YouTube, Netflix, Fox are in play for special five-game 2026 package

FortressX · Sunday at 9:06 AM

MOAR !

As we understand it, the NFL has presented a menu consisting of more than five potential games, with the bidders having the ability to pick the five specific games they want.

The options are believed to include the Week 1 game in Australia, a Thanksgiving eve game (which is not official but apparently inevitable), a second Black Friday game, and a Christmas Eve game, among others.

YouTube, Netflix, Fox are in play for special five-game 2026 package

As the NFL embarks on an effort to renegotiate its various full-season TV packages, the league continues to shop a five-game package of games to be televised during the 2026 season.

www.nbcsports.com

Pape · Sunday at 9:41 AM

Streaming is now the new cable.

Eventually all the major games will be packaged and sold to the highest streaming bidder. Do wonder how it will affect the Super Bowl when it finally finds itself behind a paywall...

Will have to raise my flag again at that point...

WhatJustHappened · Sunday at 10:22 AM

If I have to pay, I just won't watch it.
I have Prime, and hardly watch Thursday games as it is.

BennyBledsoe · Sunday at 11:43 AM

What started as a way to combat greed, has turned into greed.

When streaming services first started, they started at like 25 dollars a month for something like Playstation Vue. And that was basically (hah!) basic cable. That ended and I moved to YouTube TV. It was 30 a month. Then they kept adding premium channels nobody wanted and the price kept going up.

Now even cheap services are like 60-70 a month, and that's not including the amount you have to pay for your ISP.

It's mental.

XLIX · Sunday at 11:58 AM

The NFL is continuing to push their luck with the Friday Thanksgiving game, and now they’re taking about a 2nd one?

I would love to see the government blow the whole thing up.

Family · Sunday at 12:58 PM

Sunday ticket will be a ghost town

Water Boy · Sunday at 1:10 PM

I miss the old days. As a kid I watched the Pats on network TV and The Bruins and Celts on UHF channel 38 for free.

lancerman · Sunday at 1:15 PM

BennyBledsoe said:
What started as a way to combat greed, has turned into greed.

When streaming services first started, they started at like 25 dollars a month for something like Playstation Vue. And that was basically (hah!) basic cable. That ended and I moved to YouTube TV. It was 30 a month. Then they kept adding premium channels nobody wanted and the price kept going up.

Now even cheap services are like 60-70 a month, and that's not including the amount you have to pay for your ISP.

It's mental.

Ehhh Netflix is $17 or $24 if you want 4K, Disney is $12 or $18 depending on if you care about ads. Hulu is $10 or $20 depending on if you care about ads. Same with Max. Amazon with Prime membership is $15. Pretty much everything else is cheaper.

If you cord cut it's still a better deal. Netflix/Hulu/Max/Amazon pretty much get you most everything (and Prime has it's own value).

The big issue is if you really want everything or not instead of just switching services every couple of months

By comparison Sunday Ticket was like $300 bucks

mgteich · Sunday at 1:25 PM

Water Boy said:
I miss the old days. As a kid I watched the Pats on network TV and The Bruins and Celts on UHF channel 38 for free.

Do you live in New England?

How many patriot games have been missed over the past year because they were behind a pay wall? I understand that they are millions of folks in New England without an antenna, Netflix, and Prime. But how many games were subject to the awful experience of getting a one-week trial period on a streaming netwrork?

Water Boy · Sunday at 1:54 PM

I'm in NH. I believe in the NFL's right to sell its product. I don't have cable and spend 80 bucks a month on YouTube TV during the season so I can watch the games. But its literally the only thing I watch on the channel. I'd be fine with a pay per view model rather than pay for programming and commercials I have no need for.

Pape · Sunday at 2:50 PM

More games means higher nfl payouts, more crew, more broadcast teams, more broadcast equipment, etc... As the streaming services & the nfl get deeper into bed, the cost will keep getting higher and higher...

The nfl greed monster is a ravenous beast...

If you know Tolkien, i would likened it to Ungoliant...

BennyBledsoe · Sunday at 3:17 PM

lancerman said:
Ehhh Netflix is $17 or $24 if you want 4K, Disney is $12 or $18 depending on if you care about ads. Hulu is $10 or $20 depending on if you care about ads. Same with Max. Amazon with Prime membership is $15. Pretty much everything else is cheaper.

If you cord cut it's still a better deal. Netflix/Hulu/Max/Amazon pretty much get you most everything (and Prime has it's own value).

The big issue is if you really want everything or not instead of just switching services every couple of months

By comparison Sunday Ticket was like $300 bucks

.....in order to watch the networks, you need 'Live TV' which is not what those services offer.

XLIX · Sunday at 3:18 PM

Water Boy said:
I'm in NH. I believe in the NFL's right to sell its product.

If the NFL plays the "we have the right to sell our product however we want" card then they are no longer deserving of the special exemption they receive from federal antitrust law.

You can't screw over the public and then turn around and receive special favors from the federal government.

mgteich · Sunday at 4:29 PM

There certainly wouldn't be any free TV without the exemption. The exemption also prohibits FrI night and SAT game.
=================
The top teams would have much more control of the leagues since they wouldn't have to share their TV money equally.
============
NOTHING is going to happen; nothing.

jmt57 · Sunday at 6:04 PM

Getting déjà vu on this topic.

April 1:

F

Thread 'Netflix will have two games on Christmas(2026), and Fox will have the other'

Apr 1, 2026

Netflix will have two games on Christmas, and Fox will have the other

With Christmas landing on a Friday in 2026, the NFL plans to fill everyone's stockings with football.

www.nbcsports.com

This year, the league also will likely play one or more games on Saturday, December 26, and on Thursday, December 24. It sets up a full, five-day run of games, from Thursday through Monday.

The Patriots have never played on Christmas Day
Here is their Christmas Eve history

The Complete History of the Patriots on Christmas Eve

Looking back at the New England Patriots’ Christmas Eve games reveals some dramatic moments, and those moments shaped the team’s path, which usually meant the playoffs, and also set up...

985thesportshub.com

March 27:

F

Thread 'FCC chair warns NFL that increase in streaming could “collapse” antitrust exemption'

Mar 27, 2026

FCC chair warns NFL that increase in streaming could "collapse" antitrust exemption

Hogs may not get slaughtered, but they could lose their broadcast antitrust exemption.

www.nbcsports.com

TheRainMaker · Sunday at 8:14 PM

The best networks back in the 90's were FOX, NBC, ABC (MNF) and ESPN (SNF). I miss prime Al Michels and his crew, John Madden and Pat Summeral, the ESPN crew, **** Enberg, Greg Gumbel, Marv Albert and I know I'm forgetting others. Sideline reporters were very good as well. The broadcasts sound like when I'm playing Madden - very generic.

BennyBledsoe · Sunday at 8:59 PM

Simms and Gumbel were fun b/c there was this sense (maybe manufactured) that the two of them just hated each other. It was priceless.

Patjew · Sunday at 11:26 PM

I have been told that I have a “special package” but alas, that was years ago.

Raccoonsuit · 2026-04-15T06:02:46-0400

Family said:
Sunday ticket will be a ghost town

I was able to get it significantly reduced cause I took a class at a community college and got their student discount.

Living out of market it's the best bet. I would ride the high seas but so many sites are just utter dogshit that it isn't worth it to me.

1960Pats · 2026-04-15T06:38:04-0400

I watch less and less games every year. After 60+ years they've become boring.

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