DISCLAIMER: This work was put together using data from
various sources. As such, if you come
across something that is inaccurate, please feel free to reach out to me to
correct it via email realcordcutters@outlook.com
or Twitter: @RealCordCutters or by
leaving a comment below. My goal is to
make a comprehensive and accurate guide that can help people quickly &
easily decide how to watch as much college football as they want for the
cheapest possible method. Unlike other
cord cutting websites, we welcome and encourage reader feedback, both positive
and negative. For updates, please
look for the ► sign (alt + 16 to type it) with a date following it; these
indicate changes, additions, corrections, etc.
First, I’m going to give a brief overview of the various
options that currently exist regarding NFL broadcasts including defining some
terms. If you’re already familiar with
these terms, services, etc. please feel free to jump down below to the “THINGS
TO KNOW” section. Please also keep the
following in mind: this guide is primarily geared towards those who want to
watch NFL games in general (i.e. not a specific team every week) and/or live in
the market of one (or more) of the 32 NFL teams and want to watch that specific
team(s) every week. In other words, if
you are out of market for the specific team you want to watch (i.e. Miami Dolphins
fan living in Omaha, Nebraska), the only way to guarantee you are able to watch
every single Sunday afternoon game for your preferred team is to purchase NFL
Sunday Ticket, which currently requires a qualifying DirecTV
subscription, or a subscription to NFL SUNDAYTICKET.TV, an online
streaming-only version of Sunday Ticket, which is only available to those who
meet certain criteria. For more
information on NFL SUNDAYTICKET.TV please see below. Thus, the local channel guides I’ve included
are only constructed for the markets of the 32 NFL teams, so if you live
outside of those markets you’ll have to check each service to see which local
channels, if any, they receive in your market. You can do this by going to the
website for each of the services, using the links provided in the Resources
section below. Also, I’m only going to cover
options which allow US residents to watch regular season games live. There is a service, NFL Game Pass, which costs
$100 and allows US residents to watch replays of every regular season game
after the game has aired, so if you don’t need to watch NFL games live please
consider it.
KEY TERMS TO
KNOW
Designated Market Area (DMA) – a geographic region,
defined by Nielsen Media Research that receives the same (or similar)
television stations. The DMA that you
are located in determines which local broadcast stations you receive, although
cable companies are free to carry channels from outside the DMA without any
type of waiver. To see a map of all US
DMAs from 2015-16, click here.
Regional & National Broadcasts – NFL games can
either be a local or national broadcast.
A national broadcast shows one game over the entire country on a given
channel while a regional broadcast will have different games showing on a given
channel in different parts of the country.
The most common example of a regional broadcast are the 1:00 PM ET and
4:05/4:25 PM ET Sunday broadcast windows where different cities get different
games depending upon geography, importance of game, and other rules. An example of a national broadcast is Monday
Night Football which shows one game at 8:30 PM ET to the entire country.
Broadcast Windows – NFL games are generally
broadcast during one of the following broadcast windows
·
Thursday 8:20 PM ET
·
Sunday 1:00 PM ET, 4:05 PM ET, 4:25 PM ET, 8:20
PM ET
·
Monday 8:15 PM ET
Additionally, there are other one-off broadcast windows
which happen infrequently due to a holiday schedule (i.e. Christmas) or games
played in London. A greater explanation of the broadcast windows and the
channels attached to each will be done later in the “BROADCAST WINDOWS”
section.
TV CHANNELS
ESPN – ESPN airs Monday Night Football every
Monday night at 8:15 PM ET. Each week
there is one game aired except for the first week of the season when a
doubleheader is aired at 7:10 PM ET & 10:20 PM ET.
CBS – CBS airs regional coverage each Sunday in
either a singleheader, one game at 1:00 PM ET or 4:05 PM ET, or a doubleheader,
one game at 1:00 PM ET and another game at 4:25 PM ET. CBS owns the rights to the AFC package and
typically airs games where an AFC team is the away team.
FOX – FOX airs regional coverage each Sunday in
either a singleheader, one game at 1:00 PM ET or 4:05 PM ET, or a doubleheader,
one game at 1:00 PM ET and another game at 4:25 PM ET. FOX owns the rights to the NFC package and
typically airs games where an NFC team is the away team. In addition, FOX will air 11 Thursday night
games throughout this season at 8:20 PM ET.
