The NFL app suffered a widespread outage during the opening Sunday of the 2026 season, preventing thousands of NFL+ subscribers from watching RedZone and other live content shortly after the 1 p.m. ET games began.
As of approximately 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13, the NFL had not publicly confirmed that service was fully restored. Its official known-issues page continued to describe the problem as under investigation.
âWeâre aware of an issue currently affecting the NFL app. Our team is actively investigating and working to resolve it,â the league said.
The NFL also told customers that no additional action was required while engineers worked on the problem. That indicates the disruption was affecting the service itself rather than being caused solely by individual phones, televisions or internet connections.
What happened to NFL RedZone?
Problems appeared around the start of the eight-game early window. Viewers reported blank screens, repeated loading circles, login failures and an âunable to process this requestâ message when attempting to open RedZone.
Downdetector, which records reports submitted by users, showed approximately 6,200 reports shortly before 1 p.m. ET. That number climbed beyond 16,000 shortly after kickoff. The figures do not represent a confirmed number of affected subscribers, but the rapid increase showed that the problem was not limited to one device or region.
âThis is insane. Forty-five minutes in and I canât watch any game,â one subscriber wrote as requests for refunds began appearing beneath the NFLâs statement.
The failure was particularly frustrating because RedZone is part of NFL+ Premium, which costs $14.99 per month or $99.99 for the season. The service switches between Sunday afternoon games whenever teams move close to scoring.
The outage affected access through the NFL app, but it did not necessarily mean the RedZone television feed had stopped everywhere. Customers who receive RedZone through a participating cable, satellite or live-TV provider can try that providerâs own app or television channel.
ESPN Unlimited customers should also note that their included NFL+ Premium content is activated and watched through the NFL app. Consequently, switching from ESPN to the same NFL account may not bypass an NFL app outage.
Should viewers reinstall the app or request a refund?
Reinstalling the app while the NFLâs incident remains open is unlikely to solve a server-side failure. It may also force the user to sign in again when login systems are already under heavy demand.
Once the NFL announces that service has been restored, viewers can close and reopen the app, sign out and back in, restart their device or clear the app cache. Fans trying to follow individual games can temporarily use their local CBS or FOX broadcast, including coverage such as the Falcons-Steelers Week 1 matchup.
The NFL has not announced automatic compensation. However, its refund policy says customers experiencing serious and ongoing technical difficulties may qualify for consideration.
Subscriptions purchased directly from NFL.com require a request through the NFL support form. Customers billed through Apple, Google Play, Amazon or Roku must submit their request to the store that processed the payment. Saving screenshots of the error and the time it appeared could help document the request.
This article will be updated when the NFL confirms full restoration, explains the cause or announces subscriber credits.
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