The 2022 NFL season is underway, and fans are gearing up to spend the next several months locked in to all the action. There are a few ways to watch NFL football for free, though some of the best options do require a subscription. We’ll break down all your options.
Watching Thursday Night Football for Free
Since nearly every Thursday game now airs on Amazon Prime Video, you will be able to watch for free with a 30-day trial of the service.
After the free trial ends you would need to pay to watch the games.
There is an exception: If the game involves a team in your market, you’ll be able to watch the games for free with an antenna.
Watching Sunday Football for Free
If you want to watch games on CBS, Fox or NBC, you can do so with a free trial of a live TV streaming service. DIRECTV STREAM and fuboTV currently offer those free trials. Those channels are also available for free with an antenna.
If you have Paramount+, you can watch any local games on your CBS affiliate. You can get a free trial of that service.
Sunday Night Football airs on NBC, but you can also watch on Peacock. There is no free trial to Peacock.
If you want the 7-hour commercial-free whip-around coverage of NFL RedZone, choose fuboTV, since that’s not available on DIRECTV STREAM.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Free 3-Day Trial | Free Trial | Get 50% OFF | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $94.99 | $76.99 | $28 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| CBS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| Fox | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
| NBC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
| NFL RedZone | + $15 | + $11 | + $10 | - | - | + $11 | + $11 | |
Watching Monday Night Football for Free
A handful of Monday games will air on ABC, so you can get those with an antenna. The rest area available on ESPN, so you could watch for free with a free trial of any service that carries the channel. Again, fuboTV and DIRECTV STREAM make sense.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Free 3-Day Trial | Free Trial | Get 50% OFF | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $94.99 | $76.99 | $28 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| ABC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
| ESPN | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | |
| ESPN2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | |
Can You Watch NFL+ for Free?
NFL+ does not provide a free trial, but you will be able to watch all regular season and playoff games available in your local market on your mobile phone and tablet. NFL+ also includes live radio broadcasts and NFL library programming on-demand, ad-free.
If you upgrade to NFL+ Premium ($9.99 a month), you will also get all NFL games on-demand, immediately after they air, which can be viewed on TV devices as well.
What is the Least Expensive Way to Stream Most NFL Games?
The least expensive way to stream NFL football is a subscription to Sling TV. A subscription to Sling Blue ($35/month) gives you NBC & FOX (in select markets), along with NFL Network, while Sling Orange includes ESPN. Sling Blue does allow the sports add-on for $11, which is the least expensive way possible to get NFL RedZone.
If you get Sling Orange ($35/month), you get ESPN, but not Fox, NBC, and NFL Network. The solution would be Sling Orange + Blue ($50/month) to get all of those channels. If you get Sling Orange + Blue, you can also add NFL Redzone.
For a limited time, you can get Sling Blue + Sports Extra, which include NFL RedZone for just $23 for your first month.