NBC – NBC airs Sunday Night Football, which is a
national broadcast airing every Sunday night at 8:20 PM ET. NBC will also air two Thursday night games
throughout the season at 8:20 PM ET with one being the Thanksgiving night
broadcast and the other being the opening game of the season on the first
Thursday.
NFL Network – NFL Network (NFLN) airs every
Thursday night football game (8:20 PM ET), except for the opening game of the
season and the Thanksgiving night game, which are both exclusively on NBC. In addition, it will air several games on
Saturdays in late December (4:30 PM ET & 8:20 PM ET) and one Sunday morning
game (9:30 AM ET) from London. Of the
18 games NFL Network is scheduled to air for 2018, only 7 are exclusive to
NFLN; the other 11 games are aired on FOX in addition to NFLN.
NFL Network RedZone – NFLN RedZone (NFLN RZ) is a highlight
channel that jumps between live games and usually airs on Sundays from 1:00 PM
ET to 8:00 PM ET. It highlights
important plays as they happen and shows replays of plays that just
occurred. Please note that there is
another channel called “Red Zone Channel” which is only available to DirecTV
customers that subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket Max package. These are two completely different channels
although their setup is very similar.
TV Everywhere Apps – Many cable channels now have
a live stream of their channel available to watch online for authenticated
subscribers. ESPN makes all its
programming available via the WATCHESPN and ESPN apps while FOX uses the FOX
Sports Go app to watch FOX sporting events. CBS streams its football games
through the CBS All-Access service (more on that below in “STREAMING SERVICES”)
which can be purchased via a separate subscription. NBC streams its games through the NBC Sports
App while NFLN streams its content through the Watch NFL Network app.
STREAMING
SERVICES
Sling TV
·
Plans:
o
Orange ($25/month)
o
Blue ($25/month), Blue Sports Add-on ($10/month)
o
Orange + Blue ($40/month), Orange + Blue +
Sports Add-on ($50/month)
·
Channels:
o
Orange - ESPN
o
Blue - FOX,NBC,NFLN
o
Blue Sports Add-on – NFLN RZ
·
# of Streams: Orange (1 stream); Blue (3
streams)
·
Devices: Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV + most common
devices
Summary: Sling TV (Sling) is probably the best option for
NFL fans in that it is still the cheapest way to get NFLN and/or NFLN RZ. With PlayStation Vue’s recent price increase, Sling is now $10 less than the cost of the corresponding Vue package to receive
ESPN, NFLN and NFLN RZ and $4 less than the cost of FuboTV which doesn’t
include ESPN. However, it doesn’t carry
CBS and its coverage of local channels is the smallest compared to the other
services. Therefore, if an antenna is not
feasible in your location, it’s best to look elsewhere if you need to watch
games on FOX or NBC (CBS can be streamed by subscribing to CBS All-Access). Also, DVR service costs extra ($5/month)
whereas most other services include it in the base price. Lastly, the ESPN channels are limited to 1
simultaneous stream, which is the lowest of any service, although you can use
the WATCHESPN or ESPN apps to watch additional streams.
PlayStation Vue
·
Plans:
o Access
($45/month), Core ($50/month), Sports Pack ($10/month), Elite ($60/month),
Ultra ($80/month)
§ PlayStation
Vue increased the price of all of their plans by $5/month effective 7/24/18
·
Channels:
o Access
- CBS,FOX,NBC,ESPN
o Core
- Access Channels + NFLN
o Sports
Pack - Core Channels + NFLN RZ
·
# of Streams: 5 (3 at signup + 2 additional
available, in-home only, after a home device is set)
o Limited
to a max of one PS3, one PS4, and three mobile/web-based devices at all times
·
Devices: Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV + most common
devices
Summary: The price
increase that PlayStation Vue (Vue) instituted in July 2018 now makes it less
attractive to NFL fans as it now costs more than both Sling & FuboTV to
receive NFLN and/or NFLN RZ. However, it
does offer more simultaneous streams than both of those comparable services,
includes significantly more local channels than Sling and also has ESPN, which
FuboTV doesn’t. Thus, it may be more
desirable to some fans even with its hefty price tag, especially if there are
other sports that you’re interested in (i.e. college football, baseball, etc.)
and/or it is difficult to receive your local OTA channels via antenna. However, its local channel coverage is
lacking compared to Hulu, DIRECTV NOW and YouTube TV so if your main concern is
being able to receive CBS, NBC and FOX you may be better served elsewhere.
