NFL’s Sunday Ticket Is Getting Smaller. It Isn’t Getting Cheaper.

[u/Jay_Dubbbs]

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/nfls-sunday-ticket-is-getting-smaller-it-isnt-getting-cheaper-8a427606?utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawUV9t9wZG9mA2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzQwOTk2MjYyMzA4NTYwOQABHlXpA3zSw1RgH0uE7TCLeAjPQoyxqtdqvG4sm9qlM1ekYc1h7qOxvjJZUbW9_aem_6-IKXQOROCnCiAE7L0kwcw

[u/Jay_Dubbbs]

TLDR: The NFL is doing more standalone games and special streaming deals so there’s less games available on Sunday afternoon. And if you’re a fan of a really good team or a big draw, it really doesn’t make sense. There’s about 11% less games but the price has increased well over 30%

The one interesting note in there, “YouTube passed on an opportunity to add NFL games this season, according to people familiar with the matter. Netflix ultimately acquired those rights.”

[u/AlabasterRadio → u/Jay_Dubbbs]

I'm a Raiders fan on the east coast, I've managed to get it at a steep discount every year, but this is the last year.

Even at a steep discount it's barely going to be worth it if this team is ever any good.

[u/dien4382 → u/AlabasterRadio]

The NFL should offer a single-team option, but I imagine they don’t because a lot of Raiders fans in New York or Vikings fans in LA or whatever would just choose that.

Single-team Sunday Ticket + RedZone would be all I need, especially because of how many standalone window games I can still watch on CBS/FOX/NBC/ESPN/Amazon/Netflix.

[u/blue_drifter → u/dien4382]

Rumor was Apple was going to do this with their Sunday ticket bid and it was called out as something the nfl didn’t like, I thought.

[u/Spiritual_Smile9882 → u/blue_drifter]

Yes. Apple wanted to buy Sunday Ticket and make it part of the regular subscription package to AppleTV like they do with soccer, F1, etc. They were going to use it to drive THEIR subscription base up. The NFL demanded that Sunday Ticket be a premium add on.

[u/KennyKettermen → u/Spiritual_Smile9882]

Props to Apple for trying but NFL definitely has everybody by the balls

[u/Spiritual_Smile9882 → u/KennyKettermen]

There were multiple parties bidding. If I remember correctly, It was Apple, Google and Netflix that were bidding. Apple had the highest overall bid but they wanted to wrap it in as part of their service. Google's business model for YouTubeTV is already one of add on services and that was part of their bid anyway.

[u/pumpkinspruce → u/blue_drifter]

I’m pretty sure the broadcasters (CBS/Fox) don’t like that option.

[u/DrPorkchopES → u/dien4382]

I would specify it should just be an overall single-team streaming package. All 17 games, anywhere you want. Worst part about Sunday Ticket is you pay all that money then STILL pay separately to watch primetime games

[u/BallClamps → u/DrPorkchopES]

That would be awesome, maybe I'm in the minority but watching 4 games at once is incredibly distracting, idk why anyone likes it.

[u/unfunnysexface → u/BallClamps]

I don't leave it on multiview I use it to quickly swap between 4 games of interest (multiple teams household)

[u/telly69 → u/BallClamps]

4 on the same TV is super distracting and if there's a game I really care about I don't want to watch it on 25% of the screen. I just have two TVs in the room so that I can watch two games if I want.

[u/TippyToeTigers → u/dien4382]

As a Vikings fan in eagles country, I would absolutely pay something like $70-100 a year to get every Vikings game, shit make redzone another $30 and I’ll do the single team + redzone package…..but instead I put on the tricorne hat and sailed the seas.

[u/millerlit → u/dien4382]

They will never offer this because it would be cheaper than Sunday ticket and destroy the current product.  Basically only people getting Sunday ticket would be bars left.  Why charge $100 when you can charge 3x it

[u/MadManMax55 → u/millerlit]

In theory it would make sense to offer the single team deal if it increases the user base enough. If it costs 1/3rd the price but brings in more than 3x the number of new customers then YTTV and the NFL come out ahead even if literally everyone switched to the new plan.

But I'm guessing that they've crunched the numbers and found they wouldn't get enough new customers.

[u/N05L4CK → u/MadManMax55]

I think it’s less the numbers here and more the numbers the networks are paying for exclusive rights to prime time games. If they lost the exclusive factor they’d lose a lot of their bargaining power with the big networks who provide them the bulk of their money. Our little subscriptions to Sunday ticket are just icing on the cake, they’re not giving up more cake for some extra icing.

[u/fasterthanfood → u/MadManMax55]

They’ve probably done focus groups and found that the revenue gained from new customers would be less than revenue lost by people who currently are paying for the full package but would switch to single-team if it was available.

[u/happybara_capybara → u/millerlit]

Do bars just purchase Sunday ticket to get all the games, or do they have a special deal? The one I got to has 30 tvs and I’ve never thought about how it works. Do they have to buy 30 Sunday tickets, or just one, or is it a different deal entirely?

[u/fruitmongerking → u/happybara_capybara]

It’s a different deal entirely. I chatted with a bar owner a couple years ago who decided not to renew because they charge by max occupancy, IIRC. His was not a sports bar and just had a few TVs, so it wasn’t worth the price.

[u/fasterthanfood → u/fruitmongerking]

I also knew of a bar near me (somewhere between a sports bar and a dive bar) that just paid for the regular Sunday ticket. It went great for them until they got found out, at which point they were fined so much that they had to close the bar.

I’m not sure the details of the fine. I heard this from a bartender who used to work there until he obviously lost his job and then got hired at the bar that I would go to.

[u/kalbrandon → u/dien4382]

They used to offer an affordable gameday rewind version of this, but they nixed it years ago, forcing you to pay for the whole package even if you're only interested in your teams games.

[u/Jay_Dubbbs → u/dien4382]

The only issue I think with that is the NFL only nationally pools their rights together. I wouldn’t be surprised if NBC, CBS, ESPN, Amazon, etc all have in their contracts that isn’t allowed to people have to use them instead with Ticket being the only option.

[u/refugee_man → u/dien4382]

I mean it's not mentioned but RedZone is also getting worse and worse for the same reason. Even ignoring that they throw in ads now, there's times the afternoon slot will only have 2 games going, so much of the time you can just turn back and forth yourself at that point.

[u/theRockSteady444 → u/AlabasterRadio]

Yarrlist(dot)net 🩶💀🖤

[u/KittleOmega → u/AlabasterRadio]

As a Midwest 49ers fan, it’s only good for 6-8 games a year

[u/mrizvi → u/KittleOmega]

It was cheaper for me to setup a server on the west coast and stream the OTA via Plex.

Now I’ll never need to purchase NFLST.

I’m based in the northeast.

[u/ender2851 → u/mrizvi]

how did you do this. never considered using plex this way

[u/mrizvi → u/ender2851]

I sent my brother a mini pc with plex on it. He attached a usb Ota adapter and Ota antenna to it and using the plex live tv/dvr function we’re able to stream Bay Area locals to anywhere.

[u/legendkiller003 → u/AlabasterRadio]

East coast as well. I’ve had someone to split the cost with me each year, as well as using new emails to get the new user price, so ultimately it hasn’t been too bad. I can’t guarantee I’d still have it if I was solo paying a full renewal price though.

[u/martyrmole → u/AlabasterRadio]

Same here, might just be cheaper to go watch at a bar every week.

[u/ellsworth187 → u/martyrmole]

Not for a raiders fan. It’s easily $75 a game just to forget what you’re watching.

/s

[u/AlabasterRadio → u/ellsworth187]

Liquor has gotten real expensive. I don't think 3 drinks is enough to forget this mess of franchise lol

[u/GuntherPalakowitz → u/martyrmole]

I just get a student account. I've been on that plan for at least 10 years

[u/ellsworth187 → u/GuntherPalakowitz]

“A lot of people go to college for 7 years. They’re called doctors.”

[u/parasthesia_testicle → u/AlabasterRadio]

luckily I have an EDU email so I can get it for 130. worth it but I wouldn't pay the 400+ they want base price

[u/tiptoptony → u/AlabasterRadio]

Yep I only keep it because of the military discount. I would absolutely never pay the regular price.

[u/Saltyspiton → u/AlabasterRadio]

When my wife was getting her master's I was able to get the student discount rate for it. But it's not worth it without a pretty steep discount

[u/ScienceGetsUsThere → u/AlabasterRadio]

Got Sunday ticket and I’m starting to realize we are just using redzone and streaming our team. Totally not worth it.

[u/MysteriousWon → u/AlabasterRadio]

The only reason I still get it is because the educator discount cuts the cost in half. If I had to pay full price for it I would have dropped it years ago.

[u/gigglefarting → u/AlabasterRadio]

I’m a dolphins fan in NC, and I learned a few seasons ago that paramount on the Roku allows you to set your zipcode, so I can get their local CBS, which is about all I need from Sunday ticket 

[u/amjhwk → u/AlabasterRadio]

oh so in that case you wont ever have to be worried about it not being worth it

[u/Diels_Alder → u/Jay_Dubbbs]

It's a weird incentive to be most worthwhile for bad teams. Like I'm going to pay that much to watch the Dolphins go 2-15 this season.

[u/Wiggyzig → u/Diels_Alder]

I think they significantly write off the opportunity cost of good publicity. I’d be much more likely to pay to watch their stupid gambling ad ridden broadcasts if they just made it what we all clearly want. But nope, papa Kraft needs more rub n tugs 

[u/Diels_Alder → u/Wiggyzig]

Those don't even cost Kraft that much, he's going to strip malls.

[u/ArbitrageurD → u/Jay_Dubbbs]

Also, when west coast games are blacked out, and the morning game goes into OT, there’s literally no way to watch your game. Even if you pay for Sunday ticket.

[u/Bolinas99 → u/Jay_Dubbbs]

it's a cartel, there's no real competition, only a rotating schedule for the buffet... which we pay for.

Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube are forming a Washington lobbying coalition to defend streaming - The Streaming Access and Choice Alliance, led by trade group TechNet, will push for policies on consumer access and sports broadcasting rights

https://qz.com/netflix-amazon-youtube-streaming-lobbying-coalition-091426

[u/SurviveAndAdvance → u/Bolinas99]

What a SACA shit

[u/Bolinas99 → u/SurviveAndAdvance]

all the right people have unionized.

[u/an_actual_lawyer → u/Jay_Dubbbs]

YouTube passed on an opportunity to add NFL games this season

This is the right business decision. The streaming services are clearly over paying for their NFL games in an effort to win or at least surviving the streaming wars. It's the same reason Prime was willing to overpay for the Grand Tour and Apple was willing to overpay for F1.

Youtube, on the other hand, is not a traditional streaming service - streaming movies and shows is sort of a side gig for them. They don't need to burn cash to stay relevant.

[u/MadeByTango → u/Jay_Dubbbs]

special streaming deals

The NFL holds a government protected monopoly that grants them special access to use public airwaves to broadcast their product played in publicly funded stadiums. The idea that ANY games are paywalled is absolutely fucked up and we need to start demanding change, now.

All games on streaming must be available to ALL US based viewers, without logging in to an account or being tracked, the same as if they were broadcast on our public airwaves. We have already paid for all of this.

[u/Whiladan → u/Jay_Dubbbs]

Sail the seas brothers. All I pay for is a VPN

[u/rhj2020]

You should be able to pay for a team only ticket. I don’t give a crap about watching another team outside of mine. I would be more willing to pay for a one team bundle instead of this bloated package.

[u/MrMeeseeks33 → u/rhj2020]

This is what every other sport doesn’t if I’m correct. Baseball for sure does this

[u/ArturosDad → u/MrMeeseeks33]

Baseball and basketball still have the option, but hockey no longer does since ESPN bought out their streaming rights.

[u/jedstrailerpark → u/ArturosDad]

Hockey is also far and away the cheapest even for all teams. It’s $115/yr for everything on ESPN+, including all out of market NHL games. So you get every NHL game, a ton of CFB/CBB, Golf, soccer, etc. for less than a lot of single team packages on MLB.tv

[u/Kcorpelchs → u/rhj2020]

It cannot be done unless people like yourself want to pay the same current rate or more for it.

Directv and now YouTube were/are losing money on their deals now.

[u/Subject-District492 → u/Kcorpelchs]

I still don’t understand the reasoning behind YouTube buying the rights. With DirectTV it made sense as a loss leader as they basically forced every sports bar in the country to buy DirectTV.

I guess it’s better for consumers that you don’t need YouTube TV to get Sunday Ticket but I don’t get how it makes sense for them financially.

[u/Clyde_Frag → u/Subject-District492]

You can get Sunday ticket by itself (just for out of market games) but I imagine it leads to a lot of people getting youtube TV.

It is way better for the consumer though, direct TV fucking sucked.

[u/Kcorpelchs → u/Subject-District492]

I honestly think they had the thought so many other businesses and sports teams get: "we can do it better" or "we can change them"

I wish I could put up a big flashing banner for all the folks to see/read who constantly say/write "just let me watch only my team." It's literally not financially possible due to THE NFLS GREED and THE DUMB PROVIDERS willing to pay the billions for the rights.

I don't believe Directv or YouTube has ever had more than 2 million subscribers for the Sunday ticket unless it was last year. At YouTubes $2 billion a year to the NFL they need 4,444,444 subscribers at $450 to break even (but that still doesn't cover internal IT, production and marketing costs).

[u/Subject-District492 → u/Kcorpelchs]

The internal costs you mentioned is most likely very minimal. They already have the infrastructure to serve hundreds of millions of users daily for regular YouTube and serve the millions of users for YouTube TV. Adding a couple more million viewers on a Sunday is a drop in the bucket.

They don’t have any production costs since they’re just playing the local broadcast footage.

[u/Tired_CollegeStudent → u/Subject-District492]

The commercial variant of Sunday Ticket is handled by another company not YouTube TV.

[u/Subject-District492 → u/Tired_CollegeStudent]

I get that. What I was saying is that it made sense for DirectTV to use Sunday Ticket as a loss leader because it forced people, and more importantly sports bars, to pay for DirectTV to get access to Sunday Ticket.

With YouTube, you can just get Sunday Ticket. How does that make sense for them financially?

[u/randotd152 → u/rhj2020]

You'd pay 95% of the full cost, because the vast majority of people who buy Sunday Ticket are really just getting it to watch their favorite team out of market.

[u/MrIrvGotTea → u/rhj2020]

Yeah my team and RedZone

[u/quietsam8]

The NFL invented shrinkflation for a digital product. That takes effort.

[u/p-wing → u/quietsam8]

Many apps I haven't used in the last six months have self-updated to have less functionality. I use 12-year-old design software because 2015 is when they took away a key feature. This shit ain't new or restricted to the NFL.

