How to Watch Any NFL Game
The YouTube TV and Disney outage is over , and viewers should now see Disney channels, including ESPN, returning to their programming. The situation was resolved after two weeks of negotiations, during which Google compensated users , and viewers did everything they could to keep up with the games.
But even though things are back to normal, that doesn’t mean watching the NFL has suddenly become easy. Keeping up with the games requires navigating the flood of streams and broadcast rights, and if you want to follow the entire league, it can be a daunting task. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch the NFL, whether online or on TV.
YouTube TV with a ticket to Sunday’s NFL game is the ultimate one-stop shop.
Depending on how much football you plan to watch, the YouTube TV bundle with NFL Sunday Night Ticket might be right for you. The company describes it as “the most live NFL coverage” available in a single plan, and now that ESPN and ABC have returned to YouTube TV, that’s more or less accurate. Or, if you only want to watch live on Sunday afternoons, you can purchase the NFL Sunday Night Ticket separately, without an additional YouTube TV subscription.
Essentially, YouTube TV gives you access to all content on ESPN (including Monday Night Football), NBC (Sunday Night Football and local games), CBS (local games), and Fox (local games). NFL Sunday Ticket, therefore, lets you watch games not broadcast on Sundays during the daytime, with unlimited simultaneous streams at home and two streams for those away from home. You also don’t have to watch the live stream if you can’t – abbreviated replays of recent Sunday games are available from the following Monday through Wednesday. NFL Sunday Ticket is a YouTube exclusive, which explains why the dispute with Disney has irritated sports fans so much. Other Live TV packages exist, but combining Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV can save you a bit on your subscription, depending on how new you are to YouTube TV, and it gives you a fairly comprehensive service that competitors can’t match.
Essentially, you’re only missing out on Thursday Night Football, but the catch is that it’s usually quite expensive. A standalone NFL Sunday Ticket subscription typically costs $85 per month for new customers or $145 per month for returning customers. The package price for new customers remains the same, though returning customers can save a bit by bundling Sunday Ticket with a standard YouTube TV subscription ($83 per month or $73 per month for the first three months), which drops the cost to $115 per month. Alternatively, opting for a four-month subscription typically drops the cost to $37.50 per month for new customers and $66 per month for returning customers (or $51 per month when combined with YouTube TV). If you want to go all-in, you can also opt for an annual season pass, which costs $150 for new customers and $264 for returning customers.
However, as of this writing, a discounted promotion is running through the end of the season in November 2025, allowing new subscribers to purchase NFL Sunday Tickets for four months for $12 per month, while existing subscribers can purchase them for $15.50 per month. Alternatively, you can pre-purchase season tickets through the end of 2025: $48 for new subscribers and $62 for existing subscribers. Why the discount? Probably because the 2025 NFL season ends on January 4.
If you can afford it and want to simply set it and forget it, YouTube TV with NFL Sunday Ticket is probably your best choice. While it’s not the only way to get a subscription, you can also add NFL Redzone to your subscription, either for an extra $2.50 on top of the Sunday Ticket price or as part of a Sports Plus subscription for $11 per month . This will allow you to watch highlights of all Sunday games live.
Local games and Sunday Night Football on Paramount+ and Peacock
Let’s say you don’t want to pay a high price for YouTube TV. Before we dive into soccer-specific streaming services, it’s worth mentioning other streaming services you may already have. Paramount+ and Peacock allow users to watch games broadcast on CBS and NBC, respectively, which may be enough for you depending on which teams you follow.
According to the NFL’s official ” Ways to Watch ” page, CBS airs six to seven Sunday afternoon games a week, and you can check your local schedule for details. NBC, meanwhile, airs Sunday Night Football, the premier primetime game with no rivals.
A monthly subscription to Paramount+ starts at $8, while Peacock starts at $8, although the platform currently offers a generous bundle deal with Apple TV . Annual plans for Paramount+ start at $60, while Peacock starts at $80.
Fox One and ESPN package
Fox is currently in a similar position to CBS, allowing users to watch select local Sunday afternoon games, but there’s a catch. In addition to its own schedule, the Fox One streaming service also offers a package with ESPN. This gives subscribers access to both local Fox games and ESPN Unlimited broadcasts. ESPN Unlimited includes Monday Night Football, making it a good option for those who don’t want to commit to a full Live TV plan just for Monday night games.
A monthly subscription to Fox One costs $25, while an annual subscription costs $240. The ESPN package is only available monthly and costs $40.
Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime
If you have an Amazon Prime subscription, you have access to at least one weekly primetime match. Prime Video currently streams Thursday Night Football, which, like Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football, is a signature game with no conflicts with other games. Since Prime Video is part of Amazon Prime, it’s likely you’ve accessed it without realizing it, unless, like everyone else, you need two-day delivery. If not, you can sign up for an Amazon Prime subscription for $15 per month or $139 per year, or simply subscribe to Prime Video separately for $9 per month.
ESPN, Disney+, and Hulu Live TV Streaming
One of the reasons Disney’s dispute with YouTube TV has proven so difficult for sports fans is that much of the NFL coverage is available exclusively on its channels and streaming services, which are numerous and difficult to navigate.
The most comprehensive of these is ESPN , which offers two plans: ESPN Select and ESPN Unlimited. The difference is that ESPN Select includes only ESPN+ content, which primarily consists of entry-level, college, and non-football matches from channels like ESPN2 or ESPN3. ESPN Unlimited, on the other hand, includes all ESPN content, including larger matches from the main channel, as well as ESPN+ content, making it a convenient way to watch ESPN’s primetime Monday Night Football broadcasts.