DIRECTV NOW
·
Plans:
o Live
a Little ($40/month), Just Right ($55/month), Go Big ($65/month), Gotta Have It
($75/month)
§ DIRECTV
NOW increased the price of all of their plans by $5/month effective 8/1/18
·
Channels:
o Live
a Little - CBS,FOX,NBC,ESPN
o Just
Right – Live a Little channels + NFLN
o The
more expensive packages do not have any other channels which air NFL games
·
# of Streams: 2 with the option of purchasing an
additional stream for $5/month
·
Devices: Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV + most common
devices
Summary: DIRECTV NOW’s (DTV NOW) price increase of July
2018 made it slightly less attractive because its most basic plan is now
priced identically to YouTube TV and Hulu.
It recently added NFLN on 8/1, but doesn’t have NFLN RZ so it is lacking
compared to Sling, Vue, and FuboTV in that regard. However, if your favorite team isn’t featured
on NFLN this year then it might be acceptable, especially if you are also an
AT&T Wireless Unlimited customer which qualifies you for a $15/month
credit. Plus, it now has more locals
available than Vue in most markets.
FuboTV
·
Plans:
o Base
Plan ($45/month), Sports Plus ($9/month)
·
Channels:
o Base
Plan - CBS,FOX,NBC,NFLN
o Sports
Plus – Base Plan + NFLN RZ
·
# of Streams: 2 with the option of purchasing an
additional stream (Family Share Add-On) for $6/month
·
Devices: Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV + most common
devices
Summary: FuboTV is
a decent choice for hardcore NFL fans in that it offers all three broadcast
networks, NFLN and NFLN RZ. However, it
doesn’t have ESPN (or ABC) so you would miss all Monday Night Football Games
and one Wild Card playoff game, unless you can receive the stations airing
those games via antenna (the Wild Card game is aired on ESPN & ABC). Also, it’s local channel coverage is not
quite as extensive as some of the other services. Overall, it’s a decent choice in that it will
carry every NFL game except for Monday Night Football.
Hulu Live
·
Plans:
o Base
Plan ($40/month) ($45/month starting 2/26/19)
·
Channels:
o CBS,FOX,NBC,ESPN
·
# of Streams:
o 2
with the option of purchasing “unlimited” streams for an extra $15/month $10/month starting 2/26/19
o Unlimited
streams includes unlimited streams at home and max 3 streams outside of home
·
Devices: Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV + most common
devices
Summary: Hulu Live is very similar to YouTube
TV in that it carries the basic NFL game channels (broadcast networks + ESPN),
but doesn’t have NFLN or NFLN RZ, although it is available (► 1/26/19) in more markets and on more devices than YouTube TV. It may also be more appealing than it as well because it includes a subscription
to regular Hulu content (normally $8/month) and offers the largest number of
simultaneous streams (for a fee). Otherwise, it
doesn’t have as much to offer as Vue or Sling.
YouTube TV
·
Plans:
o Base
Plan ($40/month)
·
Channels:
o CBS,FOX,NBC,ESPN
·
# of Streams:
o 3
·
Devices: Roku, Apple TV (not Fire TV) + some
other devices
Summary: As
mentioned previously, YouTube TV(YTTV) has the basic NFL related channels, but
lacks the specialty ones. Also,
it’s not available everywhere in the US (►
1/26/19) YTTV announced
on 1/23/19 that they expanded to 95 additional markets (195 total in the US)
with the remaining unsupported markets to be available in the coming
weeks. It is currently not available to watch on Fire
TV devices (Note: there are some workarounds to view it but most are clunky
and/or not fully 100% functional) and does not have the widespread device availability that most of the other
services offer. However, its DVR will
store programs for up to 9 months without any type of storage limit and this,
coupled with its extra stream (3), compared to Hulu Live & DTV NOW (2), may
make it a better option for some fans.
