I Found the Best Streaming Combo for NFL Fans

See at Fubo

Carries CBS, Fox, ABC, ESPN and NFL Network for $56 per month

Fubo Sports

See at Peacock

Sunday Night Football games on NBC

Peacock Premium: $11 per month

See at YouTube TV

Best single streaming service for NFL fans

YouTube TV: $83 per month

The new NFL season has brought with it a slew of new streaming services. Last year, cord-cutters needed to use a live TV streaming service like YouTube TV to watch NFL games. This season, there are a couple of ways to cobble together a collection of streaming services and pay less than the $83 per month required for YouTube TV. 

ESPN and Fox each announced new direct-to-consumer streaming services, and there are new skinny bundles from Fubo and Sling that provide most but not all of the channels needed to watch the NFL season week in and week out. I’ve priced out the new services, checked their channel lineups and found a combination that’s best for NFL fans. 

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The winning combination is the new Fubo Sports skinny bundle paired with Peacock. Keep reading to find out why this is the best option for NFL fans this season and why YouTube TV is still a good choice, especially if you aren’t already a subscriber.

NFL channel lineup

The NFL season is split across six channels:

• CBS: Sunday afternoon games
• Fox: Sunday afternoon games
• NBC: Sunday Night Football
• ABC/ESPN: Monday Night Football
• NFL Network: seven international games played in Europe

Not included in the above are Thursday Night Football, which streams on Prime Video, and the two Christmas Day games on Netflix. For the purposes of this exercise, I’m going to assume you have an Amazon Prime account that lets you watch the TNF games on Prime Video and that you have a Netflix account or will be spending Christmas with someone who has Netflix for the two Christmas Day games.

Streaming a la carte option

I first investigated using the new ESPN DTC and Fox One streaming services, along with Paramount Plus and Peacock, to watch the NFL this season. The coverage works out like this: 

• Paramount Plus: Sunday afternoon CBS games
• Fox One: Sunday afternoon Fox games
• Peacock: Sunday Night Football on NBC 
• ESPN DTC: Monday Night Football on ESPN/ABC

Pricing is as follows:

• Paramount Plus: $8 per month
• Fox One: $20 per month
• Peacock: $11 per month
• ESPN DTC $30 per month

That works out to a total of $69 per month or $276 for the four-month season. And it’ll soon be even less because ESPN and Fox announced a bundle for a combined $40 a month starting Oct. 2. So, if we subtract $10 per month for the last three months of the season, you’ll pay $246 for this quartet for the NFL season that runs from early September to early January.

There are two reasons why I don’t like this plan. First, it doesn’t save you all that much money compared to the other options, as you’ll see below. Second, switching between the CBS and Fox games on Sunday afternoons would be a lot slower and clumsier because you’d have to close Paramount Plus and then open Fox One and vice versa just to change channels. I’d much rather be able to toggle between CBS and Fox on the same service. 

So, that led to my skinny bundle research.

Sports-focused skinny bundles from Fubo and Sling

Fubo and Sling TV each released skinny bundles geared toward sports fans, but neither offers all the channels you need to watch the NFL.

Sling’s new skinny bundle costs $20 a month and includes NBC along with ABC and Fox stations in select markets and NFL Network. It does not, however, offer CBS or ESPN. So, if you go with the $20-a-month Sling Select plan, you would then need to get Paramount Plus for $8 a month for Sunday afternoon CBS games and the DTC ESPN app at $30 a month for Monday Night Football. That’s a total of $58 a month or $232 for the four-month season.

Fubo’s new skinny bundle costs $56 per month and includes ABC, CBS and Fox as well as ESPN and NFL Network. The missing piece is NBC for Sunday Night Football, so you’d need to pair it with the $11-a-month Peacock Premium for a total of $67 a month. And right now, Fubo Sports is $10 off for the first month. So, for the season, Fubo Sports would cost $214 and Peacock would cost $44 for a total of $258.

Of the two skinny bundle combinations, the Fubo-and-Peacock plan is the better option. Even though it costs more than my Sling/Paramount Plus/ESPN plan, I like the idea of watching the CBS and Fox games on Sunday afternoons on Fubo and using Peacock only for the Sunday night game when it’s the only game on. Plus, keeping track of which games are on which service is easier with two streaming services than the trio required if you go the Sling route.

In both cases, you would spend less than with YouTube TV. YouTube TV currently has a deal, however, that keeps the costs pretty close if you aren’t already a subscriber. Right now, new customers can get the first two months of YouTube TV for $50 a month, which means for the NFL season, you would pay $266. But the price for current subscribers is $332.

Fubo’s main package costs $85 per month but it has a new skinny bundle that includes most of the channels you need for the NFL and multi-view to watch up to four channels at once. This new Fubo Sports plan costs $56 per month ($46 for the first month) and includes Fox along with ABC and CBS (but not NBC) in addition to ESPN and NFL Network. It also includes access to ESPN’s new streaming app. You can add RedZone to Fubo’s skinny bundle for an extra $10 a month.

Fubo Sports is currently available in 50 markets and expanding daily, according to Fubo. You can plug in your zip code on Fubo’s welcome page to see if it’s available in your area. 

Read our Fubo review. 

Priced at $83 per month, YouTube TV checks all the NFL boxes and is the best sports streaming service for NFL fans. Local channels ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC are included in most markets, as are ESPN and the NFL Network so you can watch Sundays and Monday nights. Its multi-view feature is great on Sunday afternoons where there are games on CBS and Fox at the same time (plus you can add up to two more sporting events like the US Open final or the MLB postseason games in October). You can get RedZone with the Sports Plus add-on for $11 a month. 

Plug in your ZIP code on YouTube TV’s welcome page to see which local networks are available in your area.

Read our YouTube TV review.

Of the 50 metro markets where Fubo Sports is currently available, it’s available in 14 NFL cities, but with New York and Los Angeles having two teams each, that’s half of the league’s 32 teams.

It pays for existing YouTube TV subscribers to switch

When you factor in the current YouTube TV and Fubo Sports discounts for new subscribers, you’d save only $8 by going with my recommended pairing of Peacock and Fubo ($12 if you include RedZone.) In this case, I recommend YouTube TV because of the ease of having one streaming service for watching NFL football instead of two. 

YouTube TV is the best single streaming service for football fans. It’s the cheapest live TV streaming service that has all the NFL channels and multi-view that lets you watch up to four games at once. Fubo’s standard plan is a close second; it costs only $2 more per month than YouTube TV, includes all the channels you need for NFL games and offers multi-view.

The math is different for existing YouTube TV subscribers. If you don’t want to watch RedZone with its new commercials, you’ll save $74 over the course of the season if you unsubscribe and switch to Fubo Sports and Peacock. And if you include RedZone in the equation, existing YouTube TV subscribers would save $78 this season by switching to the duo of Fubo Sports and Peacock.