We have good news and bad news.The good news – the NFL launched a new subscription service, NFL Game Pass, last week. For just $99 a year, football fans get access to every NFL game during the season. The bad news – they can’t watch any of the games live, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Fans can, however, listen to live audio of the games. They’ll just have to wait until the game is over to watch it. Other features of NFL Game Pass include archived games dating back to 2009, 256 games on-demand, coaches film, condensed games, and more. According to CNBC, the NFL Game Pass app will offer different camera angles and other unique content not available on traditional TV.”You’ve seen so much growth in these pure-play native digital apps like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime,” NFL Chief Digital Officer Perkins Miller told CNBC. “As we looked at what we could do with our premium content, the preseason games, our games on demand, we said if we could unify that into one package and make it easy for our fans, I think we’d be aligning ourselves with the trajectory of online video consumption for premium content providers.”NFL Game Pass will be available on all most devices, including desktop PCs and laptops, smartphones, and television. It will eventually be available on Xbox and Apple TV, too, says the Las Vegas Review-Journal. To help football fans warm up to the idea, NFL Game Pass offers a 7-day free trial.In addition to this new streaming product, the NFL has formed other partnerships this year to give football fans more exposure to the game:

• Verizon customers will have access to in-season games live.
• The NFL is offering one game exclusively on Yahoo that isn’t available on traditional TV.
• The NFL will stream two more CBS games than last year, along with playoff games and the Super Bowl.

“The NFL is definitely trying to hedge against change the best we can,” Miller said. “We know our fans are watching broadcast TV; we know they’re touching their mobile phone and want and expect to get content there. We know there’s an emergence of connected TV applications and that we need to be directly accountable to our fans to deliver content there.Insider Take:Miller says the NFL is being responsive to its fans. That may be true, but its motives aren’t purely unselfish. The NFL understands that, while the game is the same, the way their audience interacts with the NFL and traditional TV has changed. The NFL is experimenting with new partnerships and testing new offerings to see which ones score a touchdown and which ones fumble. This is the smart play.~ Dana E. Neuts, Subscription Insider