TV Answer Man, we love all things football in our family and a friend told me I should check out the NFL Channel. It’s not the NFL Network he said but some other channel with great games of the past and other stuff. Do you know about this? Also, when will the Sunday Ticket be decided? — Marty, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Marty, the NFL Channel is a free streaming service that’s available at the NFL web site, the league’s mobile app and other streaming homes such as Pluto and Peacock, among others.

The channel, which is different from the NFL Network (available as part of a pay TV service), offers a continuous feed of notable games from the past as well as news and information programs. For example, as I write this, the NFL Channel is playing the CBS broadcast of the 1981 NFC Championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. (Sorry, Cowboys fans, it’s the game where Dwight Clark makes ‘The Catch’ to win it for the Niners.)

If you like old-time football for free, the NFL Channel is definitely for you and a nice alternative to the never-ending serving of paid services from the nation’s most popular sport. (Looking at you, NFL Plus.)


Now to the Sunday Ticket question:

There is considerable confusion over when the NFL will make a decision on which streaming company will take over the Ticket starting with the 2023 season. (DIRECTV’s exclusive carriage of the package of out-of-market Sunday afternoon games expires after the 2022 season and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he believes the next agreement will go to a streaming service.)

Goodell told CNBC in July that the decision is likely by the fall. But what does that mean? The fall doesn’t end until December 20 so could the league wait until nearly year’s end to announce its decision?

It’s quite possible, particularly since NFL media chief Brian Rolapp recently told the New York Times that the decision will come in ‘the coming months…we still have a ways to go in this process.”

Maury, hope that helps. Happy viewing and stay safe!

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— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman