The NFL season is just two weeks away and fans are eager to see their favorite teams take the field. With all the excitement, the NFL continues to look for more ways to stream games and squeeze more money out of fans’ pockets. The problem became clear when Netflix announced that it would be the only place where fans could watch the NFL’s Christmas games. Peacock also signed on to be the exclusive announcer for the first regular season game in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

With the addition of Netflix and Peacock to the streaming rotation, the NFL now has seven different streaming services that fans must have if they want to watch all 272 games. With all of these streaming services comes a monthly paywall, forcing fans to constantly shell out money if they want to keep up with the games.

Even before streaming services took over, the NFL never made it easy for fans to access games from the comfort of their couch. The NFL had an exclusive deal with Direct TV, which meant that only Direct TV users had access to NFL Sunday Ticket, allowing fans to watch every game.

In 2023, NFL Sunday Ticket was moved to a streaming service on YouTube TV, which will remain in place until 2030 with a 7-year, $14 billion contract. The problem with the contract was the price; it was expensive for fans to pay for YouTube TV, which costs $72.99 per month, and add NFL Sunday Ticket, which costs $479 per season, excluding primetime games.

Due to the cost, fans are more likely to pirate games to save hundreds of dollars per month. However, not only is pirating games illegal, it also carries the risk of downloading viruses that can steal your personal information. A surprising number of fans are willing to take that risk, as a 2023 study found that over 35 percent of fans admitted to regularly using illegal streaming sites to watch soccer games.

There may be those who aren’t in the mood to break the law and are wondering how to spend the least amount of money to watch every game. An investigation by NBC New York found that if you were to purchase streaming services for just the exact number of months you need, the total would be $857.86.

Streaming services are supposed to be the cheaper, more effective alternative to cable. However, they have made watching football more confusing and less feasible due to the combined cost of buying seven different services.

If the NFL offered all games, regardless of time or place, on one easy-to-understand platform and lowered the price of that platform, hundreds of thousands more fans would buy and watch games together.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely the NFL would do this, as it’s lucrative for the league to outsource its games to other providers. For example, YouTube TV’s bank-breaking deal with the NFL, along with other monster deals signed by the NFL, would prevent the NFL from changing this anti-fan agenda.

Quinn Elfers is a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note: The views and opinions expressed by the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to share your thoughts on the column? Let Quinn know by emailing him at [email protected].