NFL Sunday Ticket. When it originally launched it felt like the ultimate premium service for sports fans. It made DirecTV a big player in the pay-TV world during an era where there were three choices for TV, Cable, satellite TV or and antenna that got 5 channels and not in any dependable clear way. Up till then from the start of televised NFL football fans had only been able to watch a few games a week and they were based on what the network considered an important national matchup and what affiliates considered the closest regional team. The only way to see other games was to travel. But Sunday ticket changed that when it began to offer the ability to see any game that was on TV in any city, aside from the one you live in. But at the time almost everyone had access to the local game bc they had a paid TV service. So it was a mute point.
Oh how things have changed today. On the positive side, customers no longer have to subscribe to DirecTV in order to get NFL Sunday Ticket. In fact they do not have to subscribe to any TV service. That is because now, YouTube distributes the service. If customers want a full TV service they may well be inclined to get YouTube TV and receive a discount on the NFL service, but they are free to opt-out and pay separately.
Because it is built on Google’s technology now, it means that NFL Sunday Ticket is more mobile and accessible than ever before. Pretty much anything with a screen and Internet connection is a portal to the NFL. Those points are great for sports fans but there is another side of this coin.
NFL football coverage is more fragmented than it used to be.
There is no one stop shop for the NFL anymore. Many will remember the days when Sunday afternoons and Monday night Football on ABC was once all there was to tune into. But over the past 20 years that has changed. And with those changes, the offerings for Sunday Ticket have changed. Sunday Ticket always came with the caveat that the local regional games would not be available to a subscriber.
For instance I live in NC which means customers here “miss out” on all those great Carolina Panthers games unless they have another way to take them in. Also excluded is Sunday Night Football on NBC, Monday Night Football on ESPN and Amazon’s streaming exclusive on Thursday Night. And that also doesn’t factor in the occasional games in Europe that stream on other services like Peacock.
That means that at minimum there are 4 weekly games not on the menu every week. So even if a customer opts in with say YouTube TV to get ESPN and NBC they still don’t automatically get the Thursday Night Football game without Amazon Prime Video. What it all means is that it is expensive if you want to see all of the football that is technically available to watch. But there are ways to do it without breaking the bank.
Try An Antenna
One of the big things that YouTube TV, Fubo TV, and Hulu with live TV advertise is access to ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. But of course, those are not the only ways to get network TV without cable/satellite. Antennas provide free access to those channels and more unless you live in a situation where one can not be effectively deployed. If you can use one that means the two 1pm games are available for free followed by the 4pm national matchup and NBC Sunday night football.
It may be worth it to have an Amazon subscription
I know. Maybe you don’t want another bill. That’s fair. And to be honest Thursday Night matchups are notorious for poor game play and chronically poorly prepared teams because of the short week. Plus the start time means it will go past a sane bedtime for a working adult on the East Coast. But on the other hand, you might already have a Prime subscription. There are 147 million subscribers in the US according to recent numbers. That might well include you. And when it comes to the service, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. I like not having to go anywhere to buy things if I don’t want to. My wife loves using Prime to get a free Twitch subscription to her one of her favorite cozy gamers. And we also enjoy Amazon music for tunes and podcasts. So to me the NFL game and other sports are like a new addon to enjoy on top of everything else. But I know I don’t represent every sports fan.
For those who are trying to save on monthly bills or live in places that do not allow antennas or can’t use them because of geographical challenges, that means having Sunday Ticket is not much of an all-in-one solution. In fact, because of bye weeks, and previously mentioned factors, it’s almost a 50 percent solution. You can potentially miss 5 games in a week. The closest one can come to for a paid almost all in one solution is the aforementioned YTTV offer.
If you are an NFL Football fan without a burning need to see certain teams from outside of their current media market weekly the service may be a bridge too far. But if you want to be the ultimate NFL fan and be the gathering place for family and friends for whatever game of the week you all want to see give it a shot. The worst news about all of this is the NFL does not want to make it any cheaper to get the service. There are no plans to offer a subscription to one team or other ways to make it a-la-carte. The NFL’s other TV partners forbid it. They are not giving up the rights fees that come with paid services nor will they lose the ratings from the viewership of their terrestrial stations and the viewing that follows when people stick around for 60 minutes, local news or the Simpsons. So here we are.
What do you think?
