Lawmakers question rising NFL streaming costs for fans
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, addresses a congressional hearing probing the NFL’s streaming practices and rising costs for fans. Jordan discusses the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act and antitrust concerns, as fans face exorbitant prices to access all games across multiple platforms. He emphasizes the need for affordable access to NFL content for all constituents, not just those who can afford expensive packages.
You may have received an email over the past week about renewing or adding NFL Sunday Ticket, YouTube’s exclusive package for out-of-market NFL games.
You may also have noticed the price. It is expensive. And each year, the NFL further reduces the package’s value by expanding its national windows.
Let us explain.
Sunday Ticket does not include nationally televised games or games available in your local market. Subscribers do not receive Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, or Monday Night Football. Nor does the package include the three or four games available locally across Fox and CBS during the 1 p.m. and 4:25 p.m. ET windows.
For example, viewers in Michigan cannot watch Lions games on Sunday Ticket because those games air locally on Fox or CBS.
We agree. The NFL’s television schedule is unnecessarily complicated. And it’s getting worse.
Streaming service EverPass Media announced it would become the exclusive commercial option for NFL Sunday Ticket starting with the 2026 season. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
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Netflix will carry five games this season: 49ers-Rams from Australia in Week 1 on Thursday night, the first Thanksgiving Eve matchup between the Packers and Rams, two Christmas Day games, and an unannounced Saturday game later in the season.
Yes, Thanksgiving Eve means the NFL will play on a Wednesday. And because Netflix will air a Thursday night game in Week 1, NBC will move its Patriots-Seahawks season opener also to a Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026.
The NFL will then play four Friday games: Packers-Bears and Bills-Broncos on Netflix, Rams-Seahawks on Fox on Christmas Day, and Broncos-Steelers on Amazon Prime on Black Friday.
In total, the NFL will play six games on Wednesdays and Fridays this season, two days it long avoided (in part because of legal restrictions).
Further, nine of the league’s 18 weeks will include an international game, most of which will air on NFL Network at 9:30 a.m. ET.
An ad for NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV is displayed as bar patrons watch the telecast of the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 5, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y. (Getty Images)
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What does this have to do with Sunday Ticket?
Each time the NFL sells a new national window to a broadcaster, it removes a game that otherwise would have been part of the Sunday early or late-afternoon slate.
The result is fewer games on Sunday Ticket, but for a higher price.
YouTube lists the standard price for 2026-27 Sunday Ticket at $480. Subscribers can divide the cost into eight $60 monthly payments, but they must eventually pay in full. You cannot subscribe and unsubscribe by the month.
Most users can purchase it for less. The $480 price is misleading. It largely exists so the NFL can market lower prices as discounts.
New users can currently sign up for $240 a year. Most returning subscribers can renew for $336. YouTube TV subscribers can purchase the package for $234, though they must maintain their YouTube TV subscription throughout the NFL season.
Teachers, military members, veterans, first responders and medical workers can purchase Sunday Ticket for $198 per year through ID.me. Eligible students can get it for $119, though they can stream on only one device.
The price varies by subscriber. Still, Sunday Ticket lasts just four months. At any of those prices, it remains one of the most expensive streaming subscriptions available.
And because of the scheduling changes cited above, the number of games no longer justifies the cost. Again, most of the week’s best matchups will air elsewhere.
NFL fans who want to access every game need YouTube TV for “NFL Sunday Ticket,” along with costly subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Peacock and Netflix. (Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images)
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At this point, Sunday Ticket might be most appealing for fans who live outside the market of their favorite team.
Then again, it may still depend on the team for which you root.
The following teams have have no traditional primetime games scheduled this season (this could change with late-season flexing): Arizona Cardinals, Tennessee Titans, Miami Dolphins, and Las Vegas Raiders have no traditional primetime games scheduled this season.
Sunday Ticket is the only way for fans of those teams to watch them weekly from a a different state.
By contrast, the Los Angeles Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers each have at least six primetime games. In addition, Fox and CBS will likely feature them heavily in the 1 p.m. and 4:25 p.m. windows available to most of the country (so long as the local team is not airing at the same time on the same channel).
In sum, a Chiefs fan in North Carolina likely won’t need Sunday Ticket to watch their team most weeks, a Titans fan in Arizona will.
The NFL got greedy. Sunday Ticket’s diminished value is a consequence. And as the league continues to expand its national windows, demand for the package will decline.
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Unless, of course, the NFL lowers the price.
