YouTube Sets Pricing For NFL Sunday Ticket, With Initial Discount Offer

YouTube, which will offer NFL Sunday Ticket this fall after its three-decade exclusive run on DirecTV came to an end, has revealed initial pricing for the package.

In a blog post, YouTube said it will give YouTube TV subscribers a chance to add Sunday Ticket for $249 for the season, a savings of $100. The discount is available through June 6. With the reduction, the price is lower than the roughly $300 charged by DirecTV in recent seasons.

YouTube paid more than $2 billion a year for the rights to Sunday Ticket for seven years. It will distribute it both as an add-on to YouTube TV and a stand-alone offering via its Primetime Channels hub, the first time it will be available without a pay-TV subscription. Not surprisingly, the price is significantly higher on an à la carte basis. On Primetime Channels, NFL Sunday Ticket is available during the presale at $349 for the season, which is $100 off the regular retail price of $449.

The move from linear to streaming is a major shift for the package, which was rolled out in the 1990s and quickly became a subscription driver for DirecTV as the satellite operator was on the rise. Today, the NFL is increasingly looking to profit from the live sports appetites of deep-pocketed tech companies, locking an 11-year deal with Amazon Prime Video for Thursday Night Football beginning last season.

In addition to the $100 discount for YouTube TV subscribers, a bundle of NFL Sunday Ticket and NFL Redzone — a popular whip-around show featuring highlights of scoring plays across the league — will go for $289, also a $100 savings. On Primetime Channels, the Sunday Ticket-Redzone bundle will cost $389 during the presale, compared the regular price of $489.

Christian Oestlien, VP of Product Management, YouTube TV and Connected TV, said features on YouTube TV are being incorporated into Sunday Ticket, including a “multi-view” option to have multiple games on a single screen. Subscribers will also be able to access highlights of key plays, he said, and additional shopping, fantasy sports and data elements are in the works.

YouTube parent Alphabet disclosed last summer that YouTube TV had passed 5 million subscribers, making it one of the top pay-TV providers in the U.S.