This past Sunday, fans of the Detroit Tigers got to witness a dominant performance from former Cy Young award winning pitcher Tarik Skubal—but only if you had the Roku Channel.

Yes, a regular season Major League Baseball game was broadcast on the sports channel available exclusively on a smart television. As Jeremy Reisman can attest, it is a bizarre broadcasting decision:

The Detroit Lions and the NFL have not ventured down that rabbit hole (yet), but the NFL broadcasting landscape has changed without question in recent years. The Lions will experience the whole spectrum of networks in 2025. The Sunday staple networks—FOX and CBS—are obviously included, as are NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.” Thursday football, meanwhile, has been airing on Prime Video since 2017, though local stations have also been carrying these games.

New to the Lions in 2025 will be a Netflix game on Christmas Day. The streaming service, known best for “Stranger Things” and removing television shows that I want to watch, has been dipping its toe in the live sports pool, covering their first NFL game last year as well as numerous WWE events. Back-to-back NFL games could be a mountainous server load for the platform, and given some of their previous hiccups with live events, we could be in for some buffering.

Watching NFL football has become a sport in and of itself given the channel hopping needed to watch every game. If you want to tune into every Lions game this season, you will need at least a cable package and one streaming service, with a bit of luck that the game is on your local broadcast. If you are instead a cable cutter, you will suddenly need a handful of streaming subscriptions to watch your favorite team. The NFL is expanding annually, yet simultaneously distancing itself from fans at the same time.

With so many ways to watch the NFL, which is your favorite?

Today’s Question of the Day is:

Which NFL broadcasting network is your favorite?

My answer: CBS.

Some networks like NBC or ESPN have one crew given their once-per-week status, meaning you will likely get the same product week in, week out. Though I think these two networks have good to great production value, their commentator crews leave something to be desired for me. ESPN’s Joe Buck has grown into one of my favorite play-by-play commentators, but the broadcast is weighed down by Troy Aikman. NBC, meanwhile, used to be my favorite, but I have soured on Mike Tirico and Cris Collingsworth recently—put an asterisk next to their names.

Al Michaels is a legend of the broadcasting world, but I think his best days are behind. Additionally, he is burdened with “Thursday Night Football” that is usually in the running for worst game of the week.

The biggest networks in the game are FOX and CBS, and both have their pros and cons. The FOX pairing of Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady worked surprisingly well in 2024, despite my disappointment when they swapped from Greg Olsen (my favorite analyst working right now) to Brady. That being said, Olsen is now working with Joe Davis, who I find has a knack for great in-the-moment commentary. Unfortunately for FOX, I think the good teams are outweighed by the bad. Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma is perhaps my least favorite duo, and it seems like the Lions get them far too frequently. The remaining crews are fine at best, which is not ideal for my viewing experience.

The big pairing for CBS is Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, and they are well regarded for good reason. Nantz is an all-time great sportscaster with an iconic voice and impeccable delivery. Romo has his quirks and sometimes needs to learn to tone it down, but you can tell his excitement comes from passion for the game and his insight backs it up. The true strength of CBS comes from the other crews. While Nantz-Romo is the best pair, they have some great talent across the lineup. Andrew Catalon, Ian Eagle, and Kevin Harlan are fantastic leads, and unlike FOX, CBS doesn’t have a crew that I dislike. I only wish that CBS covered more Lions games—the Lions only have two scheduled for this season.

CBS gets my vote for favorite network because of their on-air talent and accessibility, but there is one broadcast crew that, at least last year, was my favorite on paper: Netflix.

I hate the idea of a game exclusively on a streaming service like Netflix, especially on Christmas Day. However, the broadcasting lineup they had in 2024 was a dream for me. Game 1 featured Ian Eagle paired with Nate Burleson (by far my favorite personality working in sports media right now) and J.J. Watt. The second game featured Noah Eagle, Ian’s son and an extremely promising and entertaining commentator that deserves a larger spotlight in the future, paired with Greg Olsen, my previously mentioned favorite analyst. That was a stacked lineup only held back by the platform they were on.

Which is your preferred place to watch NFL football? Let us know in the comments below.

Poll
What is your favorite network for watching the NFL?