Want to watch every NFL game this season? It's going to cost you nearly $2,500.

By Weston Blasi

Watching all NFL games this season will require a big financial commitment, seven streaming services and six username-and-password combinations

Hold onto your remotes: Watching NFL games has never been more expensive.

This season's streaming-only football viewers are going to need access to seven different streaming platforms, which can cost over $1,700 for the year. Fans who have cable instead will need nine different streaming platforms or channels, which can run $2,500 or more for the year.

There may be some sticker shock at those figures, but how did we get here?

The NFL is by far the most popular sport in America in terms of television ratings. Regular season NFL games routinely get more viewers than the biggest games of the year for other major sports, like the NBA Finals, the World Series and the US Open.

In fact, when comparing them to all TV programming, NFL games were the top 20 most watched TV events in 2023, and 93 of the top 100, according to Nielson data.

The NFL is aware of its popularity and is cashing in on it, and its fans must pay up.

In the 2010s, NFL games were only shown on four cable TV networks. The NFL has since added to its game lineup (with creations like Thursday Night Football) and created a bidding war for some of its games between TV networks and streaming companies.

And the NFL is benefiting greatly from the increased competition.

"Let's not cry too much for the league which now has broadcasting/streaming deals totaling $10 billion per year locked up for the next decade," Victor Matheson, economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross, told MarketWatch.

Because there are now more bidders for NFL games' rights, the prices the league was able to negotiate went up. The NFL now makes roughly $10 billion a year from TV deals, up from about $3 billion in 2010.

And all this NFL TV money means an increase in team valuations. The Denver Broncos were bought in 2022 for $4.65 billion by Walmart heir Rob Walton - the previous owner Pat Bowlen purchased the team for $78 million in 1984 - and Josh Harris, who also owns the Philadelphia 76ers, purchased the Washington Commanders for a sports franchise record of $6.05 billion last year from Dan Snyder, who bought the team for $800 million in 1999.

So what does all this mean for NFL fans?

It'll cost roughly $1,700 to $2,500 to watch every single NFL game

Depending on where a person lives, there is at least one local team that fans can watch every week whether they have cable, or a cable-substitute service like FuboTV or the Google-owned (GOOG)( GOOGL) YouTubeTV. And for many fans - with the addition of the massively popular NFL RedZone channel for a fantasy-football-centric whip-around broadcast - that's probably enough football.

But for the fanatics whose favorite team isn't local, or who want to watch the preseason, or watch some specialty holiday games, or simply just can't get enough NFL, MarketWatch has crunched the numbers on how much it will cost to watch every NFL game for the 2024 season.

The total cost for a football fan who doesn't have cable to stream all 343 NFL games this season is about $1,700. That includes seven streaming services, as well as six username and password combinations in total.

The total cost for cable customers to stream all NFL games this season is even higher, at about $2,500.

Compared with last year, multiple services including the Disney-owned (DIS) ESPN+ and the Comcast-owned (CMCSA) Peacock have raised prices, and another service was added to the group as Netflix (NFLX) bought rights to several NFL Christmas Day games.

A large portion of NFL games this season will be on traditional broadcast networks like CBS (PARA) and Fox (FOX), and people can watch them through a traditional cable provider like Spectrum, or a streaming service like YouTubeTV. Prices for Spectrum's (CHTR) cable package are uniform throughout the country, a spokesperson for the company told MarketWatch, but some cable providers' prices may vary by location.

It's worth noting that the price calculation in both the cable and cable-free NFL viewing options don't include the price of internet service, which is essential in both versions of the plan. The median price Americans paid for home internet in 2024 was $63 per month ($78 a month if you include equipment rental), according to a CNET report.

Even though the total cost to watch NFL games may seem high, the fan experience for watching has never been better.

"It's hard to argue that the fans of yesteryear, sitting on their couch with full wallets but forced to watch a matchup between the woeful Broncos and Raiders, were happier than ones today with a lighter wallet but watching their favorite team (or their top fantasy players)," Matheson said.

Despite the price tag, millions of people have been willing to pay more for NFL games over the years, whether they needed cable, a new streaming platform or even a satellite dish. Look no further than the NFL Sunday Ticket, which transformed how people watched pro football games.

Beginning in 1994, NFL Sunday Ticket, allowed fans to pick which games to watch on Sunday afternoons (CBS and Fox games) instead of being forced to watch whatever local team was on TV. When it was launched, Sunday Ticket was only available to DirecTV cable subscribers, and if you wanted to watch different games than the networks were showing, then you would have to pay extra.

See: Roger Goodell defends streaming-only NFL games: 'We have the most fan friendly policies'

While price could be an obstacle for some NFL fans, it's not the only obstacle. They also have to be organized.

A cord-cutter who wants to stream all NFL games this season will need a total of six username-and-password combinations for YouTubeTV with Sunday Ticket, Prime Video, Peacock, NFL+, ESPN+ and Netfllix along with the corresponding individual app on their smart TV devices at home.

Some NFL fans who spoke to MarketWatch last football season said staying organized with all these services is "very tedious," and claimed to have Excel spreadsheets to keep track of them all, plus some information on other streaming services they use that don't even have NFL games.

While the costs can seem like a lot, there are a few ways to get discounts on some or all of the NFL's schedule this year.

YouTubeTV: $32 off your first four monthsSunday Ticket: $50 off is ordered on for before Sept. 5

Some streamers also offer student discounts. Sunday Ticket plans through YouTube Primetime can offer a student hundreds in streaming savings depending on the plan type, $70 off annually for Amazon Prime (AMZN) and $56 off for Peacock.

Savvy streamers can also game the system by opting to subscribe and unsubscribe during times when platforms like Netflix or Peacock are broadcasting games to save money. And for customers who have cable, bundling their internet and cable plans together could lead to additional savings.

And extremely savvy streamers will be disappointed to learn that most streaming services no longer offer free trials, so the maneuver of starting a service without paying and then canceling is a thing of the past.

The NFL season comes during a few legal tugs-of-war in the sports streaming industry.

In August, a judge blocked the launch of Venu Sports, a joint streaming venture from Disney Warner and Fox, for the entertainment companies attempting to "exercise near-monopolistic control" over the industry.

The judge sided with rival steamer FuboTV and issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the $42.99 a month bundle, sending FuboTV's skyrocketing. Shares of FuboTV are up nearly 38% over the last month.

But that's not the only sports TV spat in the news. ESPN's and Disney's other sports channels have been dark on DirecTV since Sunday night after the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on carriage fees.

Sports fan who have DirecTV have not been able to watch some high-profile events including a college football game between No. 13 LSU and 23rd-ranked Southern California in Las Vegas, as well as the US Open.

Fox Corp. and News Corp (NWSA), the parent of MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones, share common ownership.

Read on: No. 1 NFL pick Caleb Williams asked for his $40 million contract to go into an LLC. Can he do that?

-Weston Blasi

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

09-07-24 1028ET

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