Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs were crowned the winners of Super Bowl LVII and closed out the 2022-23 NFL season. But that was the past. It’s time to look ahead toward the 2023-24 season — and some massive changes already are taking shape. First, there’s no more Tom Brady. And second is that NFL Sunday Ticket no longer will be on DirecTV and is making the leap to YouTube and YouTube TV.
That’s a big deal for a couple of reasons. It’ll make NFL Sunday Ticket — which lets you watch pretty much any NFL game you want every week — available to far more people because it no longer will be shackled to satellite TV. Meanwhile, YouTube TV last reported more than 5 million subscribers in mid-2022. (The company doesn’t regularly give updates on subscription totals.) And then there’s YouTube proper, whose availability and popularity are hard to quantify in the same terms as traditional television numbers because it’s just there.
And we now have pricing information for Sunday Ticket and RedZone.
How to get NFL Sunday Ticket
Again, to spell it out, you’ll have two options to which you can subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket.
- NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV: This is the full smash. You get around 100 linear channels, plus unlimited recording, and your local broadcast channels. Plus you’ll get NFL Sunday Ticket.
- NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube: You’ll subscribe via YouTube proper. (This might also be referred to as YouTube Primetime Channels.) No extra linear channels. No broadcast channels. Just YouTube. And NFL Sunday Ticket.
NFL RedZone — basically a channel of live scoring attempts as they’re happening — will still be available on the YouTube and YouTube TV options, but for separate fees. It’s also available as part of the $11-a-month Sports Plus add-on.
How much does NFL Sunday Ticket cost?
NFL Sunday Ticket is not cheap. That’s by design. A full season still costs several hundred dollars. The good news is that if you sign up for the 2023 season before July 6, you can get a $100 discount.
Here’s how the pricing options break down:
- On YouTube TV: A regular subscription will cost $349 for the season, or $389 if you also want NFL RedZone.
- On YouTube Primetime Channels: A regular subscription costs $449 for the season, and $489 if you want NFL RedZone.
For what it’s worth, those prices are a little higher than what DirecTV subscribers paid — the 2022 season cost just shy of $300. And, again, if you sign up by July 6 you’ll save $100 on any of those schemes.
When will NFL Sunday Ticket be available?
NFL Sunday Ticket is now available as an add-on in the YouTube TV account settings. Obviously, the season doesn’t start until the fall.
The first 2023 regular-season game is scheduled for September 7. That’s a Thursday night.
NFL Sunday Ticket is, of course, a Sunday thing. So its first games will be on September 10.
Can you get a refund on NFL Sunday Ticket?
Nope. There is no way to refund NFL Sunday Ticket. Once you buy it, it’s yours. There are no refunds or cancellations.
Does NFL Sunday Ticket automatically renew?
This part’s important, because we’re talking about several hundred dollars. So pay attention.
If you subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket via YouTube TV, it’s for a single season only. There’s no automatic renewal, and you’ll have to sign up again for the 2024-25 season.
But if you sign up via YouTube Primetime Channels, your NFL Sunday Ticket will automatically renew until you cancel it. That’s odd and annoying, but it’s the way it is for now. Consider yourself warned.
Will there be blackouts?
According to the current YouTube TV terms and conditions, blackouts are still possible if the home game doesn’t sell out. (As in sell out all of its tickets.) In that case, the game would be unavailable in that region.
YouTube TV uses your billing address ZIP code to determine this — but it’s also possible that it’ll use your phone’s location data if you’re away from home but still within a blackout zone. “If there is an outage in your location,” the T&Cs say, “we’ll do our best to let you know.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same, apparently.
Will there be team packages?
There was a good bit of scuttlebutt about whether NFL Sunday Ticket will be available in any other forms, now that it’s making the leap to a more progressive digital platform.
The short answer is that there won’t be team packages or single-game purchases. It’s all or nothing.
The confusion came mostly from an initial lack of details. And on an episode of The Marchand & Ourand Sports Media Podcast, NFL chief media and business officer Brian Rolapp said that some of the details are still in the works and that other options may be possible. “I don’t know that we’ll go team by team,” Rolapp said. “But could you get fewer games at a lesser price? I think that’s all up for debate and conversation.”
But in a FAQ posted to Reddit at YouTube TV’s help pages, aYouTube TV community manager wrote that “We aren’t currently offering student discounts or single team/individual game purchasing options.”
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