NFL+ is the National Football League’s official streaming service. It is an essential tool for football fans and the most cost-effective way to watch out-of-market games.
In a hurry? NFL+ Premium for $14.99/mo allows you to watch all games on replay (and more if you combine it with a VPN). Try it out free for one week!
Table Of Contents
The base NFL+ plan allows you to livestream local and primetime games on mobile devices. Each week, that’s:
- Thursday Night Football
- Sunday Night Football
- The Sunday afternoon game featuring your local team
- Monday Night Football.
In other words, NFL+ is an in-market streaming service. But NFL+ Premium enables you to watch replays of all the games, on virtually any device, available immediately after the game finishes airing live.
If this sounds familiar to you, that’s not surprising – it’s basically the old NFL Game Pass, which NFL+ replaced. NFL+ is cheaper, but also more restricted in its device support.
Let’s get into details about what exactly NFL+ gets you in terms of out-of-market games.
Get NFL Replays With NFL+ Premium
So you want to watch regular season games outside your local team – but you don’t want to have to pay hundreds of dollars to do it?! NFL+ Premium is great if you don’t mind watching replays.
Recording Games on NFL+ Premium
People have been recording games to watch later for a long time for all kinds of reasons. Working when the game is scheduled? Want to watch ad-free? Or want to wait until you can watch it with friends? It doesn’t matter the reason, you can still enjoy NFL games that are not live.
Thirty years ago, you could have set your VCR to record it. Fifteen years ago, you might have TiVoed it. These days, lots of NFL fans DVR it. But regardless of technology, you can only record what channels you can access. And if your channels are showing a game, by definition, it’s not out-of-market.
Limits to Live NFL Viewing With NFL+ Premium
Remember that you can only watch two Sunday afternoon games each week due to scheduling constraints. Most games are played simultaneously with roughly 8 games with kickoffs at and 4 games at (Eastern).
So if there are more than two Sunday afternoon games you want to watch, all but two will have to be replays regardless. This is why we think most fans are best skipping NFL Sunday Ticket and going with a good live TV streaming service supplemented with NFL+.
Replays on NFL+ Premium
That’s where NFL+ Premium comes in. One of NFL+ Premium’s main features is replays. Basically, you get to watch the game on-demand, on your schedule, starting shortly after the match-up is over.
You don’t have to remember to set up the recording beforehand. You don’t have to worry about the game going into overtime and the end getting cut off.
You can watch the game just as it aired, or you can watch a condensed version that has all the timeouts and downtime cut out. There is also extra NFL content like the All-22 Coaches Film show that gives you an overview of the action that the coaches and teams use to analyze their performance.
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.
Other brands worth checking out include Hotspot Shield and CyberGhost.
NFL+ Premium Details
NFL+ offers two plans. Those looking for out-of-market games will probably want an NFL+ Premium subscription.
NFL+ Basic Features
NFL+ is an in-market service. The base plan only allows you to watch:
- Out-of-market preseason games — local game blackout
- NFL Network
- Regular season local and nationally-televised games (mobile devices only)
- All postseason games (mobile devices only).
Plus, you can only watch them live.
There are a few other odds and ends, like NFL Films and other library content, and live game audio for every game, in or out of market.
Special Features of NFL+ Premium
NFL+ Premium, though, is a whole different animal. You get all that stuff too, of course. But you also get the replays mentioned above. And you can watch replays on whatever device you want, from your phone all the way up to your personal Jumbotron.
You also get NFL RedZone, which all by itself is a great option for watching out-of-market action. It’s the only tool around that allows you to watch all the Sunday afternoon games at the same time.
Finally, you have access to game archives going all the way back to 2009.
NFL App Stream Device Support
NFL+ Premium runs on the NFL app. (You can manage your account on NFL.com but you cannot watch live games there.) You can watch live local and primetime games on these devices:
- Android 7+ Phone
- Android 7+ Tablet
- iPad (iOS 13+)
- iPhone (iOS 13+)
- tvOS 13+ Apple TV
You can watch all other content on these as well:
- Amazon FireTV
- Android 7+ TV Smart TVs
- AndroidTV Smart TVs
- AppleTV
- Roku
- Xbox Series S
Remember, you can only watch live games on mobile or tablet — and you can’t cast them to a bigger screen. Replays are available on all supported devices.
Live Out-of-Market Games on NFL+ Premium With a VPN
You can watch live out-of-market games with NFL+. You just need to combine it with a VPN. It’s relatively easy to do:
- Choose a good VPN.
- Set your VPN to a city of one of the teams you want to watch.
- Start NFL+.
- Stream the game.
Get all the details in our Out-of-Market VPN Guide.
NFL+ Premium Alternatives for Out-of-Market Games
For many aspects of NFL+ Premium, there are no alternatives. But in terms of out-of-market NFL games live there are two — both of which have the advantage of allowing you to watch NFL games live.
- VPN + Live TV Streaming Service: Combining a VPN with a live TV streaming service allows you to easily stream whatever Sunday afternoon games you like. We have tested this with ExpressVPN (money-back guarantee) and Fubo (free trial) together and it works great! You can also get NFL RedZone to complement live games.
- VPN + Paramount+: Only provides locally broadcast CBS games but works great with a VPN.
- NFL Sunday Ticket: This is the official out-of-market streaming package. It’s main disadvantage is that it is expensive. Remember that it alone won’t allow you to watch local and primetime games. So we recommend getting it through YouTube TV or combining it with NFL+ or a live TV streaming service.
Find out all your options in our detailed Out-of-Market NFL Game Viewer’s Guide.
Remember: if you are viewer outside the US, NFL Game Pass International is a great option!
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.
Wrapping Up
If you’re a Dallas Cowboys fan in Seattle or some similarly situated fan, take heart — NFL+ Premium may just be the answer to all your prayers for just $14.99/mo. And, bonus: it also means you can skip subscribing to Amazon Prime Video for Thursday Night Football.
You can sign up for a free one-week trial of NFL+ right now to see if it’s for you.
FAQs
Is NFL+ worth it?
We really like NFL+. But it isn’t for everyone. The base plan is great if you don’t mind watching on your tablet or if you are on the go and need to watch on your phone. And the Premium plan is great for serious fans and fantasy football addicts who want to dive into the games after they air live. Although the price increased substantially this year, we still think it is a deal.
Why can’t I watch out-of-market NFL games on NFL+?
NFL+ is, at base, an in-market streaming service that allows subscribers to watch their local team’s games and all the nationally broadcast games. It isn’t intended to allow the viewing of out-of-market NFL games. For that, you need NFL Sunday Ticket. But that is ten times as expensive.
However, with a VPN, you can change what “in-market” means. See our NFL Out-of-Market VPN Guide.
Where can I get more information on watching out-of-market NFL games?
We have four other detailed guides for watching out-of-market NFL games:
- NFL Out-of-Market Overview
- NFL Out-of-Market Games With VPN
- NFL Out-of-Market Games With NFL RedZone
- NFL Sunday Ticket Guide
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