- There may be nothing more frustrating
in the realm of streaming than trying to watch football.
It's just a mess and I can't solve that today,
unfortunately,
but I can at least give you a basic roadmap
on how to watch as much NFL football as possible.
So let's dive in.
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Okay, let's start with the basics,
here is where you can watch most NFL football games
throughout the season.
You'll need your local channels, CBS, NBC, and Fox.
And then there are a couple of national networks
that you'll need, NFL Network and ESPN.
If you've got those, you should be pretty well covered,
but how do you actually get them?
Well, the first option frankly,
is get a cable or a satellite subscription.
I mean, for somebody who really, really enjoys NFL football
and doesn't want to miss anything,
frankly, I couldn't blame somebody for sticking
with that option.
It's simple, it's easy, it might be more expensive,
but yeah, it is simple.
But for those of us who have cut the cord
and aren't looking back, we do have option two,
which is streaming NFL games, to which I say, good luck.
So for us cord cutters, how are we going to get those
local channels?
Well, you can go pick up an antenna, that works great,
kind of.
I mean, it works fine if you're
in a good spot geographically to pick up a signal,
but that's not going to be the case for everybody.
So if you need to stream those local channels,
the best overall option I can give you would be YouTube TV.
The basic $65 package on YouTube TV
includes the NFL Network and ESPN,
plus local channels in tons of markets.
Now, there are other options out there,
fuboTV does most of what I described,
but it is missing CBS in a lot of markets,
which hurts for NFL fans,
and Hulu Live also does pretty well,
but it only allows for two simultaneous streams
versus three over on YouTube TV.
Three is better than two, right?
And then there's Sling TV, which is another,
it's a bit of a mess
where you can only get one simultaneous stream of ESPN
because it's on the orange side of things,
but you can get three streams of the NFL Network
because it's on blue, and hey, you know what?
It's weirdly complicated.
So YouTube TV gets the nod here,
I would just stick with that one.
Besides, it's got easily the best DVR of the bunch,
and I'm thinking that's going to be pretty important
throughout the NFL season.
And then there's NFL RedZone,
which helps you keep track
of all these Sunday afternoon games simultaneously.
Those who love RedZone really love RedZone.
And if you want it, you can get it, for a price.
It's available as an add on
to most of these streaming services for 11 bucks.
Although it is 10 bucks over on Hulu, so that's an option.
But if you want the absolute cheapest way
to just get NFL RedZone, if that's all you're after,
then go for the Sling Blue package, that's 35 bucks a month,
and then you get the Sports Extra add on
for another 11, and there you go,
that's the cheapest way to get it.
Of course, then you're missing ESPN
over on the orange package, and like I said,
Sling TV makes it a little messy.
But it is a decent option
if all you're looking for is RedZone.
Now, if you're not a completionist,
if you don't need every single NFL game every week,
and you're happy to watch whatever games
are available to you at a low price,
then you can cut back on what you subscribe to.
It's just that, well,
this is where things are about to get really messy.
For Sunday night football, NBC has you covered,
either with an antenna or a streaming service
that carries it.
CBS carries most AFC games, which you can get, again,
with an antenna or through the Paramount Plus Premium Tier,
where you can watch live AFC feeds.
And if you prefer NFC football,
then Fox is where you'll find many of those.
And Fox also carries many Thursday night games.
And if they're not carrying a given Thursday game,
then you might find it on the NFL Network
or Amazon Prime Video, or sometimes Twitch of all places.
And then there's the Yahoo Sports app,
where you can watch a lot of local games
and primetime games.
Sweet, sounds great,
but it's only available on the mobile app
and you can't cast that to your big screen.
So yeah, a lot of limitations.
Well, anyway, was that complicated enough for you?
Yeah, I mean, it's a lot to keep track of
and that's not even it.
We haven't even talked yet about NFL Sunday Ticket.
That one is still mostly just available
to DirecTV subscribers.
Although if you're in a building
where you can't get DirecTV,
or if you're a student who can't subscribe,
you may be able to get it as a standalone option.
That is fairly rare though.
The good news though, is that NFL Sunday Ticket,
which is a really attractive service
as far as I'm concerned,
has a contract with DirecTV that ends after the 2022 season.
Once that's up, NFL Sunday Ticket could end up somewhere new
and there are a few names bidding for it,
including Amazon, ESPN, and possibly even Apple,
that could be interesting.
Anyway, if this video has taught us anything,
it's that streaming NFL football is an absolute mess.
Hopefully this gives you some good ideas
of how you can go about doing it.
But if I had to boil it down to one tip,
it would probably be, go with YouTube TV,
possibly with the add-on for NFL RedZone,
if that's attractive to you,
but that should get the most NFL coverage
for the most people.
Everyone's situation is a little different,
I understand that.
So if I didn't describe a solution for your situation,
then hit the comments below
and I'm sure that together we can come up with something.
Anyway, thanks for watching.
Good luck to your team this season,
unless of course your team is the (beep),
in which case, screw those guys, right?
Right?
Like and subscribe.
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