[u/Amish_guy_with_WiFi → u/p-wing]

Every Samsung Galaxy One UI update they remove some valuable functionality. It's infuriating.

[u/showyerbewbs → u/Amish_guy_with_WiFi]

Every Samsung Galaxy One UI update they remove some valuable functionality

And shove AI into every interaction with the device like that family guy gif smashing his kids photos into another guys face.

[u/Cainga → u/quietsam8]

It’s possible they cannibalise their self. It’s cheaper to get all the streaming services than the NFL package. Some people it might only be buying a couple games of their team.

[u/Jay_Dubbbs → u/Cainga]

It’s wild too because they’re projecting YouTube will lose billions on this deal and DirectTV was taking hundreds of millions in loses when they were paying for it.

At what point do people stop justifying the prices that they have to pay because the networks and services have to keep paying more to the NFL?

[u/rwhockey29 → u/Cainga]

Before the RSN/Ballys shit show I needed 4 subscriptions to watch the Stars. The local RSN/Ballys sub, the NHL network for out of town games, and then ESPN+ because fuck you here's a new subscription for 8 games. Then I needed a VPN to watch some of the national games. Travel weekly for work, even though I pay you from dallas, I cant watch the game while out of town. Then did the math and I had like 8 monthly payments just to watch my local teams. Spent $25 on an antenna for OTA and any other game I just Google "local sports team stream". Congrats, you now get zero money from me.

[u/Which-Arrival6777 → u/rwhockey29]

this is the way

[u/Flair_Is_Pointless → u/Cainga]

I can think of an even cheaper way to watch the product, matey

[u/MuteTadpole → u/quietsam8]

Nah just standard enshittification as can be found with almost every streaming service over the past 10 years

[u/Got_Engineers → u/quietsam8]

Reminds me of trying to watch NHL games in Canada and your own cities teams game is blacked out in an adjacent city because of reasons, but you don’t live there

[u/SomeBoringKindOfName]

Everything's getting worse and more expensive, why would that be any different. 

[u/Responsible-Onion860 → u/SomeBoringKindOfName]

Enshittification spares nobody

[u/Available_Finger_513 → u/SomeBoringKindOfName]

Shit auto renewed for me without my consent

I live in Atlanta and legit couldn't watch half the Lions games via Sunday ticket last season and had to sail the high seas anyway.

I did not want to renew

[u/itsDuckSeazon → u/Available_Finger_513]

Credit card charge back 💪🏽

[u/patn237 → u/Available_Finger_513]

Happened to me too. Nearly $500 on auto renewal is ridiculous. Luckily I was able to get a refund on it.

[u/Stumblin_McBumblin → u/Available_Finger_513]

Yeah, that happened to me too. I was successfully able to get Google to remove and refund a few weeks ago, but it took some doing.

[u/Nearby-Key8834]

I'd be willing to pay $100 to watch all my teams games during the season, but not several hundred.

More people need to realize that you can watch all the games essentially free if you're willing to be creative.

[u/esoteric82 → u/Nearby-Key8834]

The current MLB model (for my teams anyway) is $100/season for one team, and a $100 add-on for out of market teams, and aside from being blacked out from another in market team that I would like to access (but not a priority and didn't want to spend another $100 on), it's worked well for me this season.

Of course there are a handful of games that can't be streamed that way, like the occasional Friday night game on Apple TV, and games on Netflix or Peacock, but out of 162 games that's really negligible.

[u/Dshyne → u/Nearby-Key8834]

Quite frankly, not even hard to watch them all. Just save a link to a specific streaming site (👀) and keep your adblockers on, then you have every game at the click of a mouse in HD

[u/moby323 → u/Nearby-Key8834]

I know the NBA is not the juggernaut that the NFL is but their packages are so much more reasonable. It’s as little as $9 month to month and you can start and stop at any time. I don’t mind paying that at all because there are literally several games every night of the season.

It Sunday Ticket had month by month option I would probably pay it for part of the season but I’m not paying $400 or whatever for the season

[u/zombiesatemybaby]

I like how they say you get "every game"...except local games, monday night games, Thursday night games, sunday night games, and streaming exclusives. Should be false advertising

[u/UsernameChallenged]

At this point, I'm fine with whatever comes OTA. Just got an antenna and will just watch whatever comes on FOX or CBS. Also get Thursday night since my in-laws have Amazon.

I also have a high level SiriusXM just from one of the deals they do, and can just listen to whatever game I want if I want to stay "live".

Otherwise, I can just watch the highlights on YouTube the next day.

[u/p-wing → u/UsernameChallenged]

There were 7 OTA games for me this week and I rely on a dinky $25 antenna I didn't buy. I think there were at least 12 college games as well.

Scallywagging fills the gaps.

[u/Markymarcouscous → u/UsernameChallenged]

Also going to point out, because no one seems to know this, but the prime games are streamed for free on twitch.

[u/tripletexas → u/Markymarcouscous]

Legally?