Additionally, Disney+ subscribers will get access to a rotating “ESPN sports content lineup,” though you’ll need to bundle ESPN with a Disney+ subscription to watch most games.
If you need access to more than just ESPN content, you can also subscribe to Disney’s own live TV service, Hulu + Live TV . It includes all the Disney channels currently available on YouTube TV, as well as other channels, including CBS (local game streams), NBC (Sunday Night Football and local games), Fox (local game streams), and NFL Network (more on that later). The main missing link is NFL Sunday Ticket. When purchased separately, Hulu + Live TV also does not include on-demand viewing in the ESPN app.
Navigating the pricing for all of this can be tricky, so I’ll start with the cheapest options and work my way up. For simplicity, I won’t include annual plans, though keep in mind that Disney+, Hulu (except Live TV), and ESPN offer annual subscriptions.
A monthly subscription to Disney+ starts at $12, and Hulu is the same. Combined, these services cost just $13, so that’s probably where you should start. However, for higher-quality sports content, you’ll want ESPN. A monthly subscription to ESPN Select also costs $13, but for watching the NFL, you’re better off with ESPN Unlimited, which costs $30 per month.
There are also Disney+ and Hulu packages that include ESPN. Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Select start at $20 per month, while Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Unlimited cost $30 per month for the first 12 months, then $36 per month. Considering the first twelve months of the latter package cost the same as ESPN Unlimited, this option may be more reasonable, as long as you remember to cancel your subscription when it expires.
As for Hulu + Live TV, this is Disney’s most expensive option, as it’s essentially a cable package. A package with Hulu + Live TV, regular Hulu (with ads), Disney+ (with ads), and ESPN Select (with ads) costs $64.99 per month for the first three months, which is cheaper than YouTube TV, but then increases to $90 per month. You can also subscribe to Hulu + Live TV separately for $89 per month, though this means losing a lot of additional streaming content just to save a dollar and doesn’t include the cheaper first three months. To remove ads from Disney+, you can increase the package price to $95 per month, and to remove ads from both Disney+ and Hulu, you can pay $100 per month. However, ESPN Select and Live TV will still have ads. To watch ESPN Unlimited content in the app, you’ll also need to add it to Hulu for $30 per month (the Hulu + Live TV landing page advertises that ESPN Unlimited app content is included in this package, but when you go to checkout, it changes to ESPN Select, and the official plan listing doesn’t currently list ESPN Unlimited as an option in a package with Hulu + Live TV).
Finally, Disney offers a bundle in partnership with NFL+, which I’ll discuss later. This bundle costs $40 per month for the first year, then increases to $46 per month. It includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Unlimited (all with ads), as well as NFL+ Premium. You can also pay an additional $9 (this applies to both the promotion and the ongoing subscription) to turn off ads on Disney+ and Hulu Premium, though ESPN Unlimited will still have ads.
What is NFL+?
Probably the cheapest option on this list, NFL+ gives you access to a ton of content for a small investment, but with some pretty serious benefits.
The service offers two tiers, both of which offer live streaming of local and regularly scheduled primetime games, but only on your phone or tablet. That’s right: these games won’t work with the service’s TV app, and DRM blocks AirPlay and similar screen mirroring features . Even those who tried connecting the phone or tablet app to a large monitor via cable reported difficulties . Since football games are popular big-screen entertainment, and NFL+ is so low-cost compared to other options, this is likely due to behind-the-scenes content agreements with other services that ensure the app doesn’t take away from their subscriptions.
However, if you have a large enough tablet and only want to watch primetime or local games (including Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, and even Sunday matinee games), it’s an attractive option. NFL+ also includes live coverage of every game of the season, ad-free highlights, and a selection of original NFL Films content—all available not only on your phone and tablet, but also on your PC and TV. Upgrading to NFL+ Premium adds condensed game replays and access to NFL Redzone (live streams of all Sunday matinee games), as well as the NFL Pro stats service. Replays and Redzone are available on PC, TV, phone, and tablet, but NFL Pro is only available on desktop and mobile browsers.
There’s also a workaround for watching live games in your browser: the NFL Network live stream (also available as a separate channel in some cable and Live TV packages). It’s included in any NFL+ plan, but you’re dependent on the content the NFL Network broadcasts , which isn’t comprehensive and includes analysis and other non-game programming.
An NFL+ subscription costs $7 per month (or $50 per year), while NFL+ Premium costs $15 per month (or $100 per year). This is a great choice if you want to stay up-to-date on stats and important events and don’t mind being limited to watching live games on certain devices.
Other live broadcast services
In addition to Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV, ESPN, local channels, and NFL Network are available on a number of other Live TV streaming services, as well as traditional TV providers, including DIRECTV, Fubo TV, Spectrum, Verizon FiOS, and Sling.
You should check the channel list and choose the best options in your area, but in case of future content blackouts, there are three that you should pay special attention to. DIRECTV , Fubo TV , and Sling are all great options if you need to watch something short-term. DIRECTV and Fubo TV both offer free trials: DIRECTV lasts five days, while FUBO TV lasts seven. Sling Orange, meanwhile, offers daily passes for $5 each if you only need to watch one specific game.
Buy a digital antenna
Finally, if your eyes are as glazed over by all these different subscriptions as mine, it’s important to remember that local channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX are available via digital antenna in most parts of the US. While this isn’t a complete list, it will give you access to local games, as well as primetime matches, including Monday Night Football (aired on both ABC and ESPN) and Sunday Night Football.
While I personally had trouble receiving a digital signal, Lifehacker’s sister site PCMag offers a proven selection of antennas for just $25. Just install and forget.