The Great Sports Streaming Scam: Why Fans are Paying More for Less

The Streaming Dream Turned Nightmare

Streaming promised to save us from the horrors of cable. Click, watch, done. No flipping between channels looking for a game. Follow your team wherever you are. Goodbye expensive bundles.

A decade later, nothing has changed. Sports are spread so thin across different streaming sites that it’s like a digital scavenger hunt to find your team.

Prices don’t just rival cable, they’re higher. Access is still limited by location. Fans must pick their streaming apps like they’re drafting their fantasy football lineup.

Nothing was saved except the leagues’ bank accounts.

By the Numbers

Let’s talk money. Streaming was pitched as the cheaper alternative. Instead, we’ve got the new version of cable that somehow adds worse customer service across multiple providers.

YouTube TV Base starts at $82.99 a month regular price, and adding NFL Sunday Ticket brings the total to $114.49 without any promotions.

Head over to Sling and build a package including ESPN, FS1, and MLB.tv and it will cost $105.98 a month after your first month.

All these costs have risen over the years.  YouTube TV was $10 cheaper in 2024; the service started at $35 a month at launch in 2017. Just a few years ago, nationally broadcast NFL games were free on the NFL app. Now, even some of that same content costs $6.99 a month.

To watch every NFL game in the 2025 season, a diehard fan will have to shell out at least $833, according to a breakdown by USA Today.

Fan Frustration

When polled, 66% of respondents answered that they face challenges accessing game broadcasts, while 43% say they won’t pay the current costs of streaming services, according to Altman Solon. That frustration is well earned.

I paid for a subscription to the WNBA League Pass to watch the Indiana Fever, and the first three games I watched after subscribing were spread across the digital map. The first of the three games on June 17, where Caitlin Clark dropped 20 points on the Connecticut Sun in a heated game, was broadcast on the WNBA League Pass.

The next two games? Unavailable to watch on the $12.99 a month app. The June 19 game against the Golden State Valkyries was on Amazon Prime ($14.99 a month), and I watched the June 22 game against the Las Vegas Aces on Disney+ ($9.99 a month with ads). That’s $38 for just three games. Don’t forget, none of these apps talk to each other. Good luck handling passwords like a point guard under pressure.

It’s great for the women’s league to get national attention on Amazon Prime and Disney+, but paying the league directly and telling them which teams I want to follow shouldn’t force me to chase the team between three apps in less than a week.

Media Rights

While Apple TV+ secured near-exclusive rights to the MLS with a $2.5 billion dollar bid, other sports have their games and split across streaming sites, national, and even regional rights deals.

Thankfully, I get MLB.TV yearly as a perk with my T-Mobile plan—something that usually costs between $119.99 to $149.99 a season. It’s been essential to watching the Red Sox play as I’ve moved between multiple states. It works great, until I get hit with blackout dates.

Paying for a league app is a scam when no league controls its own broadcasts. It is pure greed to make fans pay every company under the sun to be able to follow even just one team across the season.

The Bottom Line

Sports streaming should be the future. Instead, we’re in a worse place. Games used to be split across a few broadcast stations by region. Then came cable exclusives. Now we’re at a minimum of six apps just for one sport. We’re at the point where even Netflix has the rights to NFL Christmas Day games.

Until leagues stop finding ways to milk fans across a half-dozen platforms, piracy will only skyrocket. I’d pay double for one app that actually works. Instead, I’m throwing my money away to catch a fraction of the games like a fool when I could be watching someone’s TikTok stream.