I Need Five Different Apps To Watch The NWSL This Year, And I Hate It

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

The team here at Android Authority is full of soccer fans, and we follow leagues worldwide. Sometimes, there’s overlap, like Ollie Cragg and myself commiserating over Chelsea FC’s constant turmoil, and other times, there’s quiet gloating when Rita’s Real Madrid scores enough goals in stoppage time to steal a win in the inevitable way that only Madrid can. However, there’s one thing that we can all agree on — the streaming landscape is worse than it’s ever been as a soccer fan.

With so many leagues and so many competitions, it would be impossible to put them all in one place — unless, you know, someone invented something like a cable package, but I digress. But now that my beloved US-based NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) has released its TV schedule, I’m frustrated all over again. Here’s why I’m not looking forward to what should be my favorite season of the year.

How bad is the NWSL’s current streaming setup?

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

This year marks the second season under the NWSL’s massive four-year media rights agreement with several platforms, including CBS Sports, ESPN, and ION. On the surface, that should be excellent news — every game of the season will be broadcast, well, somewhere. It’s a vast improvement over just a few years ago when I remember having to search far and wide for coverage of more than one game per weekend.

Also, this schedule only covers domestic games, so in-league contests. Select clubs are in line to participate in the Concacaf W Champions Cup finals and friendly matches against international clubs during the league-mandated break in July, and I have no idea how those games will be broadcast.

Are any of the matches free to stream?

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

I’ll be frank — juggling logins isn’t why I’m dreading the current NWSL streaming schedule. I typically only watch matches on my MacBook Air or via my NVIDIA Shield TV, so I only have to log into two devices at once. Instead, my concern comes from how exactly I will pay for all the services between now and November 2025, when the season ends. See, although a few of the apps, like ION and NWSL Plus, are free to access, the rest are not, and I can’t possibly stretch my free trials that long.

To figure out just how much strain my local team, the Washington Spirit, was about to put on my wallet, I spent my morning looking at the official NWSL TV schedule and marking down the dates, times, and networks of each game. I counted up five free matches on ION and as many as four more free games on NWSL Plus (which shares some of its rights with Paramount Plus), but the remaining 17 matches are locked behind a paid network or app. And, although I’ll be at some of those games as a season ticket holder, that’s bad news for my bank account.

If I’m paying $30 per month to stream all the games, I may as well buy more season tickets.

See, if you were to pay for only the dedicated streaming services, so ESPN Plus, Prime Video, and Paramount Plus at their cheapest tiers, they’d cost $12, $9, and $8 per month, respectively. That’s about $30 per month for what might shake out to one game per network. But when you run those subscriptions from March to November, nine months of the year, the total skyrockets to a cool $270 per year just to follow your favorite team — which is more money than my current batch of season tickets cost.

Of course, there are ways to knock your price down a little, or at least stretch your dollar a bit further, like paying for Amazon Prime ($15 per month) rather than just Prime Video, bundling ESPN Plus with Disney Plus and Hulu ($17 per month), and using your parents’ cable login to access the CBS Sports and ESPN apps individually — thanks, mom and dad — but the money still has to come from somewhere, and might be tough to justify if you find your team out of the playoff race early on. You could also probably get access to the major networks through YouTube TV, but that doesn’t help with the streaming-only matches.

I want the NWSL to pick one partner and stick with it

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Major League Soccer has the best streaming setup in the US right now. Although I don’t usually love when MLS shapes the future of soccer in this country (hello, promotion and relegation), I can’t argue with what it’s pulled off since teaming up with Apple. It struck a 10-year deal to make Apple TV Plus the exclusive home of all of its domestic games, putting every team and every highlight in the same place and removing the need to juggle logins and platforms.

Also, by giving Apple TV Plus control over every match, MLS has improved the quality of its broadcasts league-wide. Now, all 30 teams use the same equipment from one stadium to the next, and the consistent group of commentators follows the league from the opening weekend through to MLS Cup. I would love to see the NWSL do something similar at the end of its four-year deal, if not sooner.

Until then, I’ll just keep juggling logins and subscriptions, trying to keep up with the teams I truly care about while hoping my parents’ cable provider doesn’t notice I’m streaming from a different state. But really, should it ever be this hard to follow one domestic league? I don’t think so.