Costs of Streaming Your Favorite Teams: Up to $100 per Month

Emily Cook, a passionate sports fan from Augusta, understands the struggle of keeping up with her favorite teams across various streaming services. She’s a die-hard Red Sox supporter who also enjoys hockey, soccer, and the Olympics, and loves watching women’s professional sports. Like many cord-cutters, she found herself frustrated by the need for multiple streaming subscriptions to catch all the action.

For example, to watch Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks, a fan would typically require access to NBC, the NBA League Pass, the ESPN app, and Amazon Prime, totaling around $66.96 per month or $401.76 for the season. It can add up quickly, depending on how many sports you follow.

To ensure she didn’t miss out on the 2026 Winter Olympics and U.S. women’s soccer team matches, Emily subscribed to Peacock and HBO temporarily, costing her around $102.98 per month. This total expense can sometimes match, or even exceed, the cost of cable subscriptions previously held by sports enthusiasts.

Adding to the complexity, local teams such as the Boston Bruins and Red Sox can be watched on NESN, but Major League Baseball games are spread across different media partners like Apple TV and Netflix, requiring additional subscriptions and costs up to $90.95 per month for full coverage. This intricate web of services can make it challenging for fans to navigate and keep up with games they love.

Emily misses the simplicity of cable, where everything was in one place, and enjoys the convenience of being able to switch channels quickly — a feature streaming services often lack. Despite the challenges and costs, she appreciates the accessibility of platforms like YouTube, where she can watch her favorite hockey team, the Boston Fleet, play for free. With the evolving landscape of sports streaming, fans like Emily are finding ways to stay connected to the games and teams they love, even if it means juggling multiple subscriptions.