Network Fractured League: Streaming NFL games on a variety of channels has caused inconvenience for viewers

As senior Jonas Pastine sat down with his family to watch Monday night football — a Chiefs-Giants matchup — he found that instead of seeing an eagle-eyed camera angle of MetLife Stadium with a scoreboard plastered on the bottom of the screen, he was left staring at an empty screen.

His family had subscribed to the National Football League’s PrimeTime on ESPN specifically to watch the NFL’s three weekly night games. Pastine felt dreadful knowing his night of intense cheering for the Chiefs had been reduced to checking the score on ESPN each quarter. 

“It was an awful night,” Pastine said. “I just wanted to watch the Chiefs play.” 

Since the NFL began expanding their streaming options beginning in 2023, fans like Pastine’s family who purchase multiple services, aren’t guaranteed a chance to cheer on their favorite teams. For those who watch NFL games three or more times a week, streaming has proven to be a challenge recently. According to Pastine, this hasn’t been an issue for him with other sports — just football. 

Pastine isn’t alone in this experience. According to an Instagram poll of 162 voters, 66% of respondents say their families use multiple streaming services or TV channels just to watch NFL coverage. 

The variety of streaming services available means games are no longer being streamed on one platform. This causes dedicated viewers to need multiple subscriptions or streaming services in order to watch all preseason, regular season and postseason coverage. 

While the NFL offers its own streaming packages — NFL + and NFL + Premium — those packages are offered through satellite channels including CBS, ESPN, Fox, ABC, NBC and NFLN. Since those channels are pre-established, the streaming packages don’t actually provide one sole place to watch coverage.

One popular package is the Sunday Ticket, which is an out-of-market option for viewers. This means that the games aren’t televised in the local viewing area, instead they are sold to various streaming companies and larger cable channels. 

This summer, the NFL was facing liability for violating antitrust laws for $4.7 billion, but it was overturned this month by a federal judge after the NFL appealed. The accusation stemmed from alleged violations of antitrust laws due to the exclusivity that restricts competition when they only allowed certain channels to stream coverage  since it was catered to satellite providers, according to AP News.

Ultimately, consumers were being charged higher-than-needed prices for the Sunday Ticket package since the platform had limited potential for usage.

But for some students such as freshman Garrett Wilkerson, having to pick and choose from so many options hasn’t been beneficial at all — rather more difficult.  

For Wilkerson, the range of options has proven to be more of an inconvenience, beyond the basic costliness. His family has struggled to find the correct games due to the complexity of streaming. 

“For Thursday night football we were looking for it on [cable],” Wilkerson said. “But then we had to look it up to find what channel it was on, and it was on Prime instead. Watching it on satellite was easier.” 

Having subscriptions to each streaming service adds up quickly. For individuals with cable, all streaming services combined cost $519.92 for one year of preseason, regular and postseason coverage. For those without cable who are instead using Youtube TV in addition to all streaming services, the combined cost is $857.86 for total coverage of one season according to NBC.

Despite attempted recovery by the NFL, the current streaming strategy is largely not benefitting the consumers. 

“I love everything about the sport,” Pastine said. “Watching these professional athletes do what I do drives me even harder. It sucks missing it because of streaming issues.”