Get ready for kickoff: your updated 2026 guide to watching every NFL game

The NFL season is nearly here, so it's time to get your setup sorted. This updated guide maps all of 2026: which network carries your Sunday games, the matchups that stream only online, how out-of-market coverage works, the discounts worth knowing, and where the playoffs and Super Bowl land.

The gist: Preseason is underway and the regular season is a few weeks out, which makes now the moment to lock in how you'll watch. The NFL's games are spread across nine platforms this year, and a handful of them, including a Week 1 game and both Christmas Day matchups, don't air on traditional TV at all. Here's the full 2026 picture, refreshed with the latest schedule and pricing, so you're set before kickoff and not scrambling on game day.

When it starts

• Preseason is on now. The Hall of Fame Game already kicked things off, and preseason Weeks 1 through 3 run through late August. Most preseason games air on local stations in each team's market, with a handful of national windows on NFL Network (which now streams inside the ESPN app for ESPN Unlimited subscribers).
• The regular season opens Wednesday, September 9. It starts on a Wednesday this year rather than the usual Thursday, with a Super Bowl LX rematch: the defending champion Seahawks host the Patriots at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. The next night, the 49ers and Rams play in Melbourne, Australia, streaming only on Netflix.

Your Sunday map

The bulk of the season plays out on Sunday afternoons, split by conference:

• CBS carries the AFC slate. Every CBS game also streams on Paramount+ Premium.
• FOX carries the NFC slate. Fox games are available over the air, on live-TV streamers, and on Fox's own service, Fox One.

Then the primetime windows:

• Sunday night → NBC, streaming on Peacock.
• Monday night → ESPN, with some weeks simulcast on ABC. These stream on the ESPN app for ESPN Unlimited subscribers.
• Thursday night → Amazon Prime Video, exclusively. There's no national TV broadcast of Thursday Night Football, so you need Prime Video (the game does air on local TV in the two teams' home markets).

One important wrinkle: which game you see isn't always final until close to game day. The matchups themselves were set at the May schedule release, but two things get decided later. First, the networks choose which of the available Sunday afternoon games each local market receives (the regional "distribution maps"), usually during the week leading up to that Sunday. Second, primetime games can move under flexible scheduling: the NFL can shift games into or out of Sunday night on as little as 12 days' notice (and just six days late in the season), Monday night on 12 days' notice, and Thursday night on 21 days' notice. Week 18's full schedule, including which games land on Saturday, is set only after Week 17, so the finale features the biggest playoff-implication matchups. StreamCaddy updates its schedules as these assignments are finalized, so the games it shows for your market stay current.

The games you can only stream

This is the part that trips people up. A growing number of games never air on national television, and each streaming platform publishes its own full schedule:

• Amazon Prime Video has every Thursday Night Football game (16 of them), plus a Black Friday game on November 27 (Steelers hosting Broncos). Nationally, these stream only on Prime Video. Full list: Prime Video's 2026 Thursday schedule.
• Netflix has a five-game slate: the Week 1 game from Australia (49ers vs. Rams, Sept. 10), the first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game (Packers at Rams, Nov. 25), two Christmas Day games (Packers at Bears at 1 p.m. ET and Bills at Broncos at 4:30 p.m. ET, Dec. 25), and a Week 18 Saturday matinee on January 9 whose teams are set only after Week 17. Full list: Netflix's NFL schedule.
• Peacock streams every NBC game, plus one exclusive that won't be on broadcast NBC: a primetime game on Saturday, January 2, 2027 (Week 17), with the matchup chosen late in the season. Full lineup: Peacock's 2026 NFL slate.
• The ESPN app is where cord-cutters stream ESPN's NFL games: Monday Night Football, the NFL Network games, and Super Bowl LXI. One thing to know: these require ESPN Unlimited, ESPN's full tier ($29.99/month), not the cheaper ESPN Select. The full breakdown is in this NFL TV schedule.

If you only watch over-the-air TV, those streaming dates are when you'll get shut out unless you plan ahead.

Following an out-of-market team

If your team isn't local to you, the Sunday afternoon games your market doesn't carry live in one place: NFL Sunday Ticket, available through YouTube TV (as an add-on) or YouTube Primetime Channels (without YouTube TV). It carries 160-plus out-of-market Sunday afternoon games.

Here's a discount many people miss: if you happen to be a nurse, doctor, teacher, active or veteran military member, or first responder, you can get Sunday Ticket for $198 for the season (versus up to $480 for a returning subscriber) by verifying through ID.me. Enrolled college students get the lowest price of all, $119, through SheerID. Both are set up on YouTube's Sunday Ticket discount page.

What about NFL+? It's cheaper, but its usefulness for out-of-market fans is narrow. NFL+ streams every in-market Sunday game plus all primetime games (Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night), and only on phones and tablets, not your TV. So it will not get you your out-of-market team's Sunday afternoon games, which still require Sunday Ticket. What it does get you is your team's primetime games on mobile, wherever you live. There's no separate list to hunt down: NFL+ carries every primetime game, so just check your team's schedule for its Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night dates. NFL+ Premium also adds NFL RedZone, the whip-around channel that jumps to every scoring play on Sunday afternoons.

The playoffs and Super Bowl

The postseason begins the weekend of January 16, 2027, and spreads across CBS/Paramount+, FOX, NBC/Peacock, and ABC/ESPN, with Peacock again holding one exclusive Wild Card game. The AFC and NFC Championship games air on the networks that carry each conference.