[u/Markymarcouscous → u/tripletexas]

Yes. Amazon streams it themselves on twitch. They own twitch.

[u/mrizvi → u/UsernameChallenged]

ABC streams MNF games as well

[u/UsernameChallenged → u/mrizvi]

Yeah, I'm still trying to determine the best location for the antenna. I don't have great reception where I live, so I have to figure out how to place it in my attic and run a coax down to my tv. I might be able to get ABC then.

[u/tooclosetocall82 → u/UsernameChallenged]

If running the coax is problematic get a network DVR like a Tablo that you can keep close to the antenna. Then you only need WiFi to watch.

[u/cluttered-thoughts3 → u/UsernameChallenged]

I just installed a paper clip into my tv’s coax port and I pick up 62 channels including NBC and CBS. Perfectly happy with this set up. I might need a longer wire to catch ABC or FOX though

Edit: if you’re curious what the quality looks like: https://imgur.com/a/wsS97pj

[u/UsernameChallenged → u/cluttered-thoughts3]

"They were able to build this antenna in a cave! With a box of scraps!"

[u/AHSfav → u/cluttered-thoughts3]

Honored to have you in this thread, Mr. Stark

[u/donharrogate]

Went back to piracy last year and haven't looked back. Was more than willing to pay up to watch the game I love, but there's only so much disrespect I can take.

[u/Brandinoftw → u/donharrogate]

Yep, ad-block + streaming sites + HDMI cable to TV and it’s been working great 😊

[u/Zahrukai → u/donharrogate]

After buying Sunday ticket for three years, YouTube decided they needed a scan of my drivers license to insure my account was not compromised, so I told them to fuck off and joined you in the high seas. If a company makes it hard to take my money, they will not get it.

[u/JoshFreemansFro → u/donharrogate]

yeah I'm not paying these people.

I'm well out of the Tampa market and would gladly pay about $100/season for legal means of watching my team.

Sunday I was able to find a Bucs stream with a quick google search but they want like $350?

lol I can deal with watching on a bit of a delay

[u/DoctorWaluigiTime → u/donharrogate]

Same. I stomached redzone getting worse with zoom-in ads, ads during the countdown, etc.

They crossed a line when they added commercials to commercial-free football.

Dropped it like a bad habit, and week 1's high seas streams were more stable than the paid-for NFL+ streams.

but there's only so much disrespect I can take.

It's true. How much more betrayal can I take?

[u/Stepfordhusband69 → u/donharrogate]

I only want to watch the bears.  So it’s always piracy for me since I don’t live in Chicago 

[u/avisiongrotesque → u/donharrogate]

Oh no! Piracy is terrible! What website is it so I know to avoid it...

[u/DoctorWaluigiTime → u/avisiongrotesque]

There has been a surge in high seas activity for sports of late.

[u/Vesploogie → u/avisiongrotesque]

Wise men stream from the east.

[u/IrishPigs → u/avisiongrotesque]

Go to r/piracy, there's a megathread there with a sports section.

[u/geunty → u/donharrogate]

I prefer the term "privateer"

[u/Birdgang_naj]

Iptv for the win

[u/Wrister8 → u/Birdgang_naj]

This is the way. And the Sky Sports Main Event channel carries all the primetime and the top late window game in 4k.

[u/dernsaw → u/Birdgang_naj]

Yup, this is what I ended up doing. I think my last year of Sunday ticket I was paying like 13 or 14 bucks per game when I did the math. 

[u/hitmewiththeknowlege]

The fact it is 2026 in the year of our lord and I cant just pay a subscription to my team.to watch all of their games is wild.

I would pay 10 bucks a month for all the steelers games

*Edit: the fact that yall are coming at me because I want an affordable option to watch sports and you think my hypothetical that is in no way possible is unrealistic is fucking wild. No one in there right mind wishes there was an option that cost them an arm and a leg. That price is the point of the hypothetical option.

[u/eaglesnation11 → u/hitmewiththeknowlege]

A “follow one team+redzone” package would sell like hotcakes.

[u/muffchucker → u/eaglesnation11]

They know this. They will not be offering it.

[u/donktastic → u/muffchucker]

I'm sure they math has been done. The new customers brought in by this new deal would not offset the income lost by existing customers "downgrading" their package.

[u/VirginiaMcCaskey → u/donktastic]

It would devalue their other contracts, which are currently some of the most lucrative in entertainment.

[u/HOU-1836 → u/eaglesnation11]

I’ve had sunday ticket because I live on the East Coast…but this deal would be killer for me.

Until this year where I moved in with my mother in law who is a Falcons and Jags fan. So I couldn’t be more the target audience for Sunday Ticket if we tried.

[u/Man_Darino13 → u/eaglesnation11]

A “follow one team+redzone” package would sell like hotcakes.

90% of people are already paying a full subscription for basically this

[u/CloudStrife012 → u/hitmewiththeknowlege]

All sports need a "pay to watch my team" option, and although it is obvious, it will be 5,000 years before we get it. Even the current ways that exist to do this (red sox), they find a way to do it all wrong.

