In many ways, today’s couch-bound sports fan has it easy. If there’s a game from one of the top leagues being played somewhere, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be able to watch it — even if accessing all the sports you want can be a costly affair.
Sports fans half a century ago couldn’t say the same. With the exceptions of local broadcasts of hometown teams, if a game wasn’t on network television, you weren’t going to be able to tune in. The spread of cable television broadened the opportunities for live broadcasts considerably, and with streaming services now fully established, it’s easy enough to track down all the sports you can handle.
Paying for it all, though, is another matter.
With leagues selling off their broadcast rights to multiple partners, the viewing landscape has become increasingly splintered. Just following a single team in a single sport could require multiple subscriptions to streaming platforms or channels, and those monthly fees definitely add up. Even the federal government is taking notice, with the U.S. Department of Justice looking into complaints alleging anticompetitive behavior by the NFL for moving some games exclusively to streaming platforms. Major League Baseball finds itself under scrutiny as well.
While you can question the motivation behind the Trump Administration’s sudden interest in fragmented sports broadcasting rights, it’s undeniable that fans who want to stay on top of their favorite teams and sports have to pay more for the privilege. But just how much more? I decided to find out by totaling up just how much a fan would have to pay to have a full selection of games for their streaming pleasure.
How we calculated the cost of sports streaming
To set up parameters for my search into streaming costs, I opted to restrict my search to the four major North American sports leagues — MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL — along with MLS.
I’m also focusing on streaming services here, as their costs are fairly uniform regardless of where you live. Sports broadcasts remain a big part of cable television — perhaps the main reason to keep cable, you could argue — but cable subscription rates can vary based on region, channel packages, and other services like internet and phone services that get bundled into the cost. Keeping the spotlight on streaming platforms can give us a better fix on the potential monthly cost for sports fans while reflecting the reality that a growing number of games are becoming exclusive to streamers.
We’re going to present our totals as monthly costs. In instances where you’d pay for a full season, we’ll convert it to a monthly rate to keep cost comparisons consistent. And because it’s always the off-season somewhere, we’re going to use the rates for NBA and NHL packages available at the start of the 2025-26 season, while citing the current advertised costs for NFL, MLB, and MLS telecasts.
With the understanding that what you’re willing to pay for each league’s streaming packages might depend on the teams in your area, I decided to drill down and focus on a sports fan living in a city represented by teams from all five leagues I’m considering. That’s why I settled on Philadelphia, creating a hypothetical fan who wants to see as many Phillie, Eagle, Flyer, 76er, and Union games as possible. There’s a non-zero chance this made-up fan has tried to climb up a lamppost and has passionate thoughts about the Tush Push.
With those guidelines in place, here’s what I found out.
The cost of MLB streaming
The cost of that bundle is less encouraging — getting live sports through Peacock requires a $10.99/month premium subscription, while the NBC Sports Philadelphia add-on is another $24.95. If our hypothetical fan also likes basketball and hockey, that $35.94 monthly total becomes a little more palatable, as NBC Sports Philadelphia also offers Sixers and Flyers games.
Depending on how much you like baseball, though, the costs can be even higher. To get access to Apple’s Friday broadcasts of MLB match-ups, you’ll need a $12.99/month Apple TV subscription. Adding out-of-market games to the mix requires MLB.TV, normally a $149/season package, though that’s been discounted to $139 as of this writing. Spreading the $149 cost over the course of MLB’s eight months of games would add roughly $18.63 to your monthly streaming budget.
A further complication comes with games airing on FS1 and TBS. Sling includes both channels in its various streaming packages, though they’re in separate Blue and Orange tiers, respectively. To get both, you’d have to pay for Sling’s Orange and Blue tier, which costs $60.99/month. Best to do what I do and opt for a $4.99 day pass at Sling if there’s a can’t-miss match-up, though that will only work for TBS games since Sling’s day passes are only available on its Orange tier.
Baseball streaming minimum monthly cost (in-market games): $35.94
Baseball streaming maximum monthly cost (in- and out-of-market games): $67.56
The cost of NFL streaming
But notice I said “most” there. As Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio has noted, the NFL’s claim that 87% of its games are free really doesn’t hold up to close inspection.
Monday Night Football games, for example, typically require an ESPN subscription, though they are sometimes simulcast on ABC. A standard ESPN subscription would cost $29.99/month, though football fans might be tempted to get the $39.99 NFL+ Premium package, which adds access to the NFL Network and NFL Red Zone. NFL Network will reportedly be included in the standard ESPN subscription before next season, however, as a result of ESPN’s recent equity deal with the NFL.
