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NFL Plus: Which Football Fans Need This Streaming Plan? – Guide to Cost & Coverage

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NFL Plus is a great addition to your sports streaming arsenal. It allows you to live stream every local and primetime game of the 2023-24 regular season and playoffs live. And there is much more. Read on to learn everything you need to know!

In a hurry? If you are a super-fan and already know you need NFL+ to fully enjoy the season, sign up directly! It gives you live access to local and primetime games on mobile devices. And get complete access to replays and compressed games with NFL+ Premium. But these may be better options. But there are other options for watching NFL out-of-market games.

  • Fubo: Doesn’t provide all out-of-market NFL games, but it does give you 150+ channels including all the national and regionally-broadcast NFL games. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.
  • DIRECTV STREAM: Full cable replacement service with all of the NFL channels. Also provides the best selection of RSNs with the Choice plan. A 5-day free trial is now available for DIRECTV STREAM.

If you’re a National Football League fan, you may have heard about NFL Plus, the league’s official streaming service for NFL content. With games airing across multiple channels, blackouts, and other issues, it can be difficult for fans to figure out what they need to do to keep up with all the action.

In our complete NFL Plus review below, we’ll explain what the service is, what its features and shortcomings are, how much it costs, and everything else you could ever want to know about this football streaming service.

What is NFL Plus?

NFL Plus is a new streaming service that costs $6.99/mo. That gives you access to live stream every local and primetime NFL game for the regular season and playoffs (including the Super Bowl) on mobile devices. It also provides live access to all out-of-market preseason games. Finally, it allows you to listen to all games live and access NFL library programming (like HBO’s Hard Knocks series), ad-free.

There is also NFL+ Premium, which costs $14.99/mo. This adds full game replays, condensed games, and Coaches Film. You can watch on any device and they are all ad-free.

In the US, you can live stream out-of-market preseason games, and during the regular season, you can watch every game on demand without commercials just after it finishes airing live.

The downside is you cannot live stream games on your big-screen TV and you are limited to in-market and primetime games. To get access to all out-of-market games, you would need NFL Sunday Ticket.

Given Sunday afternoon NFL games all air at one of two times, you will have to watch some games after they air anyway.

Try NFL+ Now!

Unblock Your Favorite Events & Teams With a VPN

If you can’t watch your favorite events or teams because of your location, a VPN will allow you to get the access you are entitled to, plus extra security and unequaled privacy. Check out our VPN Guide for everything you need to know, including our top pick ExpressVPN.

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Other brands worth checking out include Hotspot Shield and CyberGhost.

NFL+ Web Interface
NFL+ web interface.

Is NFL+ Worth It for You?

You’re reading this NFL+ review because you want to know if it’s worth it. The answer is it depends — but probably yes.

If your focus is on your local team, you will be able to watch all of those games live. You’ll also get to live stream all the primetime games and every postseason game. The catch: you will be limited to watching on your phone or tablet.

On the other hand, if you don’t mind streaming the games after they air, then you can sign up for NFL+ Premium, which provides access to all games on-demand. This is also what you should get if you want to study the games.

“This is a real game-changing year,” NFL Chief Digital Officer Perkins Miller told CNBC.

Learn how to watch the games that aren’t included with NFL+ with our NFL Out-of-Market Game Guide.

How Much Does NFL+ Cost?

The NFL Plus subscription service is $6.99/mo, which is far cheaper than even a month of cable television. (If you purchase early, you can pay in 3 or 4 installments every 30 days.)

If you happen to subscribe to NFL Plus midway through the season, that subscription cost is prorated as well. Your NFL+ subscription will last until July 31, 2024, giving you plenty of time to relive the season after the fact!

You can also try NFL+ free for 7 days to see if you like it before paying.

You’ve seen so much growth in these pure-play native digital apps like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video… As we looked at what we could do with our premium content, the preseason games, our games on demand, we said if we could unify that into one package and make it easy for our NFL fans, I think we’d be aligning ourselves with the trajectory of online video consumption for premium content providers.”

CNBC.com

Try NFL+ Now!

Good and Bad of NFL+

NFL+ is mostly pros and very few cons.

