Sports tremendous fan Emily Cook, like many New Englanders, grew up in a die-hard Red Sox household. The Augusta resident loves watching hockey, soccer and the Olympics. She’s additionally loved the expansion of ladies’s skilled sports activities and tries to watch as many occasions as she will.
Often, it’s a battle to keep related. The downside?
“A few months ago, I realized (my apps) didn’t have Universal and NBC Sports stuff, because I went to watch the soccer game and went, ‘Why can’t I find this?’ I was driving myself insane,” she stated.
Cook is hardly alone, as many cord-cutting sports activities fans throughout the nation grapple with a myriad of streaming subscriptions that are usually required to watch skilled and collegiate sports activities.
Even cable subscribers should add completely different sports activities packages so as to see each NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB sport.
And all of it comes with a mounting price.
According to a 2026 sports viewership report, American households spend a median of $122.93 per thirty days — $1,475.16 a yr — on streaming subscriptions to watch sports activities.
Many sports activities fans additionally “stack” subscriptions — ordering cable and including premium subscriptions — or pay for a number of streaming websites.
For instance, if a Mainer desires to often watch Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks, they would want entry to NBC — out there by means of cable, over the air or the corporate’s streaming service, Peacock, at a spread of $7.99-$16.99 per thirty days. Fans additionally would want to get the NBA League Pass, which presents out-of-market video games for $13.99 a month (to comply with a single staff) to $24.99 per thirty days (premium entry to all video games), the ESPN app, which is $29.99 per thirty days, and Amazon Prime for $14.99 per thirty days. NBC, ESPN and Amazon Prime broadcast occasional Mavericks video games in the course of the common season and all the playoffs, whereas the League Pass reveals the rest of Mavericks video games by means of the Dallas/Fort Worth regional sports activities community.
At a naked minimal, if a fan follows the NBA season, which lasts six months, it will price $66.96 per thirty days, or $401.76 for the season to watch Flagg on a nightly foundation.
Cook needed entry to the 2026 Winter Olympics, proven on NBC stations, and U.S. girls’s nationwide soccer staff matches. The U.S. Soccer Federation is in an eight-year media rights settlement with TNT Sports, which is proven by means of the HBO app.
Cook beforehand had cable by means of Spectrum, which she stated price “$100-ish” per thirty days. At one time, she was in a position to get the worth down to $60. Now, she makes use of FuboTV for $83.99 per thirty days, which carries as many as 272 cable channels, together with ABC, ESPN, CBS, FOX and NESN, however not NBC stations, which has the unique rights to Olympic protection.
So for the Winter Games, she ordered Peacock, in addition to HBO for U.S. girls’s soccer. (She instantly removed Peacock after the Olympics, however nonetheless has HBO, which is $18.99. )
That leads to a complete of $102.98 per thirty days, or $1,235.76 per yr, which is about the identical, or extra, than what Cook stated she was paying when she had cable to entry many of the sports activities she loves.
Cook, who can be a Portland Hearts of Pine fan, will often order Hulu — which has ESPN Unlimited and carries Hearts of Pine highway video games — at an extra $19.99 per thirty days. (She has presently paused her Hulu subscription). Cook catches a break along with her favorite hockey staff, the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, which reveals all of its video games at no cost on YouTube.
“(Getting cable) would solve the Peacock problem and the TNT problem, just to have it in one place,” Cook stated, including that she misses having the ability to swap between channels when a number of occasions are taking place on the similar time.
“If you’re watching a game on one app, and you want to switch to another game on another app, you have to back out to go to the next one, you can’t just hit the ‘back’ button on the remote, it’s just not an option,” she stated, “and I don’t dislike baseball on the radio, maybe I just do that for the summer.”
Regionally, Boston Bruins and Boston Red Sox fans can watch video games on the New England Sports Network (NESN), which is discovered on native cable, or the NESN 360 app for $29.99 per thirty days.
While NESN carries a majority of the Red Sox video games, Major League Baseball has broadcast offers with seven completely different media companions, together with Apple TV, which is $12.99 per thirty days, and Netflix, which ranges from $8.99-$26.99 per thirty days, as effectively as ESPN, FOX (streamed on FOX One) and Peacock/NBC.
This would imply a fan, purely utilizing streaming apps, could be paying $90.95 (there are no Red Sox sport scheduled to be broadcast on Netflix in 2026). For a full MLB season, that’s $727.60.
NESN anchor Tom Caron, a Lewiston native who’s been with the Boston community since 1995, stated he hears from household and buddies every time the Red Sox play on one other community.
“Friday nights, when Apple TV has a Red Sox game, my phone blows up with people who turn on NESN and can’t find the game,” Caron stated. “It’s not like you can just go up and down the channels to find the game, you have to go to Apple TV… That’s where I feel some people get frustrated.”
“It’s a different industry,” added Michael McCann, a authorized analyst and legislation professor on the University of New Hampshire. He additionally writes for Sports Illustrated and Sportico, an internet site devoted to the enterprise, monetary, authorized and know-how features of the sports activities business.
“With Apple, not everyone has that app. But that’s the whole point, they want you to buy that app, but it leads to frustration because (the schedule) is not always predictable. People are used to thinking, ‘If the Red Sox are on Friday night, I’ll watch it on NESN.’ That’s sort of a traditional thing that people have done, but things have changed.”
MLB’s broadcast offers don’t work for Richmond resident Zach Hoogkamp, a Red Sox fan who pays $18.99 per thirty days for Disney+, however refuses to pay for the corporate’s premium tier service of $35.99 a month that features Hulu and all ESPN channels. Even if Hoogkamp did pay for the premium service, he would solely see the ESPN nationwide broadcasts of Red Sox video games, not all 162 common season video games.
“Doubling the price so I can watch a single sport for 7-8 months? I don’t think so,” Hoogkamp stated in an e mail. “I’m not a die-hard fan who needs to watch every game in all of MLB, I just want to see the Sox play every now and again when I can.”
NESN airs most Bruins video games, although the National Hockey League has offers with ESPN, ABC and TNT/TBS.
The Celtics play most video games on NBC Sports Boston, discovered on cable, Hulu + Live TV ($89.99 per thirty days) and YouTube TV ($82.99 per thirty days). To get full entry to NBA video games, fans would additionally want entry to NBC, ABC/ESPN and Amazon, the league’s different media companions.
Portland resident Cooper Kelley, a Celtics fan initially from Cambridge, Massachusetts, pays for 2 streaming apps to watch NBA video games, however makes use of different means to watch his favorite staff after they play on different networks.
“I can watch (the Celtics) if they’re on Peacock or on (Amazon) Prime, but outside of that, I don’t have a way to watch them at home,” stated Kelley, 26. “I’ll go out to a bar, but then you’re buying a drink, or food. At that point, you might as well have paid for the subscription.”
The National Football League has taken broadcasting rights to the acute. The league has long-term offers with 5 media companions: CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN and Amazon. A New England Patriots sport could possibly be broadcast on any of these networks any given week, which suggests fans should both pay up, or discover a pal.
It’s turn into such an issue for soccer fans that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the NFL for potential anticompetitive practices, according to The Associated Press.
Where the long run is headed for sports activities on streaming apps is unknown. Caron, 62, has seen the enterprise of tv change many instances over. He stated he can see an app for every professional sports activities league the place most, if not all video games, will be discovered, however leagues are nonetheless making tens of millions of {dollars} off broadcasting offers with main networks.
“We’re kind of in that middle ground right now,” Caron stated, “where linear TV still matters and is still really important. You’ve kind of got two platforms, two sets of audiences. When that happens, maybe nobody’s happy.”