The narrative that streaming is making the NFL unaffordable “has become a talking point for politicians and regulators,” but the data “tells a completely different story,” according to Rich Greenfield of LIGHTSHED PARTNERS. NFL games are “now spread across more services than ever,” but streaming competition has “splintered the old cable bundle, giving consumers the ability to pay only for what they want.” Fans can watch every NFL game this season -- a total of 272 games -- for “as little as approximately $600 or under $3 per game.” Strip out Sunday ticket, and fans can “catch all national matchups plus your local games for $217 with an antenna or under $400 entirely via a la carte streaming.” Greenfield: “To be fair, watching the NFL is more complicated than it used to be as no single service has everything, but consumers now have real choice. And for those willing to navigate multiple apps, the savings are meaningful” (LIGHTSHED PARTNERS, 5/13).
BECOMING AN AFTERTHOUGHT: SI’s Jimmy Traina wrote the Sunday package of games “becomes weaker and weaker thanks to the NFL selling off games here and there.” It appears that the 2026 season “will feature a more feeble Sunday slate than ever before.” Sunday Ticket “still has some value early in the season before the byes and the Saturday games.” But once Thanksgiving comes along in Week 12, Sunday Ticket “becomes an afterthought.” This year, a game that would have been played on Sunday will now be played on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. Then you have the three games on Thanksgiving. And this year, there will be two Black Friday games for the first time ever. Traina: “What’s left for Sunday at 1?” Many fans “love the Sunday at 1 window,” but the NFL is “making it such that you can blow off the early Sunday games because the schedule features nothing but duds.” Traina: “Unless you are a fan of an out-of-market team, I don’t see Sunday Ticket as the necessity it used to be in the past” (SI, 5/12).