The only downside you’ll see mentioned in every NFL+ review is that you are limited to mobile devices (iPhone and Android) to live stream the regular season games.

But you will get to see all the games that likely mean the most to you. You will see all the games that feature your local team(s) as well as all the primetime games on Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and Thursday Night Football.

And with NFL+ Premium, you can watch your favorite games in half the time, without all the start and stop nonsense. This is especially good for hardcore fans and fantasy football junkies who want to watch a ton of games from around the league.

You can also live stream NFL preseason games that are out-of-market with NFL+. In-market preseason games can also be watched on replay at any time if you have a Premium subscription.

On another positive note, you also get access to live game audio. With this service, you could listen in real-time to the games you don’t care much about, and then watch your favorite team on the big screen later in the day (after you got all your Sunday chores done).

Try NFL+ Now!

Coaches Film

nfl game pass film session

Coaches Film come with NFL+ Premium subscriptions. With them, you can go back and watch games using the exclusive All-22 and Endzone angle footage; which is what the broadcasters, scouts, and even the pros themselves use to help gain extra insight into the game. This gives you all the angles so you can break down the game just like a coach would.

Do you play Fantasy Football? Do you want to really learn the game inside and out? If so, this is your chance. When you hear someone say “I watched the tape, and…” this is how they are watching it.

This is supplemented by NFL Film Session, which is a show on NFL Network that shows documentaries using the NFL Films archive.

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Condensed Games

Short on time? No problem! NFL+ offers condensed games as well. You still get every snap, every play, every touchdown made in a game. You just don’t have to sit there through timeouts or have to wait for everyone to get back into place or for the play to start.

If you’ve got 45 minutes, you’ve got time to watch a full game. No more commercials and long delays between plays. Take your time back to America.

NFL RedZone

NFL+ Premium now includes NFL RedZone — the ultimate way to watch Sunday afternoon football.

Audio

You also get access to live audio of all games. The best part of this is that you can live stream both the local and the national coverage of each game. This is great to have because radio coverage of games can be spotty depending on where you live.

No Spoilers

The worst part about watching a game that’s already aired is seeing that game update spoiler, but luckily for you, NFL+ has an anti-spoilers feature that you can use to prevent this from ever happening.

Try NFL+ Now!

Multiple Devices

NFL+ running on an Android phone
NFL+ runs on most streaming devices like this Android phone.

NFL+ limits you to mobile devices on live games.

But overall, NFL+ runs on the regular NFL app, which offers great support for modern streaming devices and smart TVs. So you can watch condensed game replays on pretty much any device available.

You can live stream on Android TV-based smart TVs and other devices. The same goes for Samsung and LG smart TVs built since 2016.

If you don’t have a smart TV, you can create one with an external device. NFL+ supports Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku.

You can also watch on web browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. This is a good fallback for users because you can, for example, connect a laptop running one of these browsers to your TV via an HDMI cable.

Android and iOS smartphones and other mobile devices are also supported if you want to watch on the go. You can also cast from these using Chromecast to a TV with built-in or external devices.

NFL+ supports the gaming devices Xbox One and PS4.

Multiple Streams

NFL+ allows you to live stream on up to 5 different devices at the same time. This lets you and your family all watch separately if you’d like.

NFL Pro Bowl
NFL Pro Bowl image via Piqsels.

Superpower Your Sports Streaming With a VPN

For the sake of privacy, security, and access, you should be using a VPN. They are low-cost and easy to use. We’ve been using them for years and our top pick is ExpressVPN. Other brands worth checking out include Hotspot Shield and CyberGhost.

i Our VPN Buyer’s Guide provides a complete introduction and all you need to know to choose the best VPN for your needs.

Today marks an important day in the history of the National Football League with the launch of NFL+. The passionate and dedicated 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.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

NFL+ Alternatives

There is no perfect alternative for NFL+. But the closest is simply an HD antenna, which will generally allow you to watch all your local team’s games as well as Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football.

The structure of the NFL season makes fans choose what games they want to watch live. Every Sunday, there are normally 3 games playing at and 3 games at . They are divided between Fox and CBS.

