One in three fans admit to using illegal NFL streams, according to poll
Thursday Night Football can be found on Amazon Prime. That's easy enough, right? All you need is an Amazon Prime subscription. That's $15 a month. If you want to watch Monday Night Football, you'll need a cable subscription...or NFL+ Premium...or fuboTV.
What about Sunday games though? There's NFL Sunday Ticket, but you're going to need a DirecTV or YouTube TV plan for that. RedZone is nice, but you don't get to see the entirety of the games you really want to watch. Also, that's $489 for the entire season. That's without mentioning issues that come up if you're a fan of an out-of-market team. Sure, you might have cable, but unless your favorite team is playing in prime time, you can forget about catching them on your local channels. Even if you can, the game is airing on NBC, right? Or is it FOX? ABC?
There are so many different platforms, tons of different services to juggle, droves of stations to monitor, and mountains of fees that pile up just so you, the diehard NFL fan, can watch every game.
With mounting confusion and other issues, many fans have turned to another rather illegitimate solution.
Streaming NFL games illegally is wildly popular
According to an Oddspedia poll of 3,200 NFL fans, more than one-third (thirty-five percent) of all NFL fans regularly stream games illegally. Forty-nine percent of fans admitted to using illegal streaming sites at least once.
Fans point to one issue for their decision
While many illegal streaming services are just as inconvenient as having to manage cable, streaming services, your schedule, etc., nothing can beat a big fat zero on a fan's credit card bill. Oftentimes, fans are going to be watching games with friends. You need to invest in food, drinks, maybe some decor for an event like that. Adding an additional fee to watch the game is an unwanted expense, especially when illegal options are available.
Sure, those illegal sites may be more prone to viruses or malware, but when the options are maybe get a computer virus and watch your team or watch your team and take out a second mortgage on the house, people will sometimes choose the former.
According to the survey, sixty-four percent of fans who use illegal streams cited the hefty price of following every NFL game as the main reason why they swapped to illegal sites. Another thirty-two percent claimed convenience was the biggest factor.
Do fans think this is okay?
Apparently so. Not only is the use of illegal streams growing every year, but ninety-three percent of illegal stream users saw no moral dilemma in using those streams.
Poll methodology
According to Oddspedia, the survey included 3,200 football fans from across America and was conducted in August 2023. Seventy percent of respondents identified as male, and the average age of each respondent was 42 years old.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Illegal streams of NFL games are absurdly popular
