September 27, 2024/midnight
Erie, Pa.– As a big football fan, I always look forward to watching my favorite team, the Green Bay Packers, play each week. I also love watching every other NFL game because I enjoy seeing the top players and keeping up with the rest of the league.
Many people, like me, tune in every Thursday, Sunday, and Monday night to watch the primetime matchups. Just a few years ago, most people were able to watch every national game on cable.
Now these days, you need to subscribe for multiple streaming services just to watch one or two games. Even NFL Sunday Ticket holders, who have access to nearly every game for over $400, cannot watch these games without a subscription.
Starting in 2022 when their contract with Fox ended, the NFL began streaming Thursday Night Football exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2023, NBC announced that one regular season game-per-season would air exclusively on Peacock. This also included a second game during the NFL Playoffs. This was the first time an NFL playoff game was exclusive to a streaming service.
This year, the NFL announced that their Christmas Day games would be streamed exclusively on Netflix. There will be a Monday Night Football game aired exclusively on ESPN+ as well. Also, Amazon Prime Video will air a playoff game instead of Peacock in January 2025.
To watch every single NFL game this season, a person would have to purchase NFL Sunday Ticket, and subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, ESPN+ and Peacock. It is cheaper to attend every Carolina Panthers home game this season than to watch at their house.
It is ridiculous that someone would have to subscribe to all these streaming services mostly to watch a game or two. And unfortunately, there could be more on the way. I wish the NFL would stop this nonsense and allow national televised games to not be limited to a streaming service.
The main reason for this: money. No matter how much the fans complain it won’t matter. Amazon is paying the NFL $1B to air Thursday Night Football and paid over $100k for the playoff game.
In total the NFL makes over 10 billion a year to air its football games. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be surprised if even the Super Bowl is exclusive to a streaming service within the next decade. It’s hard to imagine streaming services like HBO Max, Paramount+, and Apple TV not getting involved sooner than later.
Fans have grown frustrated over the expensive price of Sunday Ticket and adding more costs won’t help either. A solution that fans have requested for years is something that the NFL is avoiding? Single-team packages.
Just like how the MLB, NBA, and NHL offer packages for every game of one team’s season, the NFL won’t do the same. Instead of charging consumers just a small cost for 17-regular season games, the league forces fans to pay for every game regardless of if they want to watch them or not.
With many household needs being so expensive these days, it’s hard enough to stay on budget. Unfortunately, the NFL is making it harder to enjoy watching weekly games. Football is my favorite sport, and I love watching as many games as I can. But there could be a future where it’s too expensive.