CBS All-Access – CBS All-Access is a streaming
service which provides a live feed of some, but not all, local CBS stations in
addition to on demand episodes of CBS programs including all of its Sunday
afternoon games. The service costs
$5.99/month (or $59.99/year) and has a $9.99/month (or $99.99/year) option which
does not feature any advertisements, although it does have local advertisements
on the live stream of local stations. It is available on nearly all of the
common streaming devices. It can make a
nice complement to streaming service which doesn’t include your local CBS
station if you’re not able to receive it via an antenna.
Amazon Prime – Amazon won the rights to stream 11
Thursday Night Football games 2017 and made them available exclusively to
Amazon Prime members. They renewed this
deal for 2018 & 2019 with this year featuring the 11 games that FOX will televise
on Thursday nights. The Amazon Prime
Video app is available on most streaming devices.
(► 9/11/18)Twitch – Twitch is a live streaming
video platform, owned by Amazon, that will also stream the 11 Thursday Night
Football games that Amazon Prime (and FOX) will air in 2018. However, the app is free and does not require
any kind of subscription unlike Amazon Prime.
It has an app available for most streaming devices although there is no official
app for Roku devices.
Verizon – Verizon announced a new deal with the
NFL in December 2017 which allows them to stream all local in-market &
national games including the playoffs & Super Bowl, starting in January
2018, to all mobile devices with no carrier restrictions. Thus, any (► 9/11/18) phone or tablet device which has a screen
of 7” or less can view the local in-market Sunday afternoon games (CBS,
FOX) in addition to all national games (Thursday, Sunday, Monday Nights) via
the Yahoo Sports and NFL Mobile apps, except for NFLN exclusive games. NFLN exclusive games can only be viewed on
mobile devices with cellular data; they cannot be viewed on tablets or via wi-fi
(more info about NFLN games available here and here). For more information on the overall deal, see
here.
(► 9/11/18)NFL Network Redzone (Mobile) – Per a
reddit post,
it appears that the NFLN RZ channel can be purchased as a standalone channel via
the NFL Mobile app for $4.99/month.
However, it is limited to mobile devices only and cannot be played or
streamed on any other type of device.
NFL SUNDAYTICKET.TV – NFL SUNDAYTICKET.TV is an
online streaming version of NFL Sunday Ticket, which airs all out-of-market
Sunday afternoon NFL games. Thus, local
in-market games, Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night
Football and any other games (Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning—London, etc.)
are not included. It is only available
to people who are unable to receive DirecTV service (due to either living in an
apartment, condo, etc. or living in a residence that cannot physically receive
service due to obstructions) or are verified college students. Meeting either
of these criteria allows you to sign up for the NFL SUNDAYTICKET.TV streaming
service without subscribing to DirecTV. It
is available on nearly all of the common streaming devices including mobile
devices and via browser. The student package
costs $99.96, 4 monthly payments of $24.99 each, while the regular version (for
non-students who are unable to receive DirecTV satellite service), costs $293.96,
4 monthly payments of $73.49 each.
BROADCAST WINDOWS
The following information will cover in further detail the various regular season broadcast windows and types of coverage that exist including days, times, channels, and more. For information on playoff games, see “Other Broadcast Windows” at the end of this section.
Sunday Afternoon Regional Coverage
·
Every Sunday CBS and FOX air different games in
each regional market starting at 1:00 PM ET.
One network will have a doubleheader and will air a second game at 4:25
PM ET while the other network, with a singleheader, will also air games at 4:05
PM ET, but only to those markets that did not have a game air at 1 PM ET. This is true for every week except the final
week, week 17, when both CBS and FOX air doubleheaders.
·
The individual stations have a right to request
a specific game for each window but ultimately the networks determine which
game each station must air.
·
Occasionally, in the event of a game which is
not close, the network will move certain regions to a different, more
competitive game (see more in the “THINGS TO KNOW” section below).
·
Even when one network is scheduled to air a
doubleheader, your local station may only end up showing one game because of
blackout rules, specifically the “no opposing home team’s market” provision
(see more in the “THINGS TO KNOW” section below).
Monday Night Football
·
Every Monday night at 8:15 PM ET, ESPN airs a
game nationally to the entire country, Monday Night Football (MNF), except for
Week 1 when they air two games, starting at 7:10 PM ET & 10:20 PM ET. The only exception would be if the game does
not meet the minimum ticket sale requirements; in that case, it is blacked out
in the market of the home team----although the league suspended the local
blackout policy for the last 3 years, nothing has officially been announced for
2018 yet (see more on Blackouts in the “THINGS TO KNOW” section below).
