The NFL announced this week that they were partnering with a new streaming service, adding another jewel to their crown in their quest to reach maximum numbers of people and, by extension, to make the maximum amount of money for their owners.
Joining the list of services fans will need to use to watch NFL games in 2025 is YouTube, which at least is a free service (for now). YouTube and YouTube TV will exclusively stream NFL Opening Weekend’s Friday night game from Brazil in a nod to the international fan base the league is trying to reach.
Which streaming services will you need to watch every NFL game this year?
In order to watch every NFL game this season, you’ll need Amazon Prime, Netflix, Peacock, and YouTube in addition to ESPN (streaming or cable) plus YouTube TV with or NFL+ for NFL Sunday Ticket. Paramount+ (the CBS streamer) and the new Fox One streaming services will have Sunday afternoon games if you don’t have cable or an antenna. That can add up pretty quickly.
All games in a team’s home market are still over-the-air for free on local broadcast television, so as league commissioner Roger Goodell has said in the past, the majority of fans have the same number of free games available to them as they have for decades. The notable exception is a team’s secondary markets in the cities closest to their home markets, which don’t broadcast over the air if the game is paywalled.
As Goodell puts it, these games on streaming platforms are value-adds for fans across the country and world that didn’t exist before.
Goodell has also explained that this is the NFL serving the next generation of NFL fans, as streaming services skew younger demographically. Hooking younger viewers in a fractured media landscape is a big plus for the NFL down the road.
Why is the NFL spreading out broadcast rights to multiple streamers?
The NFL is expanding to more and more partners in order to create competition down the line.
In 2021, the NFL reached record deals with Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, FOX, and NBC to broadcast games through the 2033 season. You don’t see Peacock, Netflix, and YouTube on there, though. The NFL has carved out games for those three streamers, including playoff games and huge matchups on Christmas, in order to juice the numbers in anticipation of creating bidding options.
The NFL built in opt-outs in the TV deals, so rights renewals are not coming due in 2033, but rather 2029. Combined with continuing strong ratings for their regular Thursday, Sunday, and Monday packages, the NFL has a potential 18 regular-season games, these new carved out games, and the possibility for a new international TV package of eight games per year. The NFL is primed to cash in with multiple options soon, and with more potential bidders, the prices will skyrocket.
What are the downsides of spreading out NFL games to multiple partners?
The downsides to the NFL of this expansion are pretty minimal. In an ever-increasing digital world, they’re able to get many more people to watch with new viewing windows on Black Friday, Christmas, Sunday morning, and other prime-time offerings. More eyeballs means more money from networks and streamers.
For most NFL fans, they are able to navigate the multiple options required to watch the games they want. Some tech-slower members of the NFL viewership may struggle when they turn on the TV and the game isn’t there.
If you’re someone who really wants to watch every NFL game you can, though, it will cost you about $40 or more per month more than cable. That’s a substantial investment for the five-month NFL regular season. In the 2024 season, the number was more than $600 for all of the options together.
What are the ratings for NFL games?
NFL TV ratings were down 2% during the regular season in 2024, but they are still among the most popular shows on television. In 2024, 70 of the top 100 live TV shows were NFL events which aligns with the last election year in 2020 as well as the Summer Olympics, per Front Office Sports. That number could rebound back into the 90s with the election behind us.
While TV ratings were down, Amazon Prime saw an 11% jump in their internal ratings from 2023 to 2024. Netflix joined the party in 2024, averaging 24 million people in their Christmas doubleheader.