So there are two problems with live TV. First, your local Fox and CBS affiliates will only show one of the live NFL games they air at each timeslot. Normally, that’s good news if you are a fan of the local team. But if not, you may not have access to the game you want to watch.

The other problem is that you can only watch one game at a time. But even if you have NFL+ Premium, you will probably still want a way to live stream games. In addition to the two each Sunday afternoon, you also get to watch the night games on Thursdays (Amazon), Sundays (NBC), and Mondays (ESPN).

Here are our favorite streaming services to catch all the live football throughout the season:

  • Fubo (formerly FuboTV): A great all-around service with a focus on sports offering over 150 channels. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.
  • DIRECTV STREAM: Excellent complete cable replacement service with an unmatched selection of RSNs. A 5-day free trial is now available for DIRECTV STREAM.
  • Sling TV: Although it doesn’t provide all the channels you need, this low-cost service can’t be beat. Sign up for the Orange & Blue plan to get the full coverage of games, plus these Sling-specific NFL guides: NFL on Sling, NFL Preseason, NFL RedZone, and Sunday Night Football. Save 50% on Sling TV now!
  • Hulu + Live TV: Combine 85+ live TV channels with its outstanding on-demand library, ESPN+, and Disney+ for an outstanding entertainment plan. Try one month for $76.99.

YouTube TV also offers a good plan very similar to Hulu’s. And Vidgo is a good low-cost option for football fans.

Try NFL+ Now!

NFL+ Free Trial

If you’re not quite ready to make a season-long commitment, then no worries. You can start by signing up for a free 7 day trial with NFL+ and take it for a test drive. Just be sure to cancel your subscription before the trial ends or you will get charged.

NFL+ Banner Ad

Live Stream NFL Games with NFL+

Bottom Line: NFL+ is awesome. Even if you are able to watch your favorite team every Sunday over the air, the sheer number of extra goodies that NFL+ throws in more than makes up for the $6.99/mo price tag.

We really recommend getting the NFL+ Premium plan for the unlimited replays and Coaches Film.

Whether you’re a hardcore football fan or just a casual observer, NFL+ is a great deal and well worth the look for those who want to watch NFL without cable in the 2023-24 season.

Try NFL+ Now!

FAQs

Can I watch the playoffs on NFL+?

NFL+ allows subscribers to stream NFL games (local and nationally broadcast) live on mobile devices. That means you can watch every playoff game up to and including the Super Bowl. It also allows you to watch the Pro Bowl. You can also watch game replays on all your devices with NFL+ Premium.

How do I cancel NFL+?

It’s a simple matter to cancel NFL+:

  • Log in to your account
  • Go to Manage Subscriptions
  • Go to Manage and select “Cancel Subscription.”

What happened to NFL Game Pass?

For US-based subscribers, NFL Game Pass has been discontinued. It has been replaced with NFL+ (or NFL Plus). It gives you access to your local games and all primetime games on mobile devices. You can still get all the replay games like with the old NFL Game Pass by subscribing to NFL+ Premium.

NFL Game Pass still exists for people in most countries outside the US, Canada, and China. But the plan is very different — similar to but better than NFL Sunday Ticket in the US.

Can I live stream NFL games with Yahoo Sports app?

From 2017 to 2021, NFL had a special deal with Verizon-Yahoo. You could live stream local and primetime NFL games for free on mobile devices using the Yahoo Sports app (and also the NFL app). But that all changed this season with the release of NFL+. Now it costs you $6.99/mo. It’s still a good deal — especially if you opt for NFL+ Premium for $14.99/mo.

How fast of an internet connection do I need for NFL+?

The internet speed requirements for NFL+ are mercifully low. In order to stream games at all, you’ll need a broadband internet connection of at least 750 kbps or higher. To enjoy NFL+ at its highest video quality, you’ll need an internet connection speed of at least 2.0 Mbps.

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More Info on NFL Without Cable

If you still have questions, these resources should help:

Ditch “Big Cable” Now – 3 Simple Steps to Cut the Cord

  1. Pick the right streaming service
  2. Get the content you deserve with the best VPN.
  3. Supercharge your internet provider

That’s it — you’ll save money, take back control, and enjoy TV more!

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