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We’re probably all feeling some burnout from the ocean of streaming services currently available, but just in case you need one more, the National Football League has launched its own service called NFL+.
NFL+ is available starting today, with a seven-day free trial available. The initial $4.99 per month ($29.99/yr) tier includes live out-of-market preseason games on all devices, live audio for all games, and an on-demand library of archived videos and documentaries. Live regular season and postseason games are also included, for both primetime and local games, but those are only accessible on phones and tablets — no TVs. That includes Playoff games, the Pro Bowl, and next year’s Super Bowl LVII (which will also be broadcasted on CBS).
There’s a Premium tier for $9.99/mo ($79.99/yr) that adds full game replays, and condensed game replays across devices. NFL+ Premium also includes ‘Coaches Film’, also known as ‘All-22’ footage — an overhead view that fits in all 22 players on the field during a play. NFL only started releasing the footage to the public in 2012, then as part of a $70 Game Rewind cable package, and it has been available in various other packages since then.
The main catch (pun intended) is that most major games can only be watched on mobile devices, since the NFL has already sold the TV rights to other companies for the forseeable future. The NFL finalized a deal last year that will remain in effect until 2023, which splits up live broadcasting across Fox, Amazon, Disney, ViacomCBS, and Comcast (NBCUniversal).
Live sports coverage is one of the few remaining selling points for cable and satellite television services, and NFL+ isn’t a viable alternative to a cable subscription for watching football games in its current form. However, it is another step towards a future where most sports games are available on at least one streaming service. Apple has started streaming NBL Friday Night Baseball games on Apple TV+, while Amazon Prime Video has exclusive rights to NFL’s Thursday Night Football. NBCUniversal owns US broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games in the United States, and most events in the 2022 Beijing Games were available on the company’s Peacock service.
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