DIRECTV once again paying big money for the premium sports product in America today- the NFL Sunday Ticket.
In an announcement today, the NFL and DIRECTV confirmed they have reached a deal to extend the current NFL Sunday Ticket contract through the year 2014. The massive price tag on the deal? A reported $1 billion dollars annually, up from the current $700 million per year that DIRECTV pays the NFL.
While the contract will provide a few alternative channels for subscribers to other pay television channels, the main Sunday Ticket package will remain a DIRECTV exclusive. That no doubt will enrage customers of Comcast, Time Warner, Dish Network and other cable TV companies who will continue to be locked out of the package unless they switch to DIRECTV.
The one piece of the NFL Sunday Ticket that will be available to cable TV and Dish Network customers is the “Red Zone” channel. The Red Zone channel jumps from game to game, generally when one team is in the red zone and about to score. No word yet on what the Red Zone channel will cost for new subscribers.
Another piece that the NFL offered up to DIRECTV is the online rights to all NFL games. While the NFL streamed some games for free to fans via its website last year, one complaint from fans is that not all games were made available. DIRECTV promised fans will have online access to streaming, even if they don’t have the NFL Sunday Ticket package on satellite TV, by the year 2012. Hopefully it won’t actually take three years to put NFL Sunday Ticket online into action.
DIRECTV customers who subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket and the Superfan package will again receive all Sunday games in HD. Included in the package are the Game Mix channel, the Red Zone channel, and the SUPERCAST service which will deliver all of the games to a computer via broadband connection. Unfortunately, nothing has been released to indicate that DIRECTV will roll the Superfan package into the main NFL Sunday Ticket, meaning customers will still be paying extra for games in HD. That will continue to be a sticking point with many DIRECTV HD customers, who already pay and additional $10 per month for HD service.
DIRECTV and the NFL also announced an extension of the carriage agreement for the NFL Network. The all football all the time station will continue to be available to DIRECTV subscribers of the Choice package or higher.
The move by DIRECTV indicates they are confident that the NFL will continue to bring in subscribers. While DIRECTV may not make back what they pay the NFL on Sunday Ticket package sales, they certainly are making money in the long run by growing their subscriber base which continues to generate huge amounts of cash year in and year out.
Other pay television providers have to be fuming that they will once again be locked out from the NFL cash cow. Comcast in particular has battled the NFL in recent years, mainly over carriage of the NFL Network, and Dish Network too has been battling in court with the NFL. Newcomers like Verizion FIOS and AT&T U-Verse will also be locked out of the full NFL Sunday Ticket package, being restricted to the Red Zone channel offering. While the NFL may have made more money by distributing the Sunday Ticket package to a wider network, they obviously feel happy with what they make with DIRECTV.
Commenting on the deal, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said:
“We are pleased to extend a partnership with DIRECTV that has complemented and supported our broadcast television packages for 15 years. We are looking forward to having the Red Zone channel on cable and other media platforms as well as showing NFL Sunday Ticket via broadband to the homes that cannot get satellite. This new content enhances our tradition of being the most pro-consumer, widely available sport on television.”
DIRECTV CEO Chase Carey seemed happy as well:
“The NFL SUNDAY TICKET service has been a part of DIRECTV since our first year of operation and is one of the defining characteristics of our best-in-class positioning. This latest extension allows us to retain and broaden our most popular sports subscription service. Through our wireless offering to NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ customers and the new broadband service to non-customers, we’re now able to expand the reach to even more NFL fans everywhere.”
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