Watch NFL Games Free With an Antenna: Every 2026 Game and Channel

The 2026 NFL season is split across nine platforms, so knowing where to watch a given game has gotten confusing. Below is every nationally scheduled game of the season in date order, with the channel it's on and whether you can watch it free with an antenna.

Every nationally scheduled game, in date order

Bold green = free over the air. Gray = subscription required.

That's 32 of 62 nationally scheduled games available free over the air, before you count the home-market rule or the Sunday afternoon slate.

The Sunday afternoon games are all free

The table covers nationally scheduled games. It leaves out the Sunday afternoon slate, because that block can't be listed as a national schedule.

CBS and FOX carry roughly 200 games across the season in the 1:00 and 4:05/4:25 ET windows, and neither shows the same game everywhere. The country is divided into regions, and each market gets the matchup with the most local interest, usually the nearest team. All of it is free over the air on your local CBS and FOX stations. Which game you get is the part that varies by where you live.

That block is by far the largest chunk of the season, and an antenna covers every minute of it.

Reading the table by window

• Sunday nights are entirely free. All 18 Sunday Night Football games are on NBC. Peacock carries the same games and gets you nothing extra if you have an antenna.
• Monday nights are split. Nine of the seventeen are simulcast on ABC, weighted to the first half of the season. The rest are ESPN only, though they're still free in the two teams' home areas.
• Thursday nights are the clearest subscription. Sixteen games on Prime Video, free only in the two teams' home areas.
• Thanksgiving is the best day of the year for an antenna. All three games free, on three different broadcast networks.
• Christmas is the worst. Two of the three are Netflix exclusives; only the Rams at Seahawks game is on broadcast.

How to watch your team's streaming or ESPN game for free

If your team plays on Prime Video, Netflix, Peacock, or ESPN only, the game still airs free on one local station in each team's home area. The Peacock game goes to your local NBC station. For the others, the station changes from city to city and game to game, so it takes a quick check:

• Check your team's website or social media. Teams usually post which local station has the game in the days before it.
• Search your TV's program guide. Look at what's on at kickoff time. The local station carrying the game will list the matchup.
• Watch for promos on local TV. The station that has the game will advertise it on its newscasts and website.

Once you know the station, search your city at the bottom of this page to find its channel number. You don't need to live in the city itself: if your antenna picks up that station, you can watch the game.

The playoffs and Super Bowl LXI

The postseason begins the weekend of January 16. Playoff games spread across CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC/ESPN and, in recent seasons, at least one streaming exclusive, but those assignments are only made once the field is set.

Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027 airs on ESPN with a simulcast on ABC, so the game itself is free over the air. Details in our Super Bowl LXI guide.

Why this schedule will change

Two things move games after publication, and both are routine.

Flex scheduling. The NFL moves games between windows to put better matchups in primetime. Sunday nights flex from Week 5, Monday nights from Week 12, and Sunday afternoon games shift between the early and late windows. A game listed here on one network can end up on another.

One more ABC simulcast. ESPN has committed to adding an additional ABC game beyond the nine above, to be named during the season, so one of the "ESPN only" games will end up free on ABC.

If a particular game matters, confirm the network in the days before it's played. Sports Media Watch tracks changes as they're announced.

Find your CBS, FOX, NBC and ABC channels

Everything marked free depends on receiving those four stations. Search your city or zip code to see the channel each is on where you live, and how strong a signal to expect:

To pick out an antenna, start with our indoor versus outdoor guide, and an over-the-air DVR records any of the free games with no monthly fee. If one of the four networks comes in unreliably while the others are fine, that's usually a band issue rather than distance, and our post on VHF and UHF explains why.

Sources

• NFL.com primetime schedules for the Thursday, Sunday and Monday night slates.
• ESPN Press Room for which Monday games are simulcast on ABC.
• Netflix Tudum for the Netflix slate.
• Sports Media Watch, which tracks network assignments through the season.