National Football League’s new streaming service NFL+ launches at $4.99 per month

By Admin On Jul 25, 2022 7

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Ja’Marr Chase #1 of the Cincinnati Bengals makes a catch over Jalen Ramsey #5 of the Los Angeles Rams during Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium on February 13, 2022 in Inglewood, California.

Gregory Shamus | Getty Images

The National Football League now has its own streaming service.

Premiering Monday, the NFL is launching NFL+ for $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year.

A subscription will include all out-of-market preseason games, which was formerly only available with a subscription to NFL Game Pass for $99.99 per year. The NFL preseason kicks off Aug. 4 with the Jacksonville Jaguars facing the Las Vegas Raiders. Since that will be a nationally televised game, it won’t be featured on NFL+.

NFL+ will also include live mobile device access to local and prime-time regular season and postseason games, previously available for free on the Yahoo Sports app.

NFL+ marks the first time the NFL has operated its own streaming service, giving the league a new future platform to potentially show exclusive games. Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association already both sell subscriptions to their own streaming services that include out-of-market games.

NFL+ won’t initially include exclusive regular-season games but could eventually depending how viewership habits evolve in the years to come, said Hans Schroeder, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NFL Media. The league has locked up its local broadcast rights for the next seven to 11 years.

“It’s another option we’ll consider with all of our other options,” Schroeder said. “We are really excited about where NFL+ can go. As quickly as media and the sports distribution business continues to change and evolve, there are lots of different factors.”

The NFL is in the process of renewing its Sunday Ticket package and will choose a streaming partner, possibly Apple or Amazon, by the fall. That package costs about $300 per month and offers access to all out-of-market games on Sundays. DirecTV has owned Sunday Ticket rights since 1994 but isn’t bidding for the rights after the current contract runs out this season. The length of its new Sunday Ticket deal is still to be determined, but the league wants to give a new partner “the right runway to be successful,” said Schroeder in an interview.