includes access to live out-of-market preseason games, live game audio, and the NFL Network.
If you level up to an NFL+ Premium plan, which costs $14.99 per month ($99.99 per season), you’ll get everything in the standard NFL+ plan plus NFL Red Zone and the ability to replay every regular-season game after its conclusion in either full or condensed versions.
The NFL+ Premium plan also gives you access to NFL Pro. Targeting the league’s most rabid fans, the new offering allows subscribers to dive into the games’ minutiae via the ability to search through All-22 coaches film using Next Gen Stats.
It’s worth noting that you don’t need to purchase a separate subscription to get on-the-go access to live games, as that’s offered with many of the services listed above.
NFL+ replaces the league’s NFL Game Pass subscription streaming service. With it, you can stream out-of-market pre-season games live on any device. You can watch live regular-season games on your smartphone or tablet.
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What’s next for NFL streaming?
Super Bowl LVIII was the most watched telecast in history, with 123.4 million average viewers across all platforms tuning in for the big game. That shows that there is an audience willing to embrace alternatives to cable sports broadcasts. And if the NFL continues to make a serious commitment to live streaming, perhaps it will set a new bar for live sports coverage in the 21st century, just as it did in the 20th.
Looking for even more ways to watch the game this season? Don’t miss our guide to streaming NFL RedZone and our roundup of second-screen apps.
