No professional sport 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 2025.
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. Those games generally kick off each week at 8:20 p.m. ET. ABC broadcasts many Monday Night Football at 8:00 p.m. ET, but you’ll need access to ESPN to see every Monday-night game.
So, if you have an over-the-air TV antenna and reasonable proximity to a broadcast tower, you should be able to watch most of the NFL action for free. We can help you find the right antenna for your needs.
When I want to know which game is on which channel, I consult either 506Sports.com or Sports Media Watch. I suggest you bookmark one or the other 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, and you need only a smart TV or a media streamer and a subscription to access them. These are our top picks in streaming devices If you don’t already have one.
Verizon is once again offering a free season of NFL Sunday Ticket to new and existing subscribers who are willing to jump through some hoops, but Sling TV offers the least-expensive means of watching NFL games if you can’t use an antenna. Its new short-term “passes” deliver access to its Orange channel bundle, which includes ESPN. A $4.99 Day Pass provides 24 hours of access, a $9.99 Weekend Pass is good Friday through Sunday, and $14.99 Week Pass covers you for seven consecutive days. Unfortunately, ESPN owner Disney has filed a lawsuit to stop Sling from including ESPN in these passes. Stay tuned.
Sling also offers a more complete TV offering with its Orange and Blue packages, which include local broadcast channels (ABC, Fox, and NBC, but not CBS) in some markets. Subscribe to both for $60.99 per month, and you’ll also get ESPN and the NFL Network, while its Sports Extra add-on ($11 a month) includes NFL RedZone. I’ll cover the streaming services that compete with Sling in a moment.
NBC-owned Peacock streams Sunday Night Football on its Premium ($10.99/mo) or Premium Plus ($16.99/mo) service tiers if you can’t use an antenna to receive those broadcasts.
Prime Video is the home of Thursday Night Football (TNF). Amazon will stream 15 games, including the Black Friday game (Eagles vs. the Bears, in Chicago, November 28) and the Christmas night game (Broncos vs. the Chiefs, in Kansas City, December 25). 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 $14.99 per month or $139 per year.
Netflix, now in the second year of its three-year Christmas deal, will exclusively stream two games on December 25: The Dallas Cowboys at the Washington Commanders at 1:00 p.m. ET, and the Detroit Lions at the Minnesota Vikings at 4:30 p.m. ET. Netflix subscriptions range from $7.99 per month for the ad-supported tier to $24.99 per month for 4K resolution and spatial audio. Together with the evening game on Prime Video, this creates a Christmas tripleheader.
DirectTVStream offers CBS, NBC, Fox, and ESPN in its $84.99-per-month Entertainment package. New subscriptions come with a $35 discount for a month, before reverting to whatever the current monthly price is.
Sling TV’s Day, Weekend, and Week Passes give you access to its Orange channel bundle, which includes ESPN.
Sling
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 $84.99 per month. Currently, it’s offering $30 off the first 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 ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, and NFL Network in their subscriptions for $82.99 per month each. Currently, New YouTube TV customers can get the first three months for $49.99 before the rate reverts to the regular price. YouTube TV also offers NFL RedZone as part of its Sports Plus add-on for an additional $10.99 a month.
YouTube also offers NFL Sunday Ticket, which lets you stream every out-of-market NFL game on Sundays. Returning NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers can add it to their YouTube TV subscription for an additional $47.25 per month for the eight months of the regular season ($378 in total). New subscribers who sign up before September 30, however, will pay $34.50 per month for those eight months ($276 in total).
If you don’t want to pay for YouTube TV, returning NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers can sign up via YouTube PrimeTime Channels for $60 per month ($480 for the season). Here again, new subscribers get a break, paying $34.50 per month ($276 for the season). Just be aware that neither of these options can be cancelled and there are no refunds.
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 Cowboys at Commanders at 1 p.m. ET and the Lions at Vikings at 4:30 p.m. ET. Netflix offers three paid plans: Standard with ads ($7.99 a month), Standard ($17.99 a month), and Premium ($24.99 a 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 $7.99-per-month Essential plan. We have another story that provides even more details about watching NFL games on Paramount+.
Peacock will exclusively carry a Week 17 primetime matchup on December 27, 2025, as part of its “Peacock Holiday Exclusive.” 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 $10.99 a month; a Premium Plus Plan, $16.99 per month, removes ads and enables you to download and watch select titles offline.
What’s included with an NFL+ subscription?
NFL+ is the NFL’s own 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 the NFL Pro platform. Targeting the league’s most rabid fans, this offering allows subscribers to dive into the games’ minutiae via the ability to search through the All-22 coaches film, which lets you watch games from different angles to analyze plays in detail. You also gain access to player and performance metrics via NFL Next Gen Stats, which uses sensors and RFID tags to collect data on everything from ball movement to player speed, acceleration, and location.
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.
Michael Brown/Foundry
What’s next for NFL streaming?
Super Bowl LIX, drew more than 123 million viewers across all platforms, once again ranking as the most-watched broadcast in U.S. television history. That record audience proves fans are willing to follow the league wherever it goes.
The bigger question is how far the NFL will push exclusive streaming in future seasons. With multiple platforms now claiming pieces of the schedule, fans already face juggling subscriptions—and rising costs—if they want to see every game. If the league continues down this path, it could reshape how we experience live sports in the 21st century as profoundly as the shift to broadcast television did in the 20th.
