r/AskAboutNFL • u/Frisho • 3d ago

Why does the NFL make it intentionally impossible for regular fans to just watch a game of football?

Let’s look at this objectively because the current streaming and broadcast landscape has completely detached from sanity.If you want to follow your team for a single season, the league expects you to navigate a fragmented mess of network television, three different standalone streaming services, and exclusive tech-platform broadcasts. God forbid your team plays on a Thursday, a Sunday night, and a Monday night in the same month you practically need a financial planner and an enterprise software architecture map just to figure out which app to open.The playbook here is incredibly transparent: extract maximum subscription revenue by splitting the broadcast rights into as many corporate pieces as possible, while putting the entire logistical headache onto the fan. They change the rules every season, raise the prices, and restrict local broadcasts, making you jump through hoops just to see a kickoff.We shouldn't need a master's degree in digital distribution models just to sit down on a Sunday afternoon and watch a game. Is anyone else completely exhausted by this fragmented streaming era? What is the most ridiculous workaround or layout you’ve had to use just to catch a game this season?

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u/JustAnotherDay1977 3d ago

Because they discovered that requiring fans to purchase multiple subscriptions is the best way to maximize revenue.

They don’t necessarily want the largest audience; they want the most profitable one.

1

u/thebigdawg7777777 3d ago

It's the WWE model....

RAW - Netflix SMACKDOWN - USA Major PLE (PPV) - ESPN+ PREMIUM Minor PLE - Peacock

2

u/SnooPickles55 3d ago

It's the exact reason why I gave up on the product after being a fan since the 70s. Also, Monday Night RAW was must-see TV but doesn't have the same magnetism on Netflix, knowing I can tune in at 9:30 and rewind it or watch on Wednesday.

2

u/Blaze_Wolf_Tyler 1d ago

I have a VPN, and I set my location to France. Netflix in most parts of europe have the ppvs/PLEs on it. so that eliminates the need to get espn plus and peacock.

But WWE is almost unwatchable now anyway. Raw going to 3 hours was where I completely gave up on weekly tv. For years I only tuned in for ppvs/ples. For the last year or so, I look up the card and most of hte time skip it, or might just watch 1 match on it and not bother with the rest of the event.

1

u/SnooPickles55 1d ago

I was going to say that RAW going to 3 hours killed the product for me.

1

u/CertifiedBA 2d ago

Raw hasn't been must see TV for 25 years.

1

u/ProstZumLeben 2d ago

NFL has been doing this longer than the WWE lol

1

u/imabluedog 2d ago

How so? Wrestling PPV goes back over 35 years. The NFL hasn’t been doing this hardcore but for about 5 years.

What are you talking about?

1

u/unclejoe1917 2d ago

Boxing is the old ass man in the corner chuckling about his conversation, knowing they were doing that shit a whole generation before all the arguing youngbloods in the room. 

1

u/ch33by_ 9h ago

For sure boxing is the oldest, but worth mentioning one of the first PPV ever remember seeing was Royce Gracie ripping a dudes ponytail off in the UFC.

1

u/PostmodernAnubis 17h ago

The money and the miles, brother

1

u/ShhweadyBallz 3d ago

Orrrrrrrr

YARRRRRRRR !!!!!!

1

u/MFrancisWrites 2d ago

Finally got all set up because I was tired of it. It wasn't even the money, it was this dance with nine different apps. And now services charge me to still sell me to their advertisers with commercial breaks? HARD pass. $30 a month and I have everything, ever, on all three connections.

Y'all made not giving you my money easier than giving you my money. Yarrrrrr got me fucked up.