Sunday Night Football: Best & Cheapest Ways to Watch NFL on NBC Without Cable

I tune in to Sunday Night Football on NBC, which stands alongside Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football as one of the three weekly primetime NFL broadcasts. Since it’s on NBC, I can watch the full 2024 season without needing a cable subscription.

In a hurry? If you just want to enjoy the NFL season including Sunday Night Football, these TV providers will give you everything you need:

Why You Need a VPN Today

However, first you need a VPN to unblock US streaming services from . Our favourite is ExpressVPN. It’s definitely not the cheapest option at $4.99/month, but it just works – and across all your devices.

They have servers in 25+ US cities/states and 105 countries, which unblock access to premium streaming platforms available only in the US, as well as free “on demand” TV services worldwide.

You’ll have access to local platforms as if you were in the country, meaning you can watch BBC iPlayer as if you were in the UK, CBC Gem as if you were in Canada, plus hundreds more worldwide.

Sign Up for ExpressVPN

Hotdog users get three months free at ExpressVPN, so it’s a “no-brainer” for us. Decide for yourself with their 30 day money-back guarantee.

IMPORTANT: Once you’ve installed your VPN and connected to a US server, you’ll still need to subscribe separately to access premium streaming services.

For National Football League fans, Sundays are sacred. And the day culminates with Sunday Night Football. Unlike the other games airing that day in their own markets, Sunday Night Football puts two teams on the national stage. So fans naturally want access.

Thanks to live streaming services like Fubo and DIRECTV STREAM, it’s easy to watch Sunday Night Football without cable. Let’s take a closer look.

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NFL Week 16 Sunday Night Football Matchup

What Channel Is Sunday Night Football On?

All Sunday Night Football matchups air on NBC. This means that in most areas in the United States, you can watch for free by setting up an antenna. Sling TV will even give you one free.

If that’s not a viable option for you, NBC is widely available on streaming services. We recommend Fubo or DIRECTV STREAM, which offer it just about everywhere. But you have other options that we discuss below.

Live Streaming Services for Sunday Night Football

All the following streaming services offer your local NBC affiliate and much more:

• Fubo: Gives you everything you need to enjoy the entire NFL season including CBS, Fox, ESPN, and NFL Network in its 150+ channel lineup for $79.99/month. You also get unlimited cloud DVR storage and simultaneous streaming on up to 10 devices at home and 2 away. (Fubo review)
• Sling TV: The Sling Blue plan gives you NBC and Fox (select markets) along with 40+ other channels for just $45.99/month. And you can add most other channels for a fee. It includes 50 hours of cloud DVR and streaming on up to three devices. (Sling TV review, Sunday Night Football on Sling TV)
• DIRECTV STREAM: This full-cable replacement service gives you all you need in its base plan for $86.99/month. And it provides pretty much every channel you can think of as an option. If you want NFL Network, you need to upgrade to the Choice package. All plans come with unlimited cloud DVR and streaming on unlimited at once at home. (DIRECTV STREAM review)
• Hulu + Live TV: Get 95+ live TV channels along with Disney+ and ESPN+. Subscribers can also take advantage of unlimited cloud DVR and simultaneous streaming on up to two devices. (Hulu + Live TV review)
• YouTube TV: This service provides all the channels you need for the NFL season for $82.99/month.

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Peacock

Sunday Night Football will also stream live on Peacock. However, you will need to sign up for the Peacock Premium service for $7.99/month. See our Peacock review for complete details.

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SNF on Mobile With NFL+

If you don’t mind watching on a mobile device (phone or tablet), NFL+ is a good deal. For $6.99/month, you get to live stream all your local Sunday afternoon games.

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And you also get to live stream all the primetime games — Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and Thursday Night Football.

You can even watch on-demand replays. They come in handy if you can’t catch the game live, or you just want to watch a replay of one of your favorites. Our NFL+ review has all the details.

Devices to Live Stream Sunday Night Football

All the live TV streaming services we’ve discussed above, as well as Peacock, support the vast majority of streaming devices in use today. These include the following:

Note that DIRECTV STREAM does not support LG, Vizio, and Xbox. Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and Peacock also support PlayStation units.

