Thanksgiving’s Football Streaming Mess

If we learned anything over Thanksgiving, it’s how much of an opportunity there is for Disney chief Bob Iger to turn ESPN into a streaming hub for all sports. If you tried to catch the three NFL games on Thanksgiving Day without the benefit of cable TV (or an online version of cable, like YouTube TV), you would have discovered—as my household did—that it’s not possible. While two of Thursday’s three games were available to watch on streaming services, the third was not. Yes, we’re in the final stage of the transition from television to streaming, which includes moving live sports to the newish medium. It’s messy.

And that messiness is magnified when you’re confronted with a house full of people keen to watch football all day. The game airing first, Green Bay Packers versus Detroit Lions, was on Fox, which doesn’t have a paid-subscription streaming service, so we couldn’t stream it without a cable-type service. Paramount Global’s Paramount+ had a game (Washington Commanders versus Dallas Cowboys), but that didn’t start until late afternoon. NBCUniversal’s Peacock aired the evening game, San Francisco 49ers playing the Seattle Seahawks. Try explaining to family members why watching the NFL is so complicated without a cable package—which means getting into the high cost of NFL video rights—and you’ll meet glazed eyes and a request for more beer. (And yes, we could have checked the schedule beforehand).