Super Bowl LXI is Sunday, February 14, 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. For the first time ever, it airs on ESPN, simulcast on ABC, and streams on the ESPN app, Disney+, and NFL+. It's the first Super Bowl on ABC since 2006.

What you need for 100% coverage

To catch literally every NFL game this season, here's the full stack:

• A comprehensive live-TV streaming service (YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, or Fubo) that carries your local CBS, FOX, NBC, and ABC stations plus ESPN and NFL Network. An antenna can stand in for the four broadcast networks if you'd rather not pay for a package that includes them.
• NFL Sunday Ticket (through YouTube) for the out-of-market Sunday afternoon games your market doesn't air.
• Amazon Prime Video for Thursday Night Football.
• Netflix for the Week 1 Australia game and the Thanksgiving and Christmas matchups.
• Peacock for the Week 17 exclusive (you'll already have it covered for NBC's Sunday night games).

That combination leaves nothing out, though it adds up fast, and most fans don't need all of it.

The optimal setup for most fans

Start with who you follow. If you mostly watch your local team, an antenna covers their CBS, FOX, NBC, and ABC games, which is most of the schedule. Add Peacock for Sunday nights, Prime Video for Thursdays, and Netflix for the holiday games, and you'll rarely miss your team. If you follow an out-of-market team, the one essential upgrade is NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube, plus NFL+ on your phone for that team's primetime games. And if you just want to keep up with every scoring play, NFL RedZone (through NFL+ Premium or a live-TV streamer) does that without a full Sunday Ticket subscription. The cheapest correct setup really comes down to which team you follow and where you live.

For where college football lands this fall, see our companion college football viewing guide.

Not sure which of this week's games you can already watch? StreamCaddy maps the cheapest correct way to watch all of your teams and events for your exact location and subscriptions.

Sources

1. Sports Media Watch — "NFL TV Schedule 2026: How to Watch on TV and Streaming" (games on nine platforms; Paramount+ carries all CBS games; Peacock all NBC games plus a Week 17 exclusive; ESPN Unlimited all ESPN/ABC/NFL Network games including Super Bowl LXI; Netflix's five-game slate; YouTube TV holds Sunday Ticket; NFL+ Premium adds RedZone), August 7, 2026 — https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/tv-schedules/nfl-tv-schedule/
2. NFL Communications — "2026 NFL Schedule Announced" (Thanksgiving Eve: Packers at Rams, Nov. 25; Christmas Day Netflix games: Packers at Bears 1 p.m. ET and Broncos host Bills 4:30 p.m. ET; Peacock exclusive in primetime Saturday, Jan. 2, 2027), May 2026 — https://media.nfl.com/football-information/2026/news/2026-nfl-schedule-announced
3. Netflix Tudum — "NFL on Netflix 2026 Schedule: Australia Game, Thanksgiving Eve, Christmas, Week 18, and NFL Honors" (Week 1 Rams-49ers from Melbourne Sept. 10; Thanksgiving Eve Packers-Rams; two Christmas Day games; Week 18 Saturday matinee Jan. 9 at 1 p.m. ET), May 15, 2026 — https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/nfl-games-on-netflix
4. Cord Cutters News — "Peacock's 2026 NFL Lineup Features Holiday Exclusive, Sunday Night Football, Thanksgiving Day Rivalry Game & More" (Peacock streams all NBC games; exclusive Week 17 primetime game Saturday, Jan. 2, 2027 from the Saturday pool; Chiefs-Bills on Thanksgiving night on NBC), May 15, 2026 — https://cordcuttersnews.com/peacocks-2026-nfl-lineup-features-holiday-exclusive-sunday-night-football-thanksgiving-day-rivalry-game-more/
5. NFL.com — "2026 Prime Time Thursday Night Football Schedule" (16 exclusive Prime Video Thursday games plus Black Friday; Week 18 has three Saturday games with dates, times and networks set after Week 17), 2026 — https://www.nfl.com/schedules/2026/prime-time/thursday-night-football
6. NFL.com — "Flexible Scheduling Procedures" (Sunday Night Football flex Weeks 5-13 with 12 days' notice and Weeks 14-17 with six days; Monday Night Football flex Weeks 12-17 with 12 days; Thursday Night Football flex Weeks 13-17 with 21 days; Week 18 dates/times/networks announced after Week 17), 2026 — https://www.nfl.com/legal/flexible-scheduling-procedures
7. YouTube Help — "NFL Sunday Ticket for the Military, Medical and Teaching Communities" (military and veterans, first responders, medical community, and teachers pay $198 for the 2026 season via ID.me on YouTube Primetime Channels, RedZone +$42; offer available through Jan. 10, 2027), 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/16337018
8. ESPN — "Super Bowl 2027 on ESPN: Date, location, venue, more details" (Super Bowl LXI Feb. 14, 2027 at SoFi Stadium; airs on ESPN with an ABC simulcast, the first Super Bowl on ESPN; streams on the ESPN App, Disney+, and NFL+), February 12, 2026 — https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47819308/super-bowl-2027-espn-how-watch-schedule-facts-stats
9. Wikipedia — "2026 NFL season" (regular season Sept. 9, 2026 through Jan. 10, 2027; playoffs begin Jan. 16, 2027; Super Bowl LXI Feb. 14, 2027 at SoFi Stadium), August 2026 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_NFL_season