·
MNF is also aired concurrently on an
over-the-air (OTA) broadcast channel in the markets of both the home and away teams. The specific channel varies by team. For more information, see this thread from 506sports.com forums (Note: you must register there to
view it) which lists all the local broadcast stations in each market for MNF.
Thursday Night Football
·
Thursday Night Football (TNF) is a package of 13
Thursday night games that start at 8:20 PM beginning with Week 2 of the
season. All games are aired on NFLN
while eleven games each are also airing on FOX, leaving two games exclusively
aired on NFLN.
·
TNF games aired exclusively on NFLN are also
aired concurrently on OTA broadcast channel in the markets of both the home and
away team. The specific channel varies
by team. For more information, see this thread from 506sports.com forums (Note: you must register there to
view it) which lists all the local broadcast stations in each market for TNF
games on NFLN. Please note this does not apply to TNF games also aired by FOX.
Sunday Night Football
·
Sunday Night Football (SNF) is a package of 16
Sunday night games and 2 Thursday night games aired exclusively by NBC at 8:20
PM ET. The Thursday night games are the
opening game of the regular season (hosted by the defending Super Bowl Champion
each year) and the Thanksgiving night game.
There is no SNF game the final week of the season.
Other Broadcast Windows
·
There will be several games aired on Saturdays
in 2018. NFLN will air 2 games on
Saturday December 15th and two games on Saturday December 22rd. The Saturday game windows are regular
occurrences but the specific games for Saturday December 22nd are
not determined yet.
·
London Games
o The
NFL will play three games in London this fall with two of them set to start at
9:30 AM ET; the third game will start at 1:00 PM ET. One game will air nationally on CBS, one will
air nationally on NFLN and the third game will air regionally on FOX.
·
Playoff Games
o There
are 4 different rounds of postseason games culminating with the Super Bowl.
§ Wild
Card Round – Four total games with two aired on Saturday afternoon and evening
and the other two on Sunday afternoon. One game is aired by ESPN & ABC, one
game is aired by NBC, one AFC game is aired by CBS and the remaining NFC game
is aired by FOX.
§ Divisional
Round - Four total games with two aired on Saturday afternoon and evening and
the other two on Sunday afternoon. One is aired by NBC and the remaining three
are aired by CBS & FOX. Essentially
each network (CBS & FOX) has the two games for their respective conferences
but NBC ends up getting to air one of them because it lost one wildcard game to
ESPN/ABC. In 2017, it CBS aired both AFC
divisional games and NBC & FOX each aired one NFC divisional game; thus,
2018 will see FOX air both NFC divisional games with NBC & CBS splitting
the AFC divisional games.
§ Conference
Championship Round – Each network airs the conference championship game of
their respective conference, the AFC on CBS and the NFC on FOX. Both games are
aired on Sunday afternoon with the times alternating each year. In other words, in 2017 the AFC Championship
game started at 3:00 PM ET with the NFC Championship following at 6:30PM ET; in
2018, those times will reverse with the NFC Championship game airing first.
§ Super
Bowl – The Super Bowl rotates between CBS, FOX, and NBC each year. NBC
televised the game in 2018 (2017 season) and CBS is scheduled to air the game in
2019 (2018 season). Last year NBC
streamed the game for free on the NBC Sports App without any authentication
required. CBS has announced that the
game will be streamed via CBS All-Access but
there is no indication that it will be available for free yet (► 9/11/18) and recently announced on 9/4/18 it
will be available to stream for free on connected devices, tablets and mobile
phones via the CBS Sports app. More info
can be found here.
THINGS TO KNOW
There are a lot of nuances and caveats regarding some of
these services and channels so please read the following items before you
decide to purchase anything.
Antennas
·
The Broadcast networks (CBS, FOX, NBC) can all
be picked up with an antenna if you live within a reasonable distance of the tv
towers although this will also be dependent upon the strength of the various
channels and/or the location of your antenna.
