The Super Bowl is getting a new streaming home for the fourth year in a row. Disney and ESPN said on Wednesday that Super Bowl LXI, which ESPN is producing for the first time, will stream live on Disney+ on Sunday, February 14, 2027, alongside the broadcast on ABC and ESPN. According to Disney’s announcement, every Disney+ subscriber in the US gets the regular ESPN and ABC broadcast, with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman calling the game, plus the Spanish-language ESPN Deportes telecast. The game is at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Outside the US, Disney+ will carry ESPN’s broadcast in more than 55 markets, including Spanish-speaking Latin America, Brazil, the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, while ESPN’s TV channels carry it in over 130 countries and territories. Variety points out that DAZN also holds the NFL’s international streaming rights for this season, Super Bowl included, through NFL Game Pass, so many fans abroad will have more than one option.
Four years, four streaming homes
The Super Bowl rotates among the NFL’s TV partners, and each network has pushed the game onto its own streaming service. That has turned the biggest broadcast of the year into a yearly marketing push for a different app. Here is how the last few games and next February’s lined up, with average audiences from Nielsen and the networks.
| Game | Date | TV network | Streaming home | Subscription needed? | Average US viewers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Bowl LVIII | Feb. 11, 2024 | CBS | Paramount+ | Yes | 123.7 million |
| Super Bowl LIX | Feb. 9, 2025 | Fox | Tubi | No, free | 127.7 million |
| Super Bowl LX | Feb. 8, 2026 | NBC | Peacock | Yes | 125.6 million |
| Super Bowl LXI | Feb. 14, 2027 | ABC and ESPN | Disney+ and the ESPN app | Yes | To come |
Viewer figures are from Nielsen’s 2024 report, its 2025 report, and its 2026 report, and each counts every platform that carried the game.
Fox’s free Tubi stream is still the high-water mark for streaming specifically. Tubi says it averaged 13.6 million viewers per minute in 2025, and by our math that’s about 10.6% of that year’s 127.7 million total (13.6 divided by 127.7). Peacock called Super Bowl LX its best day ever for reach and hours streamed but didn’t break out a separate audience figure. Disney’s version sits in between those two models, since it needs a subscription like Peacock did but puts the game inside an app that already sits on a lot of family TVs.
What it will cost you to watch
The cheapest way to watch is still free. ABC is an over-the-air channel, so an antenna gets you the game with no subscription at all. If you want to stream, Disney+ is the low-cost route, but it costs more than it did a month ago. Disney raised prices on September 23, and according to MacRumors the ad-supported Disney+ plan is now $12.49 a month and the ad-free plan is $21.49. Existing subscribers see the new prices from their first bill on or after October 21.
The ESPN app will also stream the game and adds the extras, including the ManningCast on ESPN2 and the rest of ESPN’s Super Bowl Sunday studio shows. Signing up for ESPN directly means ESPN Unlimited, which ESPN’s support page lists at $31.99 a month after its own September price increase. So for one month that covers the game, Disney+ with ads is $19.50 cheaper than ESPN Unlimited ($31.99 minus $12.49), or about 61% less, and it’s the same broadcast either way unless you specifically want the Manning brothers.
Disney clearly sees the game as a sales pitch for the app. The company said on its August earnings call that ABC and ESPN had already sold every commercial slot for the telecast, the earliest sellout by any network in Super Bowl history, with 58 brands including nine first-time Super Bowl advertisers. Putting the stream on Disney+ makes that audience bigger without Disney needing to build a new free service the way Fox did with Tubi.
Our take: try it in October, pay in February
This is Geeknewz’s opinion. If you already pay for Disney+, there’s nothing to do, and you get a free preview first. Disney+ will also stream two Monday Night Football games this season, starting with the Dallas Cowboys at the Philadelphia Eagles on October 26, so that game is a good chance to see how the stream holds up on your TV and connection before February.
If you don’t subscribe, don’t sign up now just for the Super Bowl. There’s no reason to pay for four extra months, so subscribe in early February and cancel afterward if you like. With ads, that’s $12.49 for the one month you need instead of about $62 for five months starting now. If you have an antenna and don’t care about streaming, ABC costs nothing. And if you’re outside the US, check whether Disney+ or DAZN carries the game in your country before paying for either.
Sources: Disney and ESPN, Variety, ESPN and the Associated Press, Nielsen, Tubi, MacRumors, ESPN Fan Support.