DIRECTV has raised the 2017 pre-season price on its most popular NFL Sunday Ticket package by almost 10 percent.
The satcaster, which is now taking orders for the 2017 season, has priced the basic Sunday Ticket package at $281.94. The price is good until September 9, 2017, the night before the first week of Sunday regular season games.
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In contrast, DIRECTV last year charged just $257.94 if you ordered the basic Sunday Ticket before the first week of regular season action.
The increase in the pre-season price this year is 9.3 percent. DIRECTV raised the pre-season price last year by only 2.4 percent.
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The basic Sunday Ticket plan entitles a subscriber to watch out-of-market Sunday NFL games as well as access the Ticket Mix Channel (all games on one screen at the same time) and on-screen stats.
DIRECTV has raised the pre-season price for the Sunday Ticket Max plan to $377.94, which is a five percent increase over last year’s pre-season price of $359.94. The satcaster last year raised the pre-season Max price by just 1.7 percent over the 2015 season.
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The Max plan includes the live regular season games as well as the Red Zone Channel (games are broadcast when a team crosses the other team’s 20 yard-line), and the DIRECTV Fantasy channel.
Both the basic and Max plans also permit subscribers to stream the games on their computers, mobiles and connected TVs.
DIRECTV has revealed the 2017 pricing structure at its web site and via its on-screen programming guide.
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The satcaster, which has held the exclusive rights to the Ticket since its launch in 1994, reportedly paid $1.5 billion a year for eight years in the current contract which started with the 2015 season.
The Ticket increase also coincides with a similar increase DIRECTV is implementing on nearly every programming package, starting last month.
— Phillip Swann