About Sunday Night Football

Sunday Night Football is NBC Sports’s NFL brand. It mostly features all the Sunday night games of the regular season. But it also shows preseason and post-season games, as well as some Thursday night regular season matchups.

Sunday night games on NBC are preceded by Football Night in America, NBC’s long-running pre-game show.

The first Sunday Night Football game aired in 2006 with the Hall of Fame game. This is the first (preseason) game each year. It is always a Sunday Night Football game, except for years when there are scheduling conflicts (normally because of NBC’s coverage of the Olympics or other live sports). This is the case in 2024.

In addition to airing all the Sunday night games, NBC also airs two Thursday night games: the first of the season and the Thanksgiving game. This will be the case for at least the next few years.

Sunday Night Football On-Air Talent

Sunday Night Football features Mike Tirico doing the play-by-play announcing — taking over from Al Michaels, who has moved to Thursday Night Football. Michaels still commentates some special NBC sporting events.

Doing analysis with him is former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth. Rounding out the group is Melissa Stark who does sideline reporting. Former ref Terry McAulay provides rules analysis (he also serves in this role for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football).

Sunday Night Football Schedule

This season, two of the NBC Sunday Night Football games will actually air on Thursday: September 5th (Ravens @ Chiefs) and November 28th (Dolphins @ Packers). That’s the season opener and one of the Thanksgiving day games. And there is one Saturday afternoon game on December 21st (Texans @ Chiefs)

Here are all the SNF matchups on the NFL schedule. All the games air on NBC and with, except for the preseason and Saturday afternoon games, start at 7:00 pm with kickoff at 8:20 pm — all times Eastern.

Unlike last year, there will be no Sunday night games that are not Sunday Night Football.

Teams not appearing on SNF this season:

Wrapping Up

You can watch Sunday Night Football without cable using any of the services we discussed. This allows you to end your weekend right.

Fubo is our top pick for Sunday Night Football. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.

FAQs

Is Sunday Night Football on Peacock?

All of the regular season Sunday Night Football games stream live on Peacock as well as NBC. It’s slightly more complicated during the playoffs. NBC Sports will air three playoff games. One will be exclusively on NBC, one exclusively on Peacock, and one airing on both.

Will Sunday Night Football air playoff games?

Yes. There will be two Wild Card games on NBC during the 2025 NFL playoffs. The first is on Saturday, January 11th at 4:30 pm EST. (Note that there is also a streaming-only game on Peacock the same day at 8:00 pm.) The second NBC game is on Sunday, January 12th at 8:15 pm.

Will Sunday Night Football air any preseason games?

Sunday Night Football airs only one preseason matchup. It is on Sunday, August 25th at 8:00 pm and features New England Patriots at Washington Commanders. Otherwise, the schedule is limited to 17 Sunday night, 2 Thursday night, and 1 Saturday afternoon regular season games and two post-season wild card games.

Can I watch Sunday Night Football on NFL Redzone?

No, NFL Redzone is limited to Sunday afternoon games (the “early” one around 1:00 pm and the “later” one around 4:00 pm). It shows seven hours of “whip-around” coverage of all the most exciting bits of all the games going on any given Sunday afternoon. It does not show entire games, and it does not cover Sunday night games (which are exclusively on NBC).

How can I watch Sunday football for free?

You can watch free football all day long on Sunday with just an antenna, which costs less than $50. Sunday afternoon games are on Fox and CBS, and Sunday night games are on NBC — all three of those are “OTA” over-the-air, sometimes also called free-to-air. Anyone with the means to pick them up can watch for free.

If you’re interested in watching more than just broadcast channels, you should take a look at Sling TV — prepay one month ($45.99/month) and you can get a free antenna from them.

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Frank Moraes

I am a Senior Content Editor at Hotdog.com, specializing in sports streaming and regional programming issues. With a PhD in Atmospheric Physics from the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and extensive experience in remote sensing technology, including early video streaming, I bring a unique technical perspective to the streaming industry.

My expertise in sports coverage, particularly for out-of-market games and regional sports networks, stems from years of hands-on experience as an early adopter of streaming services and my work addressing fans' viewing challenges. As a longtime cord-cutter and subscriber to multiple streaming platforms, I combine my technical knowledge with practical user experience, making me a leading expert in the field of sports streaming and entertainment technology.

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