Thus, if you can receive all three of these channels, you will be able
to watch every local & national NFL game in your area except for MNF on
ESPN and the seven games exclusively aired on NFLN. Keep in mind, as mentioned above, that MNF
games & NFLN games are aired on a local affiliate in the markets of both
participating teams. Thus, if you live in the DMA of one of the 32 NFL teams,
you might be able to watch any MNF & NFLN games featuring that team(s),
although it could be aired on a different broadcast station which you may or
may not receive via an antenna.
Mobile Phone Exclusivity
·
Previously, Verizon had the exclusive mobile
rights to watch any NFL game (except for NFL Sunday Ticket &
NFLSUNDAYTICKET.TV subscribers).
However, a new deal announced in December 2017 declared that this
exclusivity no longer exists. Each of
the specific channels (FOX, CBS, NBC, ESPN) is now free to stream their games
to mobile devices and all have agreed to pay for the mobile streaming
rights. To see a summary of the Verizon announcement,
you can view articles from Yahoo,
TheVerge, Fortune,
Tech Hive or the official Verizon announcement here.
Streaming Rights
·
FOX Sports Go & NBC Sports App
o There
are many DMA’s which do not have the local FOX and/or NBC channel included in
some or all of the available streaming services. Will you be able to watch Sunday afternoon & Thursday night FOX games on Fox Sports Go or SNF games on the NBC Sports App instead? The answer isn’t clear. Some users have reported that they have seen
a stream for a local FOX Sunday game in the Fox Sports Go app while others have
reported that they have not (even in some cases where they do receive the local
FOX channel). The Fox Sports Go FAQ
has a question that reads “Can I watch
NFL on FOX games? and includes this note *You need to receive these
channels in your TV channel line-up in order to watch them in FOX Sports GO.
Note that some channels may not yet be available for every TV provider^ or
on every platform. The NBC Sports FAQ
page doesn’t have any items which specifically address this situation. Thus, if
you subscribe to a streaming service that does not offer FOX or NBC in your
DMA, it’s possible you will not be able to watch any games which air on those
channels unless you use an antenna to receive them.
Blackouts – The following blackout rules apply
·
Home Game non-sellout blackouts
o There
is a rule which states that any game where the home team has not sold at least
85 percent of its available seats, 72 hours prior to the kickoff time, must be
blacked out in the home team’s local market.
The local market is generally defined as the area within a 75-mile
radius of the home team’s stadium, although there are some exceptions that
extend it further out. However, this
rule was suspended for 2015, 2016 & 2017.
The last time a game was blacked out in a home team’s market was 2013
when there were two.
·
No opposing games in home team’s market
o Whenever
a station is airing the game of a home team for Sunday Regional Coverage, in
that team’s market (i.e. DMA), the other station is prohibited from airing a
game at the same time. For example, in
Week 1 Pittsburgh is playing at Cleveland at 1:00 PM ET on CBS. In the Cleveland DMA, FOX is prohibited from
also airing a game at 1:00 PM ET. Thus,
if FOX is scheduled to air a doubleheader that week, the Cleveland market will
only see one game from FOX at 4:25 PM ET.
If FOX is scheduled to air a single game, then it will have to air a
game that starts at 4:05 PM ET. Please
note that this rule only applies to the DMA of the home team (the away team’s
DMA is unaffected) and that other secondary DMA’s are not affected. In the example above, the Youngstown, Toledo,
Columbus and Wheeling-Steubenville DMA’s would all be allowed to air a game on
FOX at 1:00 PM ET.
Flexible Scheduling
·
Flexible scheduling allows the NFL to change the
times for some games on Sundays including SNF
o Start with the 2006 season, the NFL instituted a policy that allows it to change the announced
start time of Sunday afternoon games to highlight more competitive matchups in
prime time for SNF. This policy is in
effect starting with Week 5 through Week 17 and basically works as
follows. If it chooses, the NFL will
announce that the currently scheduled SNF game will be moved to a Sunday
afternoon time slot and will be replaced by a game that was previously
scheduled for Sunday afternoon. There
may additional games that switch times because of this schedule change, i.e. a
third game may have its original time changed from 1:00 PM ET to 4:25 PM ET or
vice versa. It is usually done later in
the season when the game that is scheduled for SNF has very little or no
playoff implications and is subject to the following rules.