Adding Prime Video’s Thursday night games adds an additional $8.99 monthly cost, assuming you opt for the standalone Prime Video package rather than the full Prime membership, which is more expensive. And with Netflix adding more games, count on paying at least $8.99/month for an ad-supported subscription.
That’s probably sufficient for most football fans, though it’s worth noting that NFL Sunday Ticket would require a separate subscription via either YouTube TV or YouTube’s Sunday Ticket add-on. The latter option costs $20/month for 12 months for new subscribers, but the fine print notes that you need to pay for a full year — there’s no canceling once the NFL season ends, as you can with a lot of other streaming packages. Returning customers pay $31.50 per month across 12 mandatory payments.
Football streaming minimum monthly cost (includes ESPN, Prime Video, Netflix): $47.99
Football streaming maximum monthly cost (includes Sunday Ticket w/ new subscriber discount): $67.99
The cost of NHL streaming
As with baseball, the option of bundling a regional sports network with a Peacock streaming subscription gives our Philly fans access to local Flyers telecasts. But that’s not the full picture.
ESPN and TNT also carry hockey games, including the Stanley Cup playoffs. An ESPN Select (formerly ESPN Plus) subscription would give you access to plenty of regular-season hockey games for $12.99/month. Access to sports on TNT is available through the $18.49 monthly tier of the HBO Max streaming app. That combined cost is still less than the $45.99 Sling Orange package, which includes both ESPN and TNT, though without it you may be left in the lurch for playoff games airing on ESPN.
Hockey streaming minimum monthly cost (in-market games): $35.94
Hockey streaming maximum monthly cost (in- and out-of-market games): $67.43
The cost of NBA streaming
Another sport, another chance to bundle an RSN with a streaming sports service. And with Peacock also offering NBA games of its own, our Philadelphia-based fan is really getting their money’s worth when it comes to watching the 76ers and other basketball games for $35.94/month.
Beyond that, though, our fan would also want to tack on an ESPN subscription ($29.99/month) to get the NBA action airing on that channel, as well as the standalone $8.99 Prime Video subscription. That said, for $16.99/month, NBA League Pass includes access to Prime Video games along with other out-of-market action.
Basketball streaming minimum monthly cost (in-market games): $35.94
Basketball streaming maximum monthly cost (in- and out-of-market games): $82.97
The cost of MLS streaming
Say this for Major League Soccer: it’s got the most straightforward path to streaming matches. All you need to do is subscribe to Apple TV, and every single MLS match is available to view. You don’t even have to buy a separate season pass on top of the regular subscription fee, as you have in past seasons. Instead, Apple TV’s $12.99/monthly rate covers it all.
Soccer streaming monthly cost: $12.99
Adding it all up
Getting a firm figure on what it costs to be a TV-watching sports fan these days isn’t simply a matter of toting up the figures across different sports. Seasons overlap, and a single service might provide access to games from multiple teams and leagues. The Philadelphia sports fan in our example could get a lot of Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers games for just $35.94 per month with a Peacock/NBC Sports Philadelphia bundle.
But not everyone’s going to be that lucky. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which means I can also bundle an NBC regional sports network with my Peacock account. However, the San Jose Sharks are on a different RSN from the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors — if I wanted to watch all three teams, I’d have to pay for two separate $17.95 add-ons each month on top of my regular Peacock subscription.
But the big burden on fans isn’t the cost of getting a basic package to see your favorite teams and sports in action. It’s the fact that, MLS aside, leagues are spreading their broadcast rights across multiple venues, forcing fans to scramble to make sure they can see all the games they want.
That’s costly in a couple of ways. This exercise of detailing how much each individual service costs shows how subscription fees can add up, making you feel like your budget is being slowly pecked into pieces. There’s also the administrative hassle of trying to keep all those subscriptions straight, remembering what to cancel once certain seasons are over, and when to renew once a new season gets underway.
It’s certainly true that we have more viewing options for sports than we did a few generations ago. But staring at the list of spiraling costs for streaming services, I’m not sure if it’s much of an improvement over the way things were.
About Phillip Michaels
Philip Michaels has been covering the tech industry for more than 25 years. He currently finds himself between jobs and, with the Athletics moving out of Oakland, between baseball teams.