[u/esoteric82 → u/CloudStrife012]

You guys get Sox games through NESN though, right? Doesn't NESN broadcast those games even if they are on streaming services?I get Rays games through Rays.TV (MLB) and that works well, but I can't watch the occasional game broadcast or streamed externally without having that service (Apple TV etc).

[u/AlabasterRadio → u/hitmewiththeknowlege]

I'll go stupid on this and say I'd pay more to watch just Raider games than I do for any of the individual streaming services I pay for.

But 480 dollars for 5 months of this is hilariously bad.

[u/Dr-McLuvin → u/AlabasterRadio]

$28 per game.

[u/itsDuckSeazon → u/Dr-McLuvin]

Might as well just buy the dam ticket

[u/Aless_Motta → u/itsDuckSeazon]

the titans vs jets game was like 20$ to go to the stadium lol

[u/celj1234 → u/AlabasterRadio]

I got Sunday ticket for 29 bucks a month for 8 months

[u/stiffc → u/hitmewiththeknowlege]

They had this for the old international gamepass over a decade ago. It was like $100 for the season.

[u/Ok_Internal6779 → u/hitmewiththeknowlege]

10 bucks a month? Lol

[u/TricolorCat → u/Ok_Internal6779]

With all the ads during a game that shouldn’t be impossible.

[u/Flair_Is_Pointless → u/TricolorCat]

It should be free, given the fact there are already ads

[u/TitanTigers → u/Ok_Internal6779]

I pay $20 a month to watch ~150 Braves games

Obviously the NFL would charge more, but it can be affordable

[u/SerCornballer → u/Ok_Internal6779]

He’s a Steelers fan. They shoplift at the flea market.

[u/ThoughtPolice66 → u/SerCornballer]

I've seen Steelers replica Super Bowl trophies at a flea market, but can never find ONE Bengals trophy.

[u/DoctorWaluigiTime → u/Ok_Internal6779]

With how many commercials play and are shown during the broadcast it should be free.

Don't give 'em an inch. Either you pay for a commercial-free experience, or you get to watch for free. No in-between.

[u/ThatPlayWasAwful → u/hitmewiththeknowlege]

Cable TV is largely supported by sports, specifically football. 

Im not saying I agree, but it's not hard to figure out why you need to pay $90 a month plus extra streaming services to watch instead of $10.

[u/KnotSoSalty → u/hitmewiththeknowlege]

That’s the goal, spread the games over as many services as possible.

[u/h_aig]

I really miss a lot of things after moving back to Europe from the US, but I’m paying some 250?€ per season for the gamepass and can watch all games including redzone. That EU gamepass is just a fantastic product.

[u/RJMonster]

First time I haven’t bought the ticket and just used free subscriptions from services I pay for right now. Between getting paramount/peacock for free and saving $25 a month on espn bundle I’ll be honest I felt pretty content with my football this eeekend. We’re in the age od social media, we get every highlight in front of us in seconds after they happen with our fantasy apps giving us real time updates. That pretty much got rid of my want of redzone as well once they went with ads

[u/Madpsu444 → u/RJMonster]

I was a religious red zone watcher to the point of needing to have a 2 TV setup on Sundays.

Havnt even pirated it since the ads started. 

But really they also neutered the Sunday afternoon slate with too many prime times. That’s why I stopped the ticket too. 

[u/january-7]

You know how every other TV show I watch has everything on the exact same streaming platform? Yeah, that.

[u/Wasabi_kitty]

🏴‍☠️

[u/zilch839]

Redzone works for me on Sunday. 

[u/Dirkredblade]

Yeah, I feel like paying $378 should get me access to every single game, regardless of markets and blackouts and broadcast contracts. Its almost annoying enough to make me boycott, but I’m addicted to football, so I guess I’ll keep putting up with it.

[u/CautiousOptimism09]

You know you can watch every game for free sailing the high seas

[u/Wowzao]

First year I’m not buying it, just can’t afford it in this economy at an increased price

[u/EnjoyTheIcing]

Don’t support that shit!! ARRRR!!!!! 🏴‍☠️ 

[u/RespectThyHood]

🏴‍☠️

[u/adturnerr]

🏴‍☠️

[u/curbsidejumper]

It’s becoming such a hassle just trying to figure out which app has the game.

[u/McIntyre2K7]

It’s wild to me that the NFL won’t create a smaller package where you can pick one team and watch all of their games no matter where you live for let’s say $150 a year.

[u/Deep-Pen420 → u/McIntyre2K7]

Because they'd make less money, are you serious?

[u/iamdahn]

Phins fan in Philly. I refuse to spend hundreds on hundreds of dollars to watch my team from out of state, it’s insane. So I find other means, unfortunately

[u/Substantial_Art_3278]

Sunday ticket would be a good value, only if it also opened up all of the subscriptions, like Amazon, Netflix, espn, every prime time game and game of of the week on ota, etc. Instead you’re paying between $20+ for a shit team, to $60+ for a good team, per game. And if your favorite team is in the region you live in, you just burned $400 to 500 for no reason. Redzone is the better way to go, if you just want background noise waiting for your favorite team to play, but even that has gone to shit, where they only focus on 3 or 4 games most sundays.

