
The National Football League (NFL) is adding more programming and new features into its premium streaming service NFL Plus, while also rolling out a price increase that will see football fans pay more for the service this season.
Starting this week, a subscription NFL Plus costs $7 a month or $50 a year, which allows streamers to watch local and prime-time regular and post-season games on their phones or tablets (but not on their TV sets or computers). Previously, the cost of NFL Plus was $5 a month.
A monthly subscription to NFL Plus also allows streamers to watch live, out-of-market pre-season games on their TVs, computers and mobile devices, marking the first time the feature has been extended to TVs and computers. Live game-day audio from all games is still available within the app.
The price of NFL Plus Premium is also going up, with streamers paying $15 a month or $100 a year for access to full and condensed replays of local and out-of-market games across all devices. This year, the NFL is also including live access to NFL RedZone on phones, tablets, computers and TVs to those who opt for NFL Plus Premium.
NFL Plus debuted last season as a way to reach football fans who had ditched their cable or satellite service and were fine watching local pre-season and regular season games on their phones or tablets.
Live, regular season games are still only available to watch on TV with an antenna, cable, satellite or cable-like streaming service (such as Fubo, Sling TV or DirecTV Stream). Similarly, nationally-televised games played on Sunday and Monday evenings are only available through those same avenues, though Sunday Night Football games aired on NBC are also available to stream with a subscription to Peacock Premium. Thursday Night Football games are exclusive to Prime Video and Twitch.
Deal: Stream pre-season NFL games with a free trial of Fubo
That said, NFL Plus does offer on-demand replays of local and out-of-market games, and the addition of NFL RedZone in the premium package marks one of the most-affordable ways to get the channel without signing up for a streaming cable replacement.
Streamers who want to watch live, out-of-market games played on Sunday mornings and afternoons will have to sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket, which is available two ways: With a subscription to YouTube TV ($73 a month, plus a one-time fee of $350 for NFL Sunday Ticket) or through YouTube Primetime Channels (one-time fee of $450 for the year, no recurring monthly fees afterward). YouTube TV is also working on a package that bundles NFL Sunday Ticket with the streaming service Max, though pricing and availability are unknown.