Older fans still remember when nearly every NFL game kicked off on Sunday afternoons and aired on CBS or NBC. But the league has since scattered games across streaming platforms, and not everyone is happy about it. The expanding media strategy has already drawn pressure from lawmakers and regulators. Still, during the NFL Spring Meeting on Tuesday, Commissioner Roger Goodell made one thing clear: the league has no plans to back down.

“We’re incredibly proud of our policies, and they’ve been incredibly effective from a fan standpoint,” Goodell said. “So, I think our games are the most available of any games by far from any league. I think 87 percent-plus are on free television; 100 percent are on in the local markets. So we’re very proud of that. 

“We will always look at it, potentially adjusting that. But I think we’ve done a great job in that. We’ll continue to try to focus on how we can improve it if there’s an opportunity.”

The NFL continues to defend its commitment to broadcast television, and Goodell keeps pointing out that 87% of games remain available on free TV. NFL fans in local markets can still watch every game involving their home team. But does that really solve the bigger issue? Fans who want access to the full NFL schedule still need several paid subscriptions.

In the newly released 2026 NFL schedule, Amazon Prime owns the entire “Thursday Night Football” package. Netflix will also exclusively stream multiple NFL games, including the Week 1 Thursday game from Australia, Black Friday, Thanksgiving Eve, and two Christmas Day matchups. ESPN, which is also a paid platform, controls “Monday Night Football” and this season’s Super Bowl. Lastly, Peacock and the NFL Network also hold exclusive streaming rights to some games later in the season.

The NFL clearly believes that the more games on streaming platforms, the better. And since 2022, while Prime Video became the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football,” viewership for the package has reportedly jumped 60%. Last season, the NFL also averaged 18.7 million viewers per game, which was the league’s second-best regular-season average since 1988. NFL EVP of media distribution Hans Schroeder even defended the league’s broadcast model by pointing to rising numbers across every platform.

“When we go back and look at our model, our belief in broadcast and in our model, we’re up 10% [in viewership] across all our packages last year. Every partner was up,” Schroeder said in an interview last week. “But then we had our highest number of Sunday Ticket subscriptions ever, and we also had our highest viewed year of RedZone ever. All of those data points tell us that, overall, the model is working.”

Despite the increase in viewership, many NFL fans are clearly not comfortable with the model. In an EssentiallySports Newsletter poll, 48.6% of voters agreed that streaming platforms are “stealing the essence of the sport.” Can NFL fans really enjoy football the same way when they constantly switch between apps and subscriptions? The frustration becomes even more understandable when some of the NFL’s biggest games sit behind paywalls. 

For the upcoming season, Green Bay Packers vs. Los Angeles Rams on Thanksgiving Eve, Denver Broncos vs. Pittsburgh Steelers on Black Friday, and Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears on Christmas Day will be available exclusively on streaming platforms. Older NFL fans, especially, now face a confusing and expensive viewing experience.

“I don’t like it,” President Donald Trump said. “They’re making a lot of money. They could make a little bit less. They could let the people see. You have people who live for Sunday.”

Trump is not the only one to have raised such concerns over the NFL media rights. Last month, reports from The Wall Street Journal suggested that Rupert Murdoch privately expressed concern about the NFL’s growing partnership with streaming companies and its effect on traditional broadcasters.

As per the report, Murdoch even discussed the issue with Trump earlier this year as streaming services continued gaining larger portions of the NFL schedule. That conversation reportedly led the U.S. Department of Justice to open an antitrust investigation into the NFL.

The NFL’s media model is still facing legal scrutiny 

The NFL built much of its financial dominance through the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which granted the league antitrust protection and required games to air on free network television. But lawmakers from 1961 clearly never envisioned that Act for an era dominated by streaming platforms. So, Senator Mike Lee, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, has urged regulators to review whether the NFL’s current distribution model still complies with the law.

Lee argued that NFL fans may spend nearly $1,000 each year across cable and streaming services to follow the league. At the same time, Forbes estimated that it cost fans around $765 to have complete access to NFL games via streaming services last season. That growing expense even pushed Senator Tammy Baldwin to introduce the “For The Fans Act” bill last month.

“It shouldn’t take 10 different subscriptions and a second mortgage to watch sports,” Baldwin stated in a press release. “My bill will stop the big streaming platforms and sports leagues from blacking out games for fans and ensure local fans always have a single place they can go to watch their team for free.”

Baldwin’s argument resonates strongly in Wisconsin, where many Packers fans live outside the Milwaukee and Green Bay TV markets. Those fans would still need several subscriptions to watch every Packers game, especially with the team scheduled for two Prime Video games and two Netflix games this upcoming season. 

Ultimately, Roger Goodell continues insisting that most NFL games remain free and widely available. But for NFL fans trying to follow the entire season, football has become far more expensive and complicated than it used to be.