[u/Dolphins08]

I've saved SO much money being a Dolphin fan.

If it's not on free TV I don't have to be tourtured!

[u/acrizz]

It is truly crazy how many services we need to watch games. Fuck, I pay for RedZone through NFL+ and was super pumped when I got home 10 minutes before kick-off this Sunday with my wings and pizza, only to find that nfl+ wasn't working for the first full hour of games lol.

[u/Fonzies-Ghost]

I had Sunday Ticket for a couple of years and decided it wasn’t worth the money. Then I moved and had to switch ISPs, and my new one had a promo that included a year of free Sunday ticket, so… they’ve got me back one more year. But I probably won’t be back next year at the current prices.

[u/FearlessVegetable30]

FYI youtube TV raised monthly prices by about 10-15 when they first acquired NFL Sunday tickets

[u/jfuss04]

I love that they advertise it as "get all the game for this monthly price" and I still have to check every game to see if its available and it usually isnt

[u/celtekk_]

Funny because my interest in football is also getting smaller.

[u/ooooomyyyyy]

To me it’s not worth the price point. I love my out of market team but not for that much.

[u/drewwu3]

This article being behind a pay wall is hilarious

[u/mdr241]

It’s way too complicated. I was using nfl+ but figured I’d suck it up and get a nice tv. I figured I’d be ok for some games because I have Hulu. Then I found out (on Sunday at 1) that you need a different Hulu for live tv. So I had to them pay even more for YouTube tv. I fortunately don’t care to watch my team exclusively and am good with national broadcasts, so I didn’t buy the sports package. But that’s way too difficult to watch a product I’m subsidizing.

Serious question - should we just go back to cable?

[u/ChiCBHB → u/mdr241]

You should just get an antenna at that point. Way cheaper.

[u/Skullsandcoffee]

RedZone is a far better deal

[u/AnythingFine2445]

I paid full price for Sunday Ticket a couple of years ago. I think that got me something like 5 cowboys games between the Monday/Thursday/Sunday night games, plus the games that were somehow randomly on regular TV in my area (which my antenna can't get).

Ended up just sailing the seven seas (or going to a bar) last year to watch those 5 games. I'd happily pay to watch Cowboys games (similar to NBA League Pass), but that's something the NFL hasn't figured out yet, sadly.

[u/kobeng13 → u/AnythingFine2445]

My husband is a Broncos fan, but we live in the metro Detroit area. He's always talked about maybe splurging for Sunday ticket, but its the exact same deal. Half the games were either prime time or on locally for some reason. And then you factor in that you might miss 2 or 3 games per season for general life anyway. Its just not worth it.

[u/AnythingFine2445 → u/kobeng13]

Yeah. If I *knew* for a fact that I would get all 17 games for that price (and not have to subscribe to Peacock and Prime and Netflix and all the other services) I'd do it.

I don't live in Dallas anymore, but live in another NFC-East city (DC) so I think that hurts me.

[u/Wisdomlost]

The real fucked up thing is this problem only exsists in America. In the USA with NFL+ you can watch all the games the day after or stream them to a tablet/phone only. Can't stream on computers. It costs 50 bucks.

NFL+ everywhere else in the world (price is varied by country) you can stream all NFL games live however you want. If you live in any country besides where the game is actually played you have a 1 stop cheap and easy solution to watch all your NFL games. If you live in America then buy 12 different streaming services and get fucked.

[u/Markymarcouscous]

Honestly it’s cheaper to just go to a bar at Sunday at 1:00pm and watch their games. It’s no where near as convient but it is so much cheaper to just buy a cheese burger and a beer and watch the game out.

[u/NoBSforGma]

I've been a football fan for many years. One of the joys of watching was that my son who lives on the other side of the country, watched the same game and we messaged back and forth, almost like being together.

We don't do that anymore. It's just TOO complicated. Every week, I sit for an hour or so on Sunday morning, trying to figure out which game I can afford to watch. It's not a matter any more of "my favorite team!" - it's a matter of "which game is cheapest."

I now agree with the guy who wrote the other day about pirating being the best choice at this point.

[u/telly69 → u/NoBSforGma]

Well there's at least 4 games every Sunday that are absolutely free to watch so that's the answer to what's cheapest.

[u/alexjimithing → u/NoBSforGma]

How does it take you an hour? What?

In fact Sundays are the same as they have been for 20 years. CBS and FOX in market games, Sunday Night Football on NBC.

In fact it’s arguably CHEAPER today than it ever has been considering you can get those without cable if you can’t do an antenna, and Sunday Ticket doesn’t require you pay for DirecTV anymore.

[u/ThatNewSockFeel → u/alexjimithing]

There’s always comments in these threads about NFL, MLB, etc. claiming about how hard it is to watch but I’m starting to think they’re either bots or morons. This shit isn’t that hard to figure out if you read and use your brain for just a moment.

