NFL Sunday Ticket: YouTube Just Offered Me the Student Discount – I Haven’t Been a Student In 40 Years

By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man –Follow on X.

I spend a considerable amount of time researching industry web sites to look for stories for TVAnswerMan.com. You never know what you might find as many companies will sometimes bury particularly interesting features and/or new information on the site’s back pages. But today, I was truly astonished to discover that I’m a student and eligible for the student discount for the NFL Sunday Ticket.

I haven’t been a student in more than 40 years since I graduated from the University of Maryland.

But there it was. I was reviewing YouTube’s new page for a free trial for the Sunday Ticket when I decided to click on the link for YouTube Purchase & Memberships settings. And when I did, this page came up:

It says: “Student verification complete. Your information has been reviewed and you’re eligible for a student plan. Student plans are available for NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube Premium.”

When I clicked on the Get NFL Sunday Ticket button below, it took to me a page where I had several options to order the package of out-of-market Sunday afternoon games, including the Student Plan. When I clicked on the Student Plan’s ‘Get Started’ plan, there was a page to purchase the Ticket for the student price ($199 for base package; $209 with the RedZone included. That’s roughly $200-300 cheaper than the regular price.)

Then, when I clicked on ‘Check Out,’ the ‘Start Membership’ page appeared. The page had my credit card number from last year when I was a Sunday Ticket subscriber so it appeared that all I had to do was click Start Membership to get the student discount.

Now, I didn’t click on it because I’m not sure I want to subscribe yet and I didn’t want to get billed even at the reduced rate. I also felt a touch guilty because, well, I’m not a student. But since the earlier page said my student verification was complete, it would appear that it would go through as a legitimate subscription. Normally, when you try to order the student plan, you are instructed to go through the verification process. (This is what happened when I asked people on X to try it.) But I was alerted that the verification was already done on my account.

Now, you might say I will get a verification notice if I click on Start Membership, but the earlier page said my student verification was complete. In addition, YouTube’s Help Page says verification is only required for those who’ve not verified in the last 11 months. Perhaps YouTube somehow thinks my 2023 sub was a student plan so verification isn’t needed now. I wasn’t on a student plan in 2023, but that would explain the ‘student verification complete’ message.

I asked YouTube’s support team to explain how this could happen but they couldn’t. I asked if it could be a glitch on my account and they said they would need the engineering team to evaluate that before offering a conclusion.

So, readers, what do you think? Offer your comments below.

The TV Answer Man is veteran journalist Phillip Swann who has covered the TV technology scene for more than three decades. He will report on the latest news and answer your questions regarding new devices and services that are changing the way you watch television. See the bio for Phillip Swann here.

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.