The NFL is the US’ most valuable and watched sports leagues, but a Department of Justice investigation and government criticism has questioned whether its popularity is now pricing out fans.
The NFL is reportedly the subject of an antitrust lawsuit from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over alleged anticompetitive tactics over high-costs to watch games.
While the NFL, under the US Sports Broadcasting Act, allows its teams to collectively negotiate the value of TV rights packages, the investigation centres around the league’s recent deals with streaming companies.
The NFL currently has small-package rights deals with Amazon Prime Video until 2033, and Netflix until 2026. Under the terms of the agreement with Prime Video, the streaming platform exclusively broadcasts 15 Thursday night games per season, as well as one Wild Card playoff game.
The Netflix agreement was signed in 2024 to primarily exclusively broadcast two NFL games on Christmas Day.
Both streaming deals are highly valuable to the NFL in relation to the limited games shown on both platforms. Amazon is paying the league $1bn per season for its rights package, whilst Netflix is reportedly paying $150m for two games per season.
To watch all 272 NFL season games, which became possible for the first time during the 2025/26 season, the cost would be around $935.
The NFL said in a statement to Insider Sport: “The NFL’s media distribution model is the most fan and broadcaster-friendly in the entire sports and entertainment industry. With over 87% of our games on free, broadcast television, including 100% of games in the markets of the competing teams, the NFL has for decades put our fans front and center in how we distribute our content.
“The 2025 season was our most viewed since 1989 and reflects the strength of the NFL distribution model and its wide availability to all fans.”
While these broadcast deals have been lucrative for the NFL, it has raised questions and criticism from government officials.
Prior to the DOJ opening its investigation, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received over 8,000 comments from a public consultation on the transition of live sports being broadcast on traditional television networks to streaming services.
In response to the consultation, US Senator Elizabeth Warren and Member of Congress Patrick Ryan wrote to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to share their concerns “on how recent changes in the marketplace have increased costs for viewers”.
“For sports fans, the cost of watching live sports on television or via streaming becomes more expensive every year, and the options for tuning in become even more complicated,” said the letter.
“Our work on these matters has revealed that mergers involving already-dominant distributors, streamers, and sports leagues themselves threaten to make matters worse, leaving viewers spending more and more money to watch the sports they care about.”
The price of watching the NFL in 2026
With the emergence of streaming platforms becoming competitive players in the live sports broadcasting landscape, this has naturally created fragmentation.
It has also provided sports leagues such as the NFL to distribute more rights packages to both traditional broadcasters and streaming platforms in a bid to maximise broadcast revenues.
Signed in 2021, the current broadcast rights agreement has deals in place with four national traditional broadcasters: CBS, FOX, NBC, and ESPN/ABC. The league also has three streaming deals in place with Prime Video and Netflix, as well as YouTube with NFL Sunday Ticket.
The NFL earns an estimated $11bn per season via its current media rights deal, which expires in 2033. However, it does not control the pricing for subscriptions for its broadcast partners.
As each network has different rights packages to broadcast NFL games, their pricing can vary. As CBS, NBC and FOX are traditional broadcast networks, customers can watch games for free in their local markets.
ESPN, being a cable network, requires a subscription to either ESPN Unlimited ($29.99 per month), ESPN Select – rebranded from ESPN+ ($11.99 per month), or as part of a bundle package alongside Disney+ and Hulu which ranges from $19.99 to $44.99.
While NBC is a free-to-air broadcast, its streaming platform Peacock has exclusively broadcasted one NFL game per year since 2024. A Peacock subscription ranges from $7.99 to $16.99 per month.
Amazon Prime Video’s subscriptions range from $8.99 to $14.99 per month, while Netflix’s plans start at $8.99, with the most expensive subscription priced at $26.99 for two Christmas Day games.
For out-of-market games not nationally televised, these games reside on YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket. This subscription service costs $31.50 per month.
Insider Sport has reached out to the NFL for comment.