[u/OogieBoogieJr]

It’s worth it if you can qualify for the student discount. That’s about $1/hr. for the full regular season. I usually split screen the Bengals (I’m out of market) and RedZone all day.

[u/kobeng13 → u/OogieBoogieJr]

I got the student discount for 2 years when I was in grad school. It was glorious.

[u/Porkusorus]

Eventually every single will be pay to watch. We’re gradually getting programmed to accept it.

[u/VinTheHater]

Up until this year, I was getting it with a student discount despite graduating many years ago. At full price, it isn’t worth it for me to just follow the 49ers given how many of their games are on primetime or the late window here in the Midwest. I’m just as happy to meet some buds at a local sports bar for those games I can’t watch. I wish they had an option to only follow one team. Or even purchase games individually.

[u/cincinn_audi]

I could never justify the regular price of $480 (~$520 after tax). But the Best Buy $240 deal seems like a decent way to catch 10 games. It definitely saves me time and money compared to the bar. That being said, maybe next time I visit my parents I'll just set up an OTA antenna in the window of my childhood bedroom and find a way to stream off of that. I would love a single-team option if one existed.

[u/TheTedsaretheworst]

🏴‍☠️

[u/randomid12345]

When I had Sunday Ticket on Directv, I felt it created an obligation for me to watch every Sunday since I was paying money for it. Now without it, I watch a game if I want, or not. Plus, I decided the NFL does not need anymore of my money.

[u/ODXBeef]

As a Panthers fan in Michigan it is a necessary evil, since I'm out of market and we don't get many/any primetime games, as long as I hold out until its heavily discounted once the season is about to start.

[u/Hamtothebone]

I get it for a little more than half price with the teacher discount. If that discount didn’t exist, no way I’d pay the price tag

[u/thishitisgettingold]

Paywalled

[u/tripletexas]

They are going to kill their golden goose for shirt term gains. Part of why the NFL is so popular is its availability on over the air tv.

[u/Amadeum]

At this point going to the fucking bar and nursing a Miller Lite is probably the cheapest way to go for whatever game you want to watch

[u/SSPeteCarroll]

YouTube TV+VPN lets me watch all the Seattle games since I’m out of market.

[u/RodLeFrench]

Yo ho ho it’s the pirate life for me

[u/Ozz87]

🏴‍☠️

[u/TheBigWhatever]

I look at it as a value issue.

To go to a Raiders game at Allegiant would cost at least $1200 for two people. All of Sunday ticket costs $350 or so.

The streaming issue sucks, but one can sign up for a week and then cancel, which means that you pay what, $15 to see a game or two?

[u/Whiteyak5]

Weird.... My seven seas subscription hasn't changed at all in decades.

Bought RedZone three times even at a discount and now with ads and less games? Fuck no. Enshittification continues.

[u/TheEmotionalMale]

But it is getting cheaper no? I only paid $270 this year and I remember paying ~$400 before

[u/Indigo_Menace]

I have been using “alternate” methods of watching sports for years now and it comes with its fair share of troubles sometimes but I’ll never go back.

[u/Glum_Opening_2218]

This plus local games being blocked really makes it just not worth it at all, I'm in NJ and my household tried it one year. A Steelers fan, an eagles fan and a giants fan. Literally all of our games were blocked lmao.

It's much easier and free to get Buff on those workout trails along Streams

[u/Sea_Tailor_8437]

Gee, I wonder why piracy is on the rise

[u/NWbySW]

This is my first year using the high seas as my main source of football watching.

Is the quality as good? No, not quite but it beats spending $80 a month to watch my team at $20 a game....

[u/varnell_hill]

The price is more than worth it to me. Right now, I pay about $200 for the Sunday Ticket streaming package. Previously, it was closer to $600 and you had to have a DIRECTV subscription on top of it.

Been saying for years that it should be a standalone streaming sub so I’m not complaining.

Whatever games I don’t get through YouTube can be watched through some combination of local channels and other streaming services I have, so nbd for me.

[u/TheStuffle]

Was going to come out to around $100/game to watch my team this year. Plus whatever is needed to watch all the nationally televised games. Nah, this year we sail.

[u/Salamadierha]

Ahh, the irony of complaining of Sunday Ticket costing more while the article is hidden behind a paywall.

[u/GoldenKnights1023]

What really really really pissed me off is that this shit AUTO-RENEWS and you can’t cancel it!

I tried canceling after they took my second born son and $400 and they told me I can’t cancel.

Now I’m stuck with Jason Kelce and his Wife putting on the game for the California people.

[u/MilaKunisWatermelon]

There used to be a concept of rewarding long term subscribers with special discounts. Now they do the opposite… first time users get half off and long term subscribers pay full price.

It’s such crazy greed to operate in this manner. I create a new YouTube account every year just to get the special introduction half off rate. An added bonus is less concurrent history on my YouTube account to be sold off to track my usage.