Want Access To Every NFL Game? It’ll Cost You, Thanks To Fractured Streaming Deals

As we’ve covered the era of cord-cutting from traditional cable television packages and the rise of streaming platforms, one of the areas I have focused on is the world of live sports. And in the world of sports, the NFL is king. If you were to look up the most viewed broadcasts on any given year, it’s an exercise similar to Where’s Waldo just to find a broadcast that isn’t an NFL game. And we have covered all kinds of deals the NFL has struck with streaming platforms recently, with a particular emphasis on the plural “platforms”. NFL streaming for sports is so fractured at this point that ESPN recently came out with an app specifically to help the public figure out just where in the hell they have to go to watch a particular game.

But knowing where to see a game doesn’t mean you have access to it. For that, you need to be subscribed to the relevant streaming platform. So what would it cost across all of those platforms if you wanted to have access to every single NFL game this coming season? Well, as it turns out, thousands of dollars.

This season’s streaming-only football viewers are going to need access to seven different streaming platforms, which can cost over $1,700 for the year. Fans who have cable instead will need nine different streaming platforms or channels, which can run $2,500 or more for the year.

Because there are now more bidders for NFL games’ rights, the prices the league was able to negotiate went up. The NFL now makes roughly $10 billion a year from TV deals, up from about $3 billion in 2010.

Wondering about the breakdown of these costs and how MarketWatch got its figures? Well, its post has a helpful dual cheat sheet for you. Here is what it takes for cord-cutters:

And here is what it takes if you have a cable subscription, which actually costs you more.

Now, how many people out there actually want to be able to watch every, or any, single NFL game they choose throughout an entire season? Very few, I am sure. But one constant over the past several years has been a game I wanted to watch, either my local Bears or just another good game out there, being unavailable to me because I’m missing one platform or another. This is first world problem stuff to be sure, but it’s useful to compare what the costs would be streaming another sport.

Let’s take baseball. I’m a Cubs fan (and a Bud man). Having access to every single baseball game this past MLB season is actually my current reality. I have that access. And, in comparison to the NFL’s requirement to subscribe to seven platforms for nearly $2k a year, for the MLB season I only need three subscriptions. I am an MLB.TV subscriber, which gets me every out of market game. That’s $150 for the year. Then I have to subscribe to Marquee to get the in market Cubs games. That’s $120 for the year. Finally, because the White Sox were on a regional sports network last year, I have to add in my YouTube.tv subscription, which comes to $875 per year. That’s 3 platforms at $1,146/year up against 7 platforms at $1,758/year. I would argue even now that MLB’s blackout rules and RSN deals already make it too complicated for people to find the game they want to watch, but it’s less than half the accounts and only two-thirds the cost of what it takes to get the same experience for the NFL. And that’s before I even mention that the NFL season consists of 272 games versus an MLB season’s 2,430 games. It’s also notable that a simple VPN service would obviate the need for the YouTube.tv subscription entirely.

And even after all of that, you have to take into account the multiple disputes in the streaming space that have put people’s ability to watch these NFL games at risk.

In August, a judge blocked the launch of Venu Sports, a joint streaming venture from Disney Warner and Fox, for the entertainment companies attempting to “exercise near-monopolistic control” over the industry.

The judge sided with rival steamer FuboTV and issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the $42.99 a month bundle, sending FuboTV’s skyrocketing. Shares of FuboTV are up nearly 38% over the last month.

But that’s not the only sports TV spat in the news. ESPN’s and Disney’s other sports channels have been dark on DirecTV since Sunday night after the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on carriage fees.

As of now, the NFL is making gobs of money and viewership still has the league as its king. But at some point, all of this fracturing and rising costs are going to have an effect. Most people just aren’t going to subscribe to that many streaming services in any circumstance, let alone purely to be able to watch NFL games. And if they suddenly can’t watch their local team, the fandom will get pissed off about that, which isn’t good for business.

Whether we have crossed that threshold yet we do not know. But the first time someone you know can’t find the game they want to watch, I promise that you’ll hear about it.