Jonah Elkowitz / Shutterstock.com
President Donald Trump is adding his voice to a frustration shared by millions of NFL fans – the league’s steady push toward streaming services at the expense of free, over-the-air television.
In a recent interview on Full Measure that aired Sunday, Trump didn’t hold back.
“It’s tough. You got people that love football. They’re great people. They don’t make enough money to go and pay this. It’s tough. And they could be killing the golden goose.”
Trump Stops Short of Promising Any Action
Frustration is one thing. Guarantees are another. Despite his comments, Trump acknowledged that a recent Department of Justice investigation into the NFL doesn’t automatically mean anything will change for fans.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. They’re making a lot of money. They could make a little bit less. They could let the people see. You have people that live for Sunday. They can’t think about anything else, and then all of a sudden, they’re gonna have to pay $1,000 a game? It’s crazy, so I’m not happy about it.”
The $1,000 figure is an exaggeration – but not by as much as you’d think. A fan looking to legally stream every game of the 2025 NFL season would have needed to spend over $1,000 to do it. That’s a real number.
Most games still air on over-the-air broadcast networks. But a growing share have migrated to cable – ESPN and NFL Network – and more recently to streaming platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, and Peacock.
It’s a shift that’s been happening gradually, which makes it easy for the league to defend. But the cumulative cost to fans adds up fast.
“There’s something very sad when they take football away from many, many people. Very sad. I don’t like it.”
It’s rare to find an issue where fans across the political spectrum are this aligned. Nobody – left, right, or anywhere in between – is celebrating the fact that watching a full NFL season now requires juggling multiple subscriptions and a significant chunk of change.
