By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man – @tvanswerman
TV Answer Man, I enjoyed your article on what YouTube TV won’t have that DIRECTV had with the NFL Sunday Ticket, but what about the other way? What will YouTube have that DIRECTV didn’t? Fair play, TV Answer Man! — Clark, Palo Alto, California.
Clark, you’re right! We need to flip the tables and look at what YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels will offer with the NFL Sunday Ticket that DIRECTV did not. (You can see yesterday’s article here.)
First, let me reiterate that the YouTube Ticket will feel and look very similar to what fans experienced with satellite TV service. Both YouTube services will have the same Sunday afternoon games as DIRECTV and the same features such as multiple games on a single screen, interactive stats and a fantasy football focus.
But there will be some significant differences:
No dish or pay TV subscription required.
While DIRECTV did offer a standalone streaming edition of the Sunday Ticket, it was only available to university students, people who could prove they couldn’t get a dish at their residences, and a relatively small number of consumers in select zip codes. For the first time, anyone who has a decent Internet plan can subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket. And if you desire, you don’t have to subscribe to YouTube TV to do it. (Although YouTube TV subs can get a $100 discount until June 6.) You can get the Ticket as a standalone service from YouTube Primetime Channels.
Click Amazon: See Today’s 1-Day-Only Discounts!
No two-year contract.
DIRECTV’s satellite Ticket required you to sign a two-year programming agreement. But even if you get the Ticket via YouTube TV, there’s no contract with punitive penalties if you cancel service before the term is over. If you don’t like YouTube TV, you can cancel at any time, although you can’t watch the Ticket on YouTube TV without the service’s base plan. If you subscribe via YouTube Primetime Channels, there’s no contract or any other requirement other than paying for your Ticket subscription.
You can order the NFL RedZone channel separately.
DIRECTV had its own version of the RedZone channel, hosted by Andrew Siciliano. However, you had to subscribe to the more expensive Sunday Ticket Max plan to get the RedZone with your Ticket games. The Siciliano RedZone is history now, shuttered when DIRECTV lost the Ticket rights to Google. But the NFL RedZone channel, which has been available on cable, Dish and some live streaming services, remains and it’s available as part of YouTube’s Ticket bundle or separately on YouTube TV’s Sports Plus $10.99 a month add-on plan. It’s slightly more expensive if you order it with Sports Plus, compared to the Ticket bundle price. But if you don’t want the Ticket, you can still get the RedZone with YouTube TV. You couldn’t do that on DIRECTV.
Google executives have hinted that the company will offer more unique Ticket features as we get closer to the season. But for now, we have three big differences between the YouTube Ticket and the DIRECTV Ticket.
What do you think? Post your comments in the comments section below.
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
But no 4K? why pay for it on YouTube otherwise after the NBA finals end…???
Why sell 4K or UHD when there’s not enough programming especially sporting events
Directv had an OTT version of Sunday Ticket that did not require a 2 year contract
Have we heard anything about a Fantasy Football channel on the YouTube Ticket? DirecTV had the Fantasy Zone channel. Is there a planned carryover?