§ Between
Weeks 5-10, only two games total may be flexed to SNF
§ It
does not affect games scheduled for Thursdays, Saturdays or Mondays
§ Any
announcements regarding the flexing of games to Sunday night will be made at
least 12 days in advance
·
“Cross-flex” scheduling allows the NFL to air
FOX controlled regional games on CBS and CBS controlled regional games on FOX
o This
policy started in 2014 as a result of the flexible scheduling policy above because
due to multiple games being moved around, it could happen that CBS or FOX might
not have a game in a team’s primary market.
Thus, there will sometimes be games on CBS which feature two NFC teams
and also games on FOX featuring two AFC teams.
·
These two ideas are important because there may
be games that you expect to watch on a certain channel at a certain time which
end up being shown a different channel that you do not receive and/or at a
different time.
Non-competitive Games
·
Occasionally, when there is a non-competitive
regional game, CBS or FOX will switch most out of area markets carrying the
game to a different game that is much more competitive. They generally do not do this to the markets
of the home or away teams. To see more
information regarding this including the specific criteria that exist, please
see this post from last year on the 506sports.com forum.
SUMMARY OF
OPTIONS TO WATCH NFL GAMES
I’ve read through this who guide, so now what? Well, I would basically summarize your
options this way.
Are you able to receive the broadcast channels (CBS, FOX,
NBC) via an antenna? If so, you’ll be
able to watch all of your local and national games for no monthly cost, except
for the 7 NFL Network Games and MNF.
Also, if you’re a fan of a specific team and live within their DMA, then
any NFLN or MNF games will also be aired on OTA channels, so if you can receive
those channels, you should be all set.
And as a fallback, the NFLN Thursday night games along with MNF could
always be viewed in the Yahoo Sports app on any mobile device.
Now, if you can’t get all of the broadcast networks via
an antenna, your options are either to watch those games on a mobile device or
subscribe to a streaming service which hopefully carries all 3 of those
networks. Note that if CBS is the only
broadcast station you can’t get, then CBS All-Access is a good option at only
$6/month. Any service that would offer
all 3 of them (except for FuboTV) is going to include ESPN as well so that
would cover MNF as well. If you’re in
the DMA of one of the 32 NFL teams, then check out my channel charts which show
which broadcast networks are carried by each service; otherwise, you’ll have to
go to the links below to lookup the networks that are carried in your
particular DMA.
Finally, if you’re a fan of an out-of-market team and/or
a fantasy football fan and/or just an obsessed NFL fan in general, then NFLN RZ
is a must have and you should probably subscribe to one of the three services
that offers it. NFLN RZ is really the
only option (short of NFL Sunday Ticket or NFLSUNDAYTICKET.TV) that will allow
a fan who lives out of market to see at least some of his favorite team’s games
each week. While the options range from
cheap ($35/month) to expensive ($60/month), the best one for you is going to
depend on a number of factors such as which OTA stations are carried, what
other channels (sports & otherwise) each service carries, device
compatibility, quality of streaming (i.e. buffering, freezing), etc.
With all that being said, below are several charts to help you decide which streaming
service is the right choice to help you get your NFL fix. The first chart shows the various NFL
broadcast windows and all the options that exist to watch those games. The second
chart shows which channels each service carries and the compatibility with the
respective channels TV Everywhere apps. After
that are two charts, one for AFC teams and one for NFC teams, which show the
availability of the local channels in every market for the NFL’s 32 teams. If
you’re not in the DMA of an NFL team, then, as mentioned above, you’ll need to
look up the channels offered on each service’s website.
NFL CHANNEL INPUT SPREADSHEET
My NFL channel input spreadsheet is an Excel spreadsheet
that will allow you to input up to 6 channels and will return all streaming service
options which carry that group of channels, including highlighting the cheapest
available option. Please read the instructions (located on the 2nd tab in
the file) before using but it is fairly straightforward. You simply enter
in the name of each channel (it has to match the name I've assigned to it in
the Channel Key in the file) and the spreadsheet will automatically update.
To download a copy of it (it's a zip file which you must
save & unzip to access the Excel file), click here.
