Sunday Night Football is the one of three weekly branded primetime NFL game along with Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football. It returns (oddly but unsurprisingly) on Thursday, September 8th at 8:20 pm (EDT). And thankfully, there are many ways to watch that don’t involve cable. Read on to find out how!
In a hurry? If you just want to enjoy the NFL season including Sunday Night Football, these services will give you everything you need:
- FuboTV: The best streaming service for international sports also provides 100+ well-selected channels. FuboTV allows you to try out its service free for 7 days.
- DIRECTV STREAM: Get a great channel lineup with the best selection of RSNs in the industry. A 5-day free trial is now available for DIRECTV STREAM.
- Sling TV: This low-cost service allows you to select just the channel lineup you want. Save 50% on your first month of Sling TV.
Table Of Contents
For NFL 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 FuboTV (free for 7 days) and Hulu Live, it’s easy to watch Sunday Night Football without cable. Let’s take a closer look.
About Sunday Night Football
Sunday Night Football is NBCUniversal’s NFL brand. It mostly features all the Sunday night games of the regular season. But it also features preseason and post-season games as well as a couple of Thursday night regular season matchups.
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).
In addition to airing all of 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 features Mike Tirico doing the play-by-play announcing — taking over from Al Michaels, who has moved to Thursday Night Football.
Doing analysis with him is former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth. Rounding out the group is Melissa Stark who does sideline reporting.
Sunday Night Football Schedule
This season, two of the NBC Sunday Night Football games will actually air on Thursday. This starts with the special season opener and then a game on Thanksgiving.
Here are all the SNF matchups. All the games air on NBC, starting at 7:00 (ET) with kickoff at 8:20 pm.
- Thu Sep 8: Bils @ Rams
- Sun Sep 11: Buccaneers @ Cowboys
- Sun Sep 18: Bears @ Packers
- Sun Sep 25: 49ers @ Broncos
- Sun Oct 2: Chiefs @ Buccaneers
- Sun Oct 9: Bengals @ Ravens
- Sun Oct 16: Cowboys @ Eagles
- Sun Oct 23: Steelers @ Dolphins
- Sun Oct 30: Packers @ Bills
- Sun Nov 6: Titans @ Chiefs
- Sun Nov 13: Chargers @ 49ers
- Sun Nov 20: Bengals @ Steelers
- Thu Nov 24: Patriots @ Vikings
- Sun Nov 27: Packers @ Eagles
- Sun Dec 4: Colts @ Cowboys
- Sun Dec 11: Chiefs @ Broncos
- Sun Dec 18: Patriots @ Raiders
- Sun Dec 25: Buccaneers @ Cardinals
- Sun Jan 1: Rams @ Chargers
Watch Sunday Night Football: At a Glance
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.
If that’s not a viable option for you, NBC is widely available on streaming services. We recommend FuboTV or DIRECTV STREAM. But you have other options that we discuss below.
Since they’re streaming-only services, you won’t need a cable subscription, just the ability to connect to the internet and a streaming device.
Live Streaming Services for Sunday Night Football
All the following streaming services offer your local NBC affiliate and much more:
- FuboTV: Gives you everything you need to enjoy the entire NFL season including CBS, Fox, ESPN, and NFL Network in its 100+ channel lineup for $69.99/mo. You also get 1,000 hours of cloud DVR storage and simultaneous streaming on up to 10 devices at home and 2 away. (FuboTV review)
- DIRECTV STREAM: This full-cable replacement service gives you all you need in its base plan for $69.99/mo. And it provides pretty much every channel you can think of as an option. Its one downside is that it does not currently offer NFL Network. All plans come with unlimited cloud DVR and streaming on up to 20 devices at once. (DIRECTV STREAM review)
- Hulu + Live TV: Get 85+ live TV channels along with Disney+ and ESPN+. You also get unlimited cloud DVR and simultaneous streaming on up to two devices. (Hulu + Live TV review)
- Sling TV: The Sling Blue plan gives you NBC and Fox along with 40+ other channels for just $35/mo. 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)
- YouTube TV: This service provides all the channels you need for the NFL season for $64.99/mo.
Peacock
Sunday Night Football will also air live on Peacock. However, you will need to sign up for the premium service for $4.99/mo. See our Peacock review for complete details.
Devices to 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:
- Amazon Fire TV
- Android TV smart TVs
- Apple TV
- Chromecast
- LG smart TVs
- Roku
- Samsung smart TVs
- VIZIO smart TVs
- Xbox One gaming systems.
Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and Peacock also support PlayStation units.
Wrapping Up
You can watch Sunday Night Football without cable using any of these services.
Have any other questions about how to watch Sunday Night Football online without cable or satellite? Just comment below for help!
FAQs
How do I watch other NFL games this season?
One nice thing about NFL is that the season is well structured. Most weeks, the schedule is as follows:
- Thursday Night Football: Amazon Prime Video with kickoff at 8:15 pm
- Sunday “Mornings”: CBS and Fox with kickoff at 1:00 pm
- Sunday Afternoons: CBS and Fox with kickoff at 4:25 pm
- Sunday Night Football: NBC with kickoff at 8:20 pm
- Monday Night Football: ESPN and/or ABC with kickoff at 8:15 pm.
Will Sunday Night Football air playoff games?
This year, one of the wild card games will be featured on Sunday Night Football. There will, however be other playoff games that NBC will air. They will feature a divisional playoff matchup on Sunday, January 22nd at 3:00 pm. They will not be airing the conference finals or Super Bowl this year.
Will Sunday Night Football air any preseason games?
Sunday Night Football airs only one preseason matchup: the Hall of Fame game Jaguars at Raiders game Thursday, August 4th at 8:00 pm. Otherwise, the schedule is limited to 17 Sunday night and 2 Thursday night regular season games and one post-season wild card game.
How do I watch the games of specific NFL teams?
We’ve created viewer’s guides for all of the NFL teams:
