TL;DR: Manchester City's Premier League matches live on Peacock (about $10.99 a month), with a slice of them also airing on NBC and USA Network, and their Champions League nights are on Paramount+ (from about $7.99). Add ESPN+ only if you genuinely care about the FA Cup, and skip the big live-TV bundles unless you already want one for other reasons.
That is the whole answer for most people. If you are here because the 115-charges verdict sent you looking for a way to actually watch the club everyone is arguing about, stick around, because the full picture has a few wrinkles worth knowing before you hand anyone your card number.
Why it is three services and not one
I have spent years hopping between streaming apps for work, and soccer is the sport that punishes that habit the most. Nobody in the US owns all of Manchester City. The rights are chopped up by competition, so the question is never 'which app has City' but 'which app has City on Saturday versus on Tuesday.'
Here is how the club's season breaks down, roughly in order of how many matches each covers.
Premier League: Peacock first, NBC and USA Network second
NBCUniversal holds the US rights to the Premier League through the 2027-28 season, so this part is stable for a while. In practice that means:
- Peacock streams every single Premier League match, and a large share of them (well over a hundred a season) are Peacock exclusives that never touch a TV channel. If City draw a mid-table side at 10 a.m. Eastern on a Saturday, odds are decent it is Peacock-only.
- USA Network carries the bulk of the matches that do go to cable.
- NBC, the broadcast network, gets a handful of showcase fixtures, and City tend to be picked for those more often than most clubs.
Peacock Premium runs about $10.99 a month with ads, or roughly $16.99 for Premium Plus, which drops ads from most of the library (live sports still carry commercials either way, so do not pay the extra for the soccer alone). Peacock also runs a discounted annual plan fairly often. If you only plan to keep it for the season, monthly is the honest choice, and I say that as someone who has forgotten to cancel it at least twice.
One quirk that trips people up: Peacock's Premier League matches are live and then available on demand, but the replays can vanish after a few days. Watch the same night if you can.
Champions League: Paramount+
City's midweek European matches are on Paramount+, which holds the US Champions League rights through the end of the decade. Every match streams there, and CBS puts a few of the biggest ones (typically the final and some knockout ties) on broadcast television.
Paramount+ Essential is about $7.99 a month and includes all the live soccer, though you sit through ads. Paramount+ Premium, around $12.99, adds your local CBS station and removes most ads from the on-demand library. For Champions League purposes, Essential does the job.
A mild opinion: the Paramount+ app is not the smoothest thing on my Apple TV, and the live-sports section buries itself a few taps deep, but the CBS Sports studio show around these games is the best soccer coverage on American television. I keep the subscription mostly for that.
The domestic cups: ESPN+ and, again, Paramount+
- FA Cup and the season-opening Community Shield are on ESPN+, at about $11.99 a month on its own or bundled with Disney+ and Hulu. If you already have the Disney bundle, you have this and may not realize it.
- Carabao Cup (League Cup) matches have been on Paramount+ under CBS Sports' EFL deal. Rights for the domestic cups shift more often than the league, so check the official competition site or the app's schedule before assuming a given round is there.
Honestly, unless a cup run gets deep, this is the layer I would skip. Early rounds are often played by second-string sides on a Tuesday night.
Would a live-TV bundle be simpler?
Sometimes. If you already want cable-style TV, a bundle gives you USA Network and NBC (for the televised Premier League matches) and CBS (for a few Champions League games), and in many cases you can bolt on the streaming apps anyway.
| Service | Rough monthly price | What it gets you for City |
|---|---|---|
| Sling TV (Blue) | around $45-50 | USA Network, plus NBC in select markets |
| YouTube TV | around $83 | NBC, USA Network, CBS |
| Hulu + Live TV | around $83 | NBC, USA Network, CBS, and ESPN+ is bundled in |
| Fubo | around $85 | NBC, USA Network, CBS; soccer-heavy channel lineup |
| DirecTV Stream | around $85 and up | NBC, USA Network, CBS |
The catch, and it is a big one, is that no bundle replaces Peacock. The Peacock-exclusive matches stay exclusive. So a bundle is a supplement to a Peacock subscription, not a substitute, and for a lot of fans that math simply does not work. If City are the only reason you are looking at this, go straight to Peacock plus Paramount+ and be done.
Free and nearly-free options
There is no legal way to watch every City match for free, and any site promising otherwise is not worth your time or your laptop's health. What you can do:
- An antenna picks up your local NBC station over the air, which means the few NBC-broadcast Premier League matches cost nothing after a one-time purchase of $20 to $40. A few CBS Champions League games too.
- Telemundo and Universo carry the Premier League in Spanish, and Telemundo is a broadcast network, so an antenna gets you more matches than you might expect. I find the Spanish-language call more fun anyway.
- Free trials are thin on the ground for Peacock (they rarely offer one), but Paramount+ frequently runs a 7-day trial, and several live-TV services offer trials of a few days. Time one to a big fixture and it is a legitimate freebie.
- Bundle deals: Peacock shows up in promotions from mobile carriers and internet providers, and Paramount+ is sometimes discounted through Walmart+ or Amazon Channels. Check what you already pay for before adding another line item.
For the off days: the documentaries
If the current news cycle has you curious about how City got here, two series cover the modern era well. All or Nothing: Manchester City, the 2017-18 title-winning season behind the scenes with Pep Guardiola, streams on Prime Video. Together: Treble Winners, following the 2022-23 Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League sweep, is on Netflix. Neither is a hard-hitting investigation (both were made with the club's cooperation), but as pure television they are very watchable, and All or Nothing in particular holds up as one of the better sports docuseries of its decade.
Time-sensitive: the 115-charges verdict (as of late September 2026)
The independent commission has found City guilty on almost all of the Premier League's financial-breach charges, according to reporting from the BBC and The Athletic. What that means for the pitch is still unsettled: possible sanctions range from a fine to a points deduction to something more severe, and appeals are expected. Nothing about the verdict changes where matches are broadcast in the US. City will still play, and their matches will still be on the same services described above. What could change is which competitions they are in next season, particularly European ones. Treat any specific claim about punishment as provisional until the league and the club publish official statements.
FAQ
Do I need Peacock if I have a cable package with USA Network? Yes, if you want every match. A meaningful share of City's league games are Peacock-only.
Can I watch on my phone? All of these services have iOS and Android apps, and Peacock and Paramount+ both allow multiple simultaneous streams on their standard plans.
What about kickoff times? Most Premier League matches land between 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Eastern on weekends. Champions League is typically 3 p.m. Eastern on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Set your alarm, or lean on the replays.
Is there a way to pay once for everything? Not really. The closest is Hulu + Live TV (which bundles ESPN+) plus Peacock and Paramount+ added separately. Cheaper by far: Peacock plus Paramount+, around $19 a month total.
That is my honest map of it. I will be watching on Peacock this weekend, ads and all, and probably grumbling about the app while I do. See you in the comments.
— Priya
— Priya Raman