Netflix is pulling regular-season games—Christmas, Thanksgiving—forcing fans to juggle subscriptions. And the fans are noticing. In an EssentiallySports Newsletter poll titled “Do you think streaming platforms are stealing the essence of the sport?”, 48.6% voted yes, with another 22.8% on the fence. Broadcast TV still holds 88% of all NFL games, but streaming platforms hold the sport’s flagship dates, with yet another big-ticket game largely heading away from broadcast TV.

The NFL has now signed another regular-season deal with Netflix for the Week 1 game from Australia. The San Francisco 49ers will face the Los Angeles Rams at Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the game will air live at 8:35 p.m. ET on September 10, 2026, with NBC handling production. Yet fans will still need Netflix to watch it, which leads to the question: Is this really an expansion for profit or a brutal hit towards cable TV?

Just take Netflix, for example, which is reportedly paying about $150 million every year to air NFL Christmas Day games under a three-year agreement. Then, even Amazon Prime signed a deal worth around $1 billion per year for exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” through 2033. This can give the impression that network broadcasting is losing out on the festival games, but Roger Goodell countered the claim with a number.

The NFL commissioner had said, “88 percent of our games, roughly, are on broadcast television. The other 12 percent are on platforms that are incredibly widely distributed, and people are already there. Netflix is not a small distribution. In fact, you can make an argument that it’s bigger than some of the networks.”

Too many subscriptions are spoiling the fans’ interest

The reality is, if you take away important games in a way, you are forcing people to buy the subscription and watch it. Instead of one simple place to watch games, fans now need multiple subscriptions, which makes watching the sport more complicated and frustrating for many fans, particularly the older generation. Fans around the 50-60 year age bracket who know very little about technology may find searching, subscribing, and streaming a game an unnecessary tech task. So, it’s pretty evident why there’s a feeling that network broadcasting is losing its grip.

As games are split across Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, YouTube, and traditional TV, fans feel like they are “running from app to app” just to follow one season. The dissatisfaction is clearly visible in Reddit forums, too. The differing apps are not the only qualm.

Under a poll named “Rams vs. Whiners in Australia, Week 1 Game to be a broadcast on Netflix,” fans expressed their anger, saying, “as bad as cable again,” because instead of making things easier, it feels more crowded and confusing.

A clear example is the reaction to last year’s Netflix NFL Christmas Day broadcast between the Commanders and Cowboys. Fans complained about buffering, poor picture quality, and awkward broadcast choices, like in-game interviews interrupting live action.

According to reports, viewers called the experience “wretched” and frustrating, showing that streaming is not always reliable for live sports.

So, various streaming platforms are not just killing network broadcasting and fans’ interest, but also taking a big hit on their wallets and ruining the watching experience.

Full NFL access across all platforms costs approximately $800+ per season. That creates frustration because the old TV model was one payment, one place, and everyone watched together. But now it’s all over the place.

Looks like the NFL isn’t stopping with media deals anytime soon

Now, the NFL is also close to a deal with YouTube to show about five games. This happened because ESPN changed its agreement after taking over the NFL Network. As part of that change, ESPN returned the “Monday Night Football” doubleheader games to the NFL, which left extra games available for the league to sell again.

Because of this, YouTube is likely to get those games, but the final details like price, how long the deal will last, and which exact games will be shown are not decided yet. YouTube’s likely deal signals how streaming platforms are becoming the future and why fans feel the old cable system is dying. They might hold the largest percentage, but the control is already gone.

That’s where the US government took things into its hands.

How can this investigation turn things around for the NFL?

The NFL is now facing serious pressure from the U.S. government over how fans watch football games and how expensive it has become. The Department of Justice has started investigating whether the NFL’s TV and streaming deals hurt consumers, with only local games still airing for free on regular television.

As a result, many fans now need several paid subscriptions just to watch one full season. Only local games still air for free on regular television.

Congress could vote to remove the NFL’s special legal protection under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. That law currently allows the league to sell all game broadcast rights together as one package. If lawmakers remove that protection, the NFL could face lawsuits and bigger legal challenges over its TV and streaming deals.

Legal expert Frank Hawkins explained the entire situation, shedding light on how things can turn overnight for the league.

“The NFL can sell its games to whoever it wants; they just have to be ready to defend it in an antitrust case,” Hawkins said.

One can bring a more stable outlook for fans, but you can’t really stop streaming platforms from expanding entirely. Young generations are pretty much familiar with the latest technology, and very few of them actually find it interesting to watch it on the field or on TV. Whereas older generations are losing interest because so many platforms are taking over.

The numbers do show that there isn’t a large shift to safely claim that network broadcasting is dying. First, it was special holiday games, and now it’s slowly taking over the regular season games. They key word here is slowly. Over time, network broadcasting may lose its control entirely, but as of now, fans still need different streaming subscriptions and TV channels to watch every single game.

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