OT:NFL Chief Media and Business Officer says Sunday Ticket is "Ripe for Innovation"

[Ian]

Interesting article:

Brian Rolapp: Sunday Ticket is "ripe for innovation"

The NFL's longstanding arrangement with DirecTV for the Sunday Ticket product expires after the 2022 season.

profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

I feel like if DirecTV loses this, they'll be in serious trouble and it could be a potential death-knell to the service. At the same time, I would love to see it evolve a little more but for any of us with a Gamepass subscription, is anyone else a little skeptical after the league ruined something they had done pretty well prior to recently? Talk about a major step backwards...it completely sucks right now compared to previously.

 

[jah]

I don't know what Sunday Ticket does now, I don't know what it's going to do in the future, but what I do know is this:

I shouldn't have to buy a whole cable subscription with a bunch of channels I'll never watch just to get the 4 football channels.

 

[Rob0729]

I have several friends who are fans of other teams that have been complaining for years that the NFL doesn't do what MLB does and allow people to get an online package of just one team outside of market. The NFL is finally catching on.

I have heard after years of DirecTV using Sunday Ticket as a loss leader to get new subscribers are losing way too much money now to renew because their subscriber base is dropping. I think they are idiots because they refuse to bring it to their streaming package which other than in rural areas where high speed internet is unavailable is where most of their potential new subscribers are. If they brought it to their streaming service, I can think of at least a half dozen people I know personally who would pay for a subscription including myself. But there ain't no way I going with a dish just for out of market games.

 

[203Pat]

Interesting article:

Brian Rolapp: Sunday Ticket is "ripe for innovation"

The NFL's longstanding arrangement with DirecTV for the Sunday Ticket product expires after the 2022 season.

profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

I feel like if DirecTV loses this, they'll be in serious trouble and it could be a potential death-knell to the service. At the same time, I would love to see it evolve a little more but for any of us with a Gamepass subscription, is anyone else a little skeptical after the league ruined something they had done pretty well prior to recently? Talk about a major step backwards...it completely sucks right now compared to previously.

I finally gave up on my gamepass subscription. It didn't work right half the time and crashed constantly. Now with an 18 month old I hardly have time to watch live let alone a