**TO VIEW A PDF FILE OF ALL THE CHARTS LISTED BELOW, CLICK HERE**
BROADCAST WINDOW VIEWING OPTIONS CHART (last updated 9/11/18)
Sun
Afternoon Regional
|
Sun
Night Football
|
Thurs
Night Football
|
Mon
Night Football
|
Sat
Afternoon
&
Evening
|
Sun
AM (London)
|
|
Channels
|
CBS, FOX
|
NBC
|
FOX/NFLN
|
ESPN
|
NFLN
|
NFLN
|
Option 1
|
Antenna
|
Antenna
|
Antenna
|
Antenna***
|
Antenna***
|
Antenna***
|
Option 2
|
Yahoo Sports App or NFL Mobile App*
|
Yahoo Sports App or NFL Mobile App*
|
Yahoo Sports App or NFL Mobile App
|
Yahoo Sports App or NFL Mobile App*
|
Yahoo Sports App or NFL Mobile App
|
Yahoo Sports App or NFL Mobile App
|
Option 2
|
Streaming Service**
FOX
All
CBS
1. Vue
2. FuboTV
3. Hulu Live
4. YouTube TV
5. DIRECTV NOW
|
Streaming Service** (ALL)
|
Streaming Service**
FOX
All
NFLN
1. Sling
2. Vue
3. FuboTV
4. DIRECTV NOW
|
Streaming Service
1. Sling
2. Vue
3. DIRECTV NOW
4. Hulu Live
5. YouTube TV
|
Streaming Service
1. Sling
2. Vue
3. FuboTV
4. DIRECTV NOW
|
Streaming Service
NFLN
1. Sling
2. Vue
3. FuboTV
4. DIRECTV NOW
|
Option 3
|
CBS All-Access (CBS only)
|
-----------
|
Amazon Prime and Twitch****
|
-----------
|
-----------
|
-----------
|
*Available to watch on phones
& tablets only
**Availability varies by
market
***Applies to the DMA of
the participating teams in each game only
****Only for 11 Thursday
night games that simultaneously air on Fox
*****NFLN Exclusive games
(2 Thurs Night, 4 Saturday PM, 1 Sun AM) are only available to view on phones
with a cellular data connection (not on wi-fi)
NFL CHANNEL & APP STREAMING CHART (last updated 9/11/18)
Sling
TV
|
PlayStation
Vue
|
DIRECTV
NOW
|
FuboTV
|
Hulu
Live
|
YouTube
TV
|
|
CBS
|
NO
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES
|
FOX
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES
|
NBC
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES*
|
YES
|
ESPN
|
YES (Orange)
|
YES
(Access
or higher)
|
YES
(Live
a Little or higher)
|
NO
|
YES
|
YES
|
NFL Network
|
YES (Blue)
|
YES
(Core
or higher)
|
YES
(Just Right or higher)
|
YES
|
NO
|
NO
|
NFL Network RedZone
|
YES (Blue)**
|
YES***
(Core
or higher)
|
NO
|
YES****
|
NO
|
NO
|
WATCHESPN
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
-----
|
YES
|
YES
|
FOX SPORTS GO
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
NBC Sports App
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
Watch NFL Network
|
YES
|
YES
|
-----
|
YES
|
-----
|
-----
|
CBS All-Access
|
-----
|
YES
|
NO
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
*Only available in certain
markets
**Requires a subscription
to Sling Blue + Sports Extra package ($10/month)
***Requires a subscription
to Core or higher + Sports Pack Add-on ($10/month)
****Requires Base Package
+ Sports Plus Add-on package ($8.99/month)
AFC TEAM LOCAL
CHANNEL CHART (► updated 12/15/18) – Please click here to view a PDF of the local channels
offered in the DMA for each AFC team
NFC TEAM LOCAL
CHANNEL CHART (► updated 12/15/18) – Please click here to view a PDF of the local channels
offered in the DMA for each NFC team
SOURCES &
REFERENCES:
The information in the chart above and this entire post
came from a variety of sources. Other websites that are very useful for
TV listings are 506sports.com and FBSCHEDULES.com.
506sports.com is
particularly useful because JP Kirby (the owner) creates channel maps each week
which show which games each area of the country will be receiving on CBS &
FOX for the Sunday Afternoon Regional broadcasts.
Sling TV
PlayStation Vue
DIRECTV NOW
FuboTV
Hulu Live
YouTube TV
MISC
