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How to watch football as cheaply as possible

Jared Newman   |   August 22, 2025
Photo by Paolo Aldrighetti on Unsplash

For better or worse, the number of ways to watch NFL and college football games has exploded in 2025.

While you used to need a bloated pay TV bundle just to stream your local team, this year brings new standalone options from ESPN and Fox, skinnier channel bundles from pay TV providers, and shorter-term subscription plans from Sling. If you slice and dice things the right way, you could save a bunch of money over previous years.

But with so many potential paths for football coverage, it’s hard to keep track of what’s even available, let alone what the best option is. Below is my best attempt to point you in the right direction.

Read the full column →

Weekly rewind

ESPN and Fox unbundle: As of this week, you no longer need a bundle of other cable channels to watch ESPN or Fox’s channels. ESPN’s standalone service costs $30 per month by itself or $36 per month with Disney+ and Hulu (which are included free for the first year), while Fox One costs $20 per month. They’ll be available as a $40 per month bundle from October 2 onward.

Separately, ESPN announced a $40 per month bundle with NFL+ Premium, which includes Redzone and full game replays. That’ll be available starting September 3.

These launches feel like a turning point in how TV is packaged and sold. Big channel packages will still be available of course—ESPN and Fox still rake in plenty of money from those—but we’re going to see a lot of new attempts to split up the bundle now that its two biggest draws don’t require one at all.

Sling’s skinnier bundle: Speaking of which, Sling TV has started selling a $20 per month “Select” package with far fewer channels than its $46 per month Orange and Blue plans. The list is small enough to put right here in the newsletter: NFL Network, Fox News, FS1, Nat Geo, FX, MeTV, Grit, GSN, H&I, LMN, and Vice.

The package gets more interesting in the major cities where Sling carries local ABC, Fox, and NBC stations. If Sling has two out of the three in your city, the price goes to $25 per month. If you receive all three channels, it’s $30 per month. In places where the local team airs primarily on Fox, this may end up as the best and cheapest way to keep up with the NFL.

This follows Sling’s announcement last week of $5 day passes, $10 weekend passes, and $15 weeklong passes, which you could potentially use to fill in ESPN here and there. I’m all about what Sling is doing here. Every TV provider should be giving us more flexible options to avoid paying for what we don’t need.

Apple TV+ price hike: Now for some bad news. Apple TV+ just bumped its price to $13 per month, up from $10 per month previously. The change is immediate for new subscribers, and will take effect on the next billing cycle for existing ones. Bummer, but it’s not surprising given that Apple is reportedly losing $1 billion per year on the service. Keep trying to use this free month link until they take it away.

Correction: I forget to mention this last week, but in the newsletter prior I wrote that Audacity had discontinued its Roku app. D’oh, that’s Audacy, the radio streaming service. Audacity, the venerable open-source desktop audio editing software, is unaffected.

More catch-up

Save more money

This page has some affiliate links, which earn me a commission if you wind up buying something.

DirecTV is finally doing a sale on some of its Genre Packs, which offer a narrower channel selection for less than the company’s standard packages:

  • The MySports package, which includes local channels, national sports, league-based networks, and cable news, is down to $60 per month for two months ($10 off).
  • The MyEntertainment package, which includes Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and a bunch of cable channels, is down to $30 per month for two months ($5 off).

You don’t need a satellite dish for these services, and while DirecTV will try to lease you one of its streaming boxes during checkout, you can also just use DirecTV’s free apps on smart TVs and streaming players.

Other notable deals:

  • Get a year of NFL+ Premium (including live game replays and Redzone) for $80, down from the usual $100. (Select the “Yearly”) tab to see the deal.
  • NFL+ is also on sale for $40 for the year, down from $50. This only includes local and primetime games on phones and tablets, live game audio, and NFL Network.
  • The Fire TV Stick HD is back to $18 with code HDFTVNEW, the 4K model is down to $25 with code 4KNEWFTV, and the 4K Max is on sale for $30 with code 4KMAXNEW.

As always, I keep a full list of streaming deals on the Cord Cutter Weekly website.

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Thanks for reading!

Got questions? Let me know!

Until next week,
Jared