Watching NFL games becomes an expensive pastime

The NFL season has begun, and for diehard fans who want to watch as many games as possible, these are complicated—and expensive—times. Consider that four different streaming platforms have access to exclusive games this season: Amazon Prime, ESPN Plus, NBC’s Peacock and even Netflix. “All of this means that an NFL fan who wants access to every Snap could end up paying over $1,000, including monthly cable bills,” Andrew Beaton and Rosie Ettenheim write in the Wall Street Journal.

Of course, fans can watch local teams for free through their partner networks’ channels, but anyone who wants to watch Sunday games outside their market — for example, with YouTube TV’s Sunday Ticket for $479 — will have to be prepared to dig deep into their pockets. (USA Today offers a guide to the various Sunday ticket packages and offers.) MarketWatch also analyzed the numbers for a whole season of football watching and the balance was even higher than the Magazines:

• “The total cost for a football fan without cable to stream all 343 NFL games this season is about $1,700,” the article says. “The total cost for cable customers to stream all NFL games this season is even higher, about $2,500.” And that doesn’t include the cost of the internet, it continues.

(More NFL stories.)