--- description: CBS will stream two regular season NFL football games, plus four playoff games and the Super Bowl, online for free. title: You'll Be Able to Watch Football Games Online for Free This Year image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96ef4c8980f271b3/698861fdab6d77090e6a5ffa/gettyimages-484372596.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # You'll Be Able to Watch Football Games Online for Free This Year by [Daniel Roberts / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Daniel Roberts / Fortune Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 2, 2015 1:02 PM CUT  Eli Manning #10 of the New York Giants looks to pass against the Cincinnati Bengals during a preseason game at Paul Brown Stadium on August 14, 2015 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Eli Manning #10 of the New York Giants looks to pass against the Cincinnati Bengals during a preseason game at Paul Brown Stadium on August 14, 2015 in Cincinnati, Ohio.Joe Robbins—Getty Images by [Daniel Roberts / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Daniel Roberts / Fortune Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 2, 2015 1:02 PM CUT It has traditionally been difficult for football fans to watch an “out-of-market” game in their home without paying for a special subscription package. For example, if you’re a fan of the New England Patriots, but you live in New York, and your team is not playing the New York Giants, New York Jets, or Buffalo Bills, and the game isn’t the Monday Night Football feature—you’re out of luck and have to watch at a bar. This season, that will change for several games. CBS will stream two regular season games, plus four playoff games and the Super Bowl, online for free. CBS has offered games for free in the past, but never regular season games. (The two regular season games streaming will be Jets vs. Dolphins on October 4 in London and Panthers vs Cowboys on November 26 in Dallas.) The move represents a major step for the network and for the league, which has ramped up its digital technology efforts in the past year considerably. Last January, the NFL launched its own official YouTube channel (MLB and the NBA both had one for years). Last season it also debuted NFL Now, [an ambitious new app](http://fortune.com/2014/08/17/nfl-now-video-app/ "undefined") with behind-the-scenes video, interviews, highlights, and features—but not live game video. Now it’s attempting to better cater to cord-cutters. Live sports, and especially football, have long been considered a last remaining reason for many viewers to pay for cable television, but even the NFL is recognizing the need to service those who’ve left cable behind. The league’s digital chief Brian Rolapp, in an [exclusive interview](http://fortune.com/2015/01/26/nfl-brian-rolapp/ "undefined") with _Fortune_ last season, said as much: “We knew that the world was going to be increasingly mobile… And video was going to play an increasingly important part as access to broadband, wireless or otherwise, was becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous. So those were the big trends. And our view was, well, how do you prepare for that world?” Rolapp also name-dropped Netflix and HBO Go, leading video-streaming services, as influences. The league, he said, wants to have “share of mind, share of eyeballs.” Streaming seven games is a play for the eyeballs the NFL no longer reaches with traditional cable. The news about CBS comes just one month after the network announced [it would live-stream](http://fortune.com/2015/07/29/cbs-live-stream-super-bowl-ads/ "undefined") all of next year’s Super Bowl ads online, as they air. The next Super Bowl, in February, is Super Bowl 50, and in addition to beefed-up marketing by the league around that nice round number, it’s clear that a lot of technology-related changes are coming to the way the NFL operates and caters to viewers. ### See All 48 Superbowl Rings  Super Bowl I - Green Bay Packers National Football League  Super Bowl II - Green Bay Packers National Football League  Super Bowl III - New York Jets National Football League  Super Bowl IV - Kansas City Chiefs National Football League  Super Bowl V - Baltimore Colts National Football League  Super Bowl VI - Dallas Cowboys National Football League  Super Bowl VII - Miami Dolphins National Football League  Super Bowl VIII - Miami Dolphins National Football League  Super Bowl IX - Pittsburgh Steelers National Football League  Super Bowl X - Pittsburgh Steelers National Football League  Super Bowl XI - Oakland Raiders National Football League  Super Bowl XII - Dallas Cowboys National Football League  Super Bowl XIII - Pittsburgh Steelers National Football League  Super Bowl XIV - Pittsburgh Steelers National Football League  Super Bowl XV - Oakland Raiders National Football League  Super Bowl XVI - San Francisco 49ers National Football League  Super Bowl XVII - Washington Redskins National Football League  Super Bowl XVIII - Los Angeles Raiders National Football League  Super Bowl XIX - San Francisco 49ers National Football League  Super Bowl XX - Chicago Bears National Football League  Super Bowl XXI - New York Giants National Football League  Super Bowl XXII - Washington Redskins National Football League  Super Bowl XXIII - San Francisco 49ers National Football League  Super Bowl XXIV - San Francisco 49ers National Football League  Super Bowl XXV - New York Giants National Football League  Super Bowl XXVI - Washington Redskins National Football League  Super Bowl XXVI - Dallas Cowboys National Football League  Super Bowl XXVIII - Dallas Cowboys National Football League  Super Bowl XXIX - San Francisco 49ers National Football League  Super Bowl XXX - Dallas Cowboys National Football League  Super Bowl XXXI - Green Bay Packers National Football League  Super Bowl XXXII - Denver Broncos National Football League  Super Bowl XXXIII - Denver Broncos National Football League  Super Bowl XXXIV - St. Louis Rams National Football League  Super Bowl XXXV - Baltimore Ravens National Football League  Super Bowl XXXVI - New England Patriots National Football League  Super Bowl XXXVII - Tampa Bay Buccaneers National Football League  Super Bowl XXXVIII - New England Patriots National Football League  Super Bowl XXXIX - New England Patriots National Football League  Super Bowl XL - Pittsburgh Steelers National Football League  Super Bowl XLI - Indianapolis Colts National Football League  Super Bowl XLII - New York Giants National Football League  Super Bowl XLIII - Pittsburgh Steelers National Football League  Super Bowl XLIV - New Orleans Saints National Football League  Super Bowl XLV - Green Bay Packers National Football League  Super Bowl XLVI - New York Giants National Football League  Super Bowl XLVII - Baltimore Ravens National Football League  Super Bowl XLVIII - Seattle Seahawks National Football League [_This article originally appeared on Fortune_](http://fortune.com/2015/09/02/nfl-free-online/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4019923/nfl-football-watch-online-free/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4019923/nfl-football-watch-online-free/"},"headline":"You'll Be Able to Watch Football Games Online for Free This Year","datePublished":"2015-09-02T13:02:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:44:28.361Z","description":"Thanks to a new move by CBS","url":"https://time.com/4019923/nfl-football-watch-online-free/","keywords":["Tech","Football","Web","pubdesk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96ef4c8980f271b3/698861fdab6d77090e6a5ffa/gettyimages-484372596.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel Roberts / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96ef4c8980f271b3/698861fdab6d77090e6a5ffa/gettyimages-484372596.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"New York Giants v Cincinnati Bengals","caption":"New York Giants v Cincinnati Bengals","creditText":"Joe Robbins—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4019923/nfl-football-watch-online-free/","name":"You'll Be Able to Watch Football Games Online for Free This Year"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Football’s Ultimate Cost: The Chad Stover Story","description":"It was halloween night, and the Tipton Cardinals needed a tackle. 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