For $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year, the new NFL+ service provides access to live on-site and prime-time games. This is the same content that the league has offered free on its NFL mobile app for the past few years.
NFL+ is also available exclusively for phones and mobile tablets. Users cannot stream games to TVs using the service.
The NFL may be dipping its foot in more flowing waters, but it’s not throwing away the old-fashioned way of watching games.
This is good news for the television industry, because the NFL has some of the biggest ratings on the airwaves. But it allows the league to experiment a bit in the streaming world, make some extra money, and build a subscriber base with fans that are more focused on streaming.
NFL+ also offers live local and national audio for every game, on-demand NFL Network shows, and access to the NFL film archives, according to the league.
“Today marks an important day in the history of the National Football League with the launch of NFL+,” Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, said in a statement Monday. “Fired and engaged football fans are the lifeblood of the NFL, and being able to reach and interact with them across multiple platforms is incredibly important to us.”
Goodell added that the league looks forward to continuing to expand NFL+ while “providing access to a tremendous amount of NFL content, including the most valuable content in the media industry: live NFL games.”
There is also an NFL+ Premium version that costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year. This tier includes all the features of the cheaper version, but also includes full game replays and other options.
The NFL was an outlier among the big four US professional sports leagues, being the only one without a direct-to-customer streaming subscription service. However, NFL+ is far more limited than NBA League Pass, NHL.TV, or MLB.TV, which offer out-of-town games in addition to local ones. DirecTV remains the NFL’s exclusive partner for out-of-town football matches, although that so-called Sunday Ticket deal expires at the end of this year and there is much speculation as to which provider will take the reins.
NFL regular-season 2021 television viewership overall increased approximately 10% year-over-year, averaging 17.1 million viewers per game across television and digital. That’s the highest regular-season average since 2015, according to the league. Last year, the NFL signed a 10-year deal beginning in 2023 with its TV partners worth more than $100 billion.