Curbing the cost of watching every NFL football game this season

SALT LAKE CITY — Huddle-up football fans: If you want the ability to watch every NFL game this season, you’re looking at having to pay somewhere in the ballpark of $850. That’s due to the rights to carry the games being divided up amongst various streaming platforms.

“Not everybody can afford streaming,” TV sports commentator Charles Barkley told CNBC this week, about the fans having to pay more than ever before to watch sporting events.

“You’ve got greedy players and greedy owners,” he commented. “They don’t really care about anything except how to make the most money possible. We should never put money above the regular fan.”

LendingTree’s chief credit analyst, Matt Schulz, said Barkley is far from alone in protesting those costs.

“When it comes to sports, a lot of folks aren’t super happy that they may end up having to subscribe to a new streaming service,” he said.

LendingTree’s recent check of the nation’s pulse found that 55% of Americans “don’t think it’s fair that streaming platforms can purchase the rights to a singular sports event or game.”

But there is a way you can keep costs down, Schulz said.

“One of the things about streaming services is they generally make it fairly easy to cancel,” he said.

So, toggling on your streaming subscription to watch the game and then toggling it off again is a good way to beat the expense, Schulz said.

But you must stay on top of it.

“Canceling that subscription can be a really good way to save a little bit of money because so many people find themselves signing up for something and then forgetting about it.”

The NFL season kicks off on September 5th with NBC broadcasting the first game here on KSL. And if you have an antenna, at least that’s one game you can watch for free.