By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man – @tvanswerman
TV Answer Man, I never had the Sunday Ticket before because we couldn’t get DIRECTV where we lived. Can you tell me what games you get with the package? Is it all games or just Sunday games? — Tom, Oklahoma City.
Tom, that’s a good question. Google this year has the exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket after 28 years of only being available via DIRECTV. You Tube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels, both owned by Google, will offer the Ticket as an add-on plan and a separate service respectively.
The cheapest plan is YouTube TV’s $249 Ticket package which requires a YouTube TV base subscription. You can get that price until June 6. After June 6, the price increases by $100. (See this article for Ticket pricing and related details.)
But what do you get for that $249, or $349 after 6/6?
Click to see Amazon’s Mother’s Day discounts.
The NFL Sunday Ticket includes every out-of-market NFL regular season Sunday afternoon game. That means if a game is available on a local channel, it will NOT be available in your Ticket package.
The Ticket also does not include the Black Friday and Thursday Night Football games on Amazon, the Sunday Night Football games on NBC or the Monday Night Football games on ESPN. The league’s playoff games are also not on the Ticket. It’s unclear if any of the five international games will be available.
That’s a lot of omissions. But it’s not anything different from the Ticket’s lineup on DIRECTV.
It would be great if you get all games with the Ticket. But the NFL carves out the rights to their games to maximize profits. The Sunday Ticket is just one piece of that pie.
Tom, hope that helps. Happy viewing and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman
