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Welcome to the first weekend of the 2026 NFL Playoffs.
Wild Card weekend begins with two games Saturdaybeginning with the Rams and Panthers in Carolina at 4:30 PM ET (1:30 PM PT) on Fox and Fox One. Saturday night, we’ll have a classic NFC North battle in Chicago between the Bears and Packers at 8pm ET (5pm PT) on Prime Video. Yes, you’ll need Amazon’s streaming service to watch Chicago and Green Bay unless you live in either team’s local market (more on that below).
on Sundayour Wild Card tripleheader starts in Jacksonville with the Jaguars beating the Bills at 1pm ET (10am PT) on CBS and Paramount Plus. Next, the 49ers will attempt to take down the defending champion Eagles in Philadelphia at 4:30pm ET (1:30pm PT) on Fox and Fox One, before we head to Foxboro for the Patriots and Chargers at 8pm ET (5pm PT) on NBC and Peacock.
Wild Card Weekend is a three-day weekend because it doesn’t even end Monday Night in Pittsburgh with the Steelers hosting the Texans at 8:15 PM (5:15 PM PT) on ABC/ESPN and ESPN Unlimited.
Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles look to repeat as Super Bowl champions, hosting the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday on Fox.
Add that up, and you’ll need five different streaming services to watch the six Wild Card games. Or you can use a live TV service to watch five of the six games, and a VPN can help you catch the Bears-Packers game on Saturday night.
Keep reading for the best ways to watch or stream every game, no matter where you live.
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Plan a Wild Card show this weekend
There are two games on Saturday, three on Sunday and one on Monday night. Here is the lineup.
NFL Wild Card on Saturday
| The away team | Home team | Time (all times are Eastern Time) | TV channel | Streaming service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Rams | Carolina Panthers | 4:30 pm | Fox | Fox One |
| Green Bay Packers | Chicago Bears | 8 pm | nothing | Prime Video |
NFL Wild Card Sunday
| The away team | Home team | Time (all times are Eastern Time) | TV channel | Streaming service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Bills | Jacksonville Jaguars | 1 pm | CBS | Paramount Plus |
| San Francisco 49ers | Philadelphia Eagles | 4:30 pm | Fox | Fox One |
| Los Angeles Chargers | New England Patriots | 8 pm | nbc | peacock |
NFL Wild Card on Monday
| The away team | Home team | Time (all times are Eastern Time) | TV channel | Streaming service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston Texas | Pittsburgh Steelers | 8:15 pm | ABC/ESBN | ESPN Unlimited |
How to watch Wild Card Weekend in the US
If you don’t want to subscribe to a live TV streaming service, you can watch the CBS game with Paramount Plus, the two Fox games with Fox One, the NBC game with Peacock and the Monday night game with ESPN’s direct-to-consumer streaming service.
Fox’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service It costs $20 a month or $200 a year and allows NFL fans to watch their local games on Sunday afternoons on Fox. You’ll also have access to the full Fox TV lineup, including sports-related channels like Fox Sports, B1G, FS1, FS2, and local Fox stations.
With Fox One, you can watch two games this weekend: Rams-Panthers on Saturday and 49ers-Eagles on Sunday.
You can watch the Bills-Jags game on Paramount Plus with the $8-a-month Essentials tier. You can check for yourself if your area has CBS live here.
Read our Paramount Plus review.
With Peacock’s $11 per month premium plan, you can watch the Chargers-Pats game on Sunday night. Read Peacock’s review.
ESPN DTC comes in two flavors. The ESPN Unlimited plan costs $30 per month (or $300 per year) and lets you stream all of ESPN’s linear networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNNews, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network, and ACC Network. You can also access programming on ESPN on ABC, ESPN Plus, ESPN3, SECN Plus and ACCNX. You’ll need an unlimited plan to watch the Texans and Steelers take on the final Monday night game of this NFL season.
(There’s also a $12-per-month ESPN Select plan that’s like a rebranding of ESPN Plus. It gives you access to thousands of live games — including small college conferences, whose games you can’t watch anywhere else — but not the NFL.)
Prime Video or VPN for Bears vs. Packers
You’ll need Prime Video for Saturday night’s Bears-Packers game unless you live in the TV market for either team as it will be shown on a local TV network: NBC 26 (WGBA) in Green Bay, Fox 6 (WITI) in Milwaukee, and Fox 32 (WFLD) in Chicago, according to 506 Sports.
Saturday night’s Packers-Bears game will be streamed live on Prime Video. For millions of Amazon Prime subscribers, the Prime Video channel is already included at no additional cost. But if you’re not an Amazon Prime subscriber, it might be worth paying $9 a month for the standalone Prime Video service, not just for that Wild Card game but for an impressive selection of games as well. He appears And movies.
For those who prefer to watch the match on TV instead of Prime Video, there is VPN option. With a VPN, you can physically change your location on your phone, tablet, or laptop to access the game.
A VPN It’s also the best way to prevent your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic. Plus, it’s a great idea when… You are traveling And you find yourself needing to contact Public Wi-Fi networkwhere you’ll need to add an extra layer of privacy to your devices and logins.
So, if your ISP or mobile carrier assigns an IP address that incorrectly indicates your location in a blackout zone, a VPN can solve this problem by providing you with an IP address in your correct, non-blackout zone. Most VPNs, like ours Editors’ Choice, ExpressVPNmake it very easy to do.
Using a VPN to watch or stream sporting events is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you’re streaming. Make sure your VPN is set up properly to prevent leaks. Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems circumventing properly enforced blackout restrictions.
Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some other cool stuff VPN Deals Running now.
ExpressVPN is Our current top VPN pick For people who want a reliable, secure VPN that works on a variety of devices. Pricing starts at $2.79 per month on a 2-year plan for the basic tier of the service, and there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The best live TV services for NFL fans
The channels you’ll need for the playoffs are the same ones you need for the regular season: CBS, Fox, NBC, and either ABC or ESPN. The good news for football fans is that most of these channels are available Live TV servicesHowever, you should note that not every service carries every LAN in every area, so check each service using the links below to make sure it carries every LAN where you live.
YouTube TV carries all the channels needed to watch the NFL playoffs and costs $83 per month. Connect your YouTube TV zip code Welcome page To know the local networks available in your area.
Fubo’s main package costs $85 per month and includes ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN.
Fubo should do it New skinny pack Includes most but not all of the channels you need for the NFL. The new Fubo Sports plan costs $56 per month ($46 for the first month) and includes all the above channels except NBC for Chargers-Patriots on Sunday night. It also includes access to ESPN’s new streaming app. It is worth noting that the package is only available in certain regions at the moment, with a gradual rollout across the country.
Click here Find out what local channels you get in your area with Fubo. Read our Fubo review.
The live TV services listed above allow you to cancel at any time. It requires a strong internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our Live TV services guide.
Quick tips for streaming the NFL using a VPN
- With four variables at play — ISP, browser, video streaming provider, and VPN — experience and success may vary.
- If you don’t see your desired location as ExpressVPN’s default option, try using the “Search for a city or country” option.
- If you’re having trouble accessing the game after you turn on your VPN and set it to the correct viewing region, you can try two quick solutions. First, log into your streaming service subscription account and make sure that the address registered for the account is within the correct viewing region. If not, you may need to change the physical address on file with your account. Second, some smart TVs, like Roku, don’t have VPN apps that can be installed directly on the device itself. Instead, you’ll need to install a VPN on your router or the mobile hotspot you’re using (like your phone) so that any device connected to its Wi-Fi network will now appear in the correct viewing location.
- All of the VPN providers we recommend have helpful instructions on their main site for quickly installing a VPN on your router. In some cases with Smart TV Services, after installing a cable network’s sports app, you will be asked to verify a digital code or click a link sent to the email address associated with your Smart TV. This is where having a VPN on your router can also come in handy, as both devices will appear in the correct location.
- And remember, browsers can often reveal location despite using a VPN, so make sure you’re using a privacy-first browser to sign in to your services. We usually recommend brave.