It has been nearly 85 years since the first football game was aired on TV – thanks, NBC. Unfortunately, they no longer have those exclusive honors, and the ongoing battle between streaming services, cable companies, and broadcast stations for rights to air football games has become a nightmare for consumers in this internet-reliant era.
Naturally, many people live in their team’s local market, but the truth is a large portion don’t – with few options when it comes to watching their crew play. NFL Sunday Ticket costs a whopping $479 for the season ($519 if you also want NFL RedZone), which feels like theft for many. This makes it easier than ever for fans to rationalize using piracy and illegal streaming sites, rather than shelling out more money on top of all the other ways they support their team (think merch and watch party food and beverages).
So, in this era where the cost of watching your team play each week has risen nearly 500%, who will do what it takes to tune in? Which fan bases are the league’s biggest “pirates”? And what, if anything, is this manufactured competition costing the NFL as a whole? We surveyed 3,200 American football fans to find out.
Over one-third of fans stream illegally – why?
With even dedicated fans only tuning into an average of 9.4 live games a season for their favorite team (and 3.48 NFL games each week during it), it’s likely that most of those are on home turf as well as easily accessible, local broadcasts. To boot, only five fan bases in the league are able to watch upwards of ten live games on average: those of the Tennessee Titans (11.6), Green Bay Packers (11.5), Philadelphia Eagles (11.3), Cincinnati Bengals (11.1), and Seattle Seahawks (10.9). Sorry, but who wants to watch less than 68% of their team’s season – at best?
It’s even harder for fans of teams that aren’t traditionally televised on holidays or located in NFL-popularized cities to get their fix. Although 39% of people surveyed said they use paid streaming services to watch football, not far behind at 35% were folks using – you guessed it – an illegal streaming service.
Cable television came in at 14%, the old school antenna at 8%, and satellite TV rounded out the options with 4%. Sure, most people might not feel the best about pirating games, but when faced with the decision to at least try to tune in versus tuning out completely, there’s only one answer for a lot of fans.
While these numbers represent that fans will find a way to watch their teams play, what, if any, are the bigger repercussions of the fact that 1 in 3 NFL fans pirate games? The truth is, sometimes illegal streaming services are just as inconvenient (and certainly riskier), but they are still massively cheaper – and sometimes even free.
The hefty price tag for NFL Sunday Ticket and/or NFL RedZone has proven to be one of the biggest driving forces behind the rise in illegal streams, reflected again by 35% of survey participants who said they use them as their prime viewing source (with 49% saying they’ve used them at least once).
The price tag can make such an impact that not only fans, but players, also turn to illegal streaming services. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen recently shared a picture on his Instagram of him watching the NFL slate while recovering from an injury at home, but if you look closely, he was using the illegal streaming service “methstreams” in order to do so. And before you ask, yes, he just signed a four-year contract, valued at approximately $3,992,216 – about $1 million per season. If it’s too much for millionaires, is it too much for the casual NFL fan? Now we’re asking the real questions.
Percentage of NFL fans who watch games via illegal means (by fan base)
Even though all NFL teams have fans using illegal streaming services to watch games live, there are some fan bases that break the (expensive) rules more than others. Passing the halfway point with surveyed fans pirating games 51.6% of the time, the Cincinnati Bengals are streamed illegally more than any other team.
With half of the top ten in the 40th percentile (Green Bay fans take the second slot at 47.7%, while the Indianapolis Colts’ round them out at 40.3%) and the remaining four all ranging from 39.3% down to 35.1% (the Patriots and Giants, respectively), it’s easy to see how the 35% pirating average gets its heft.
Sure, that’s the who of NFL illegal streaming, but what about the where? Fans polled in Pennsylvania reported they pirated their team’s games a whopping 71.4% of the time, with North Carolina not far behind at 66.7%.
Ohio, Wisconsin, and Washington all had over half of their varied fans say they did the same, which could represent both a lack of access and melting pot states with still affordable land where people want to watch and enjoy still-affordable football.
It might not be the most glamorous way to ensure you get to watch your team each week during the season, but it’s definitely the most popular outside of, you know, around five hundred bucks. Yes, it’s technically illegal, but how many people really feel a moral objection when doing it or when others do?
If everyone is doing it, it must be okay?
It’s important to remember that no matter what side of the illegal streaming battle you’re on, there are still changes that, if made, could boost fans’ streaming integrity. Not shockingly, the rather excessive cost was named by 64% of people as the prime reason they use alternative (low-cost) services to watch football games.
Nearly one-third (32%) said “For convenience” (one reliable, cheap service each week), and 4% noted “Other” – meaning they don’t have a TV, don’t want to deal with buffering from an overloaded NFL Sunday Ticket or RedZone, or just plain and simple have no other option if they want to get rowdy watching their team live.
Let’s face it: with 1 in 3 surveyed fans pirating football games on a regular, weekly basis and an astounding 93% of respondents reporting they have no moral issue with illegal streams, you have to wonder: will this divide continue to get bigger over time? And is it ultimately costing the NFL money?
On average, NFL fans would be willing to spend $22 on a monthly streaming service that allows them to watch ONLY their team’s games. For perspective, the cost of NFL Sunday Ticket and NFL RedZone shake out to slightly under $22 a game per team– and that’s only if they make it to the Super Bowl.
If that’s the case, why not just hook up with an underground streaming service when it’s cheaper and more accessible, like 78% said they did? No matter how you look at it, the tangled way companies are taking away consistent, easy access simply makes it harder for fans to do what they want to do: cheer unabashedly without bankruptcy or buffering.
Although the NFL and its fans are currently missing out on an opportunity and desire to make football affordable for everyone who wants to watch their team’s entire season – not just a fraction of it – there must be a solution out there. Whether it’s a lowered price, a big buyout, or a campaign for a new, team-exclusive streaming service altogether, one thing is certain: NFL fans will find a way to be part of the intense action they love so much, no matter how they do it.
Where can you stream the NFL legally?
Several subscription streaming platforms offer legal streaming of NFL games in the US:
- NFL+, an official NFL service, enables users to watch out-of-market games on a tablet or smartphone.
- CBS broadcasted games are streamed through its partner Paramount+, while NBC Sports and FOX Sports offer their own solutions.
- Amazon Prime is the only place to watch the NFL Thursday Night Football matchup each week.
- NFL Sunday Ticket, which is broadcast through YouTube TV also provides access to out-or-market NFL games.
- Hulu+ is one of the most expensive streaming services available, but with it you can access all games broadcast across CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, and ESPN, subject to the usual limitations and local media blackouts.
Interestingly for sports bettors: some the best sportsbooks offer live streaming of NFL games through their apps and websites! Caesars Sportsbook offers a wide range of NFL games on stream for its users (Caesars sportsbook promo codes are often tied to NFL odds and events – check them out to take advantage of some great offers). FanDuel offers a variety of sports through their own streaming service FanDuel TV, as well as occasional FanDuel Promo Code offers tied to the NFL season.
Methodology
To obtain this data, we surveyed 3,200 American football fans across all fandoms in August 2023. The majority of respondents (70%) identify as male, while the remaining 30% identify as female, and the average age of the respondents was 42 years old.
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