Sunday Ticket is not getting cheaper folks. The closest people will get to a discount on Sunday Ticket, at least according to YouTube’s current set-up is to sign up for it before June 6, 2023. An early sign up will save customers with YouTube TV and customers who sign up without being YouTube TV customers $100.00. How much will it cost with that discount?
Customers with YouTube TV
For YouTube TV customers the discounted price is $249.00. Yes that means that the regular cost if fans began to feel a bit of FOMO will be $349.00. That cost might seem like a good deal compared to the cost of signing up without YouTube TV. With NFL Redzone it will cost (as little as) $289.00.
Customers without YouTube TV
Customers who choose to sign up for Sunday Ticket will pay either the “Discounted Rate” of $349.00 with the early bird special or you guessed it $449.00 after June, 6.
The announcement might have disappointed fans who with no evidence expected that YouTube would somehow offer a price to follow one out-of-market NFL team for a smaller price. Redzone is available for non YTTV customers as well for $389.00 and $489.00 respectively.
That’s pretty intense. But the aggressive discount for YTTV customers tells me something.
Google Is Trying To Steal the audience away from Hulu with Live TV, Fubo TV and DirecTV Stream.
If you don’t already pay $65-$70 per month for a live TV streaming service the idea of adding YouTube TV to get a discount on an NFL package would not make any sense. That’s another $840.00 per year at the minimum. But if you already paid for a cable replacement bundle and have been counting down the days till you could get the package without DTV. A Hulu customer with live TV or Fubo TV customer already frustrated with the lack of Turner Networks may see the NFL access as a key reason to pay dearly for another pay service with essentially the same channels in order to save a few hundred dollars on the NFL. Plus, YouTube TV will be able to offer local broadcast channels and ESPN. Sure they will lose access to ESPN+ and Disney+ but they may see it as a wash.
It is undeniable that being able to offer that service to its customers at a discount makes YouTube TV stand out among its peers. The NFL is the most popular sport in the US by a wide margin and the new home for Sunday Ticket will be far less expensive than it was at DirecTV.
I feel it will be more likely that if a customer signs up for Sunday Ticket without YouTube TV that they may not even have a live pay TV service at all. But the question would be, does that kind of customer have any interest in spending so much on TV in the first place? Will people pay as much as $450.00 a month to see games outside their media market?
This will be interesting to watch.
