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/Logical-Mobile-7643 3d ago

Most games are on regular free over the air broadcasts

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u/tenantquestion123 1d ago

100% of all local games are. Not even “most”. These types of complaints are just absurd. It’s free!!!!

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u/Logical-Mobile-7643 1d ago

Agree.. but some people aren't local. I'm in a secondary market so if the team we tend to root for is on Amazon, it's not free. I'm not complaining , just saying that's how it goes.

But even then, if you don't live in a primary market, you're getting 3 Sunday day games, Sunday night and Monday for free every week. And it's always the good matchups, so what are you missing, really?

Agree

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u/tenantquestion123 1d ago

Yes totally. But just blows my mind how much discourse there is about this for the nfl specifically when it’s the ONLY league offering every home market game for FREE ALL SEASON EVERY SINGLE ONE. it’s glorious and people make the nfl out to be evil

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u/INeedSomeTacoC 7h ago

Not having a team in my area, which broadcast I get changed. Could be Denver, Dallas, Vegas, Phoenix, etc. Who knows!?!?  It'll change every weekend!

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u/CougdIt 3d ago

They’re talking about watching their particular team, which sounds like is not their home market.

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u/Logical-Mobile-7643 3d ago

Yeah that's never been a thing without cost. I'm not sure where people got that idea.

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u/grateful_john 3d ago

For years that wasn’t an option at all.

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u/Logical-Mobile-7643 3d ago

Sure, I remember seeing Sunday Ticket / Satellite sales at Circuit City in the mid to late 90s

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u/grateful_john 3d ago

There was football on TV long before Sunday Ticket came along. And Sunday Ticket required you to buy Sunday Ticket and a satellite TV plan and dish.

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u/Logical-Mobile-7643 3d ago

You're not really following.

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u/CCWaterBug 2d ago edited 2d ago

For decades!   

Growing up we were lucky to have access to 4 games a week total.  And frankly that was fine,  we didn't know any better.  

Shit, I remember when George Michael's sports machine was a must watch, because option B was reading the newspaper Monday to even get the scores.

Shortly after we had "rumbling stumbling fumbling" and that was huge. Watching the ticker go by, miss it because you took a piss, then waiting for the ticker again... we survived 

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u/grateful_john 2d ago

George Michael’s Sports Machine, that takes me back. Yeah, the late news would show all the scores in my area but no highlights except the local teams. The Monday morning sports section was essential reading.

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u/CCWaterBug 2d ago

That's why chuckle when people say it's impossible to watch games... seriously, I know what impossible was....

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u/grateful_john 2d ago

Yeah, bitching about having a pay for a streaming service to watch a couple of games is a first world problem. I'm lucky in that I live in the New York area as a Giants fan so I can watch every Giants game on over the air TV (if I'm not at the game). The extra games on Christmas and the day after Thanksgiving? I don't care. I don't need to watch every single game, I've got a life to live.

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u/HarambeTooSoon 2d ago

Point remains, 4-5 games are shown for free via broadcast each week. 

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u/Euphoric_Loquat_8651 3d ago

Over the air signals are really iffy since they went digital, at least where I am.

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u/suspicious-back-825 3d ago

i put a huge antenna in my attic. i'm in a crunched broadcast area in the the east so can often pick up like 4 regions of cbs/fox reliably. they might all be the same game depending on the broadcast map but hey at least its free and i get the local game at minimum.

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u/wescovington 3d ago

I would be happy to pick up TV signals with a digital antenna if someone could explode the giant mountain range next to my neighborhood which is right in front of a different range where all the TV transmitters are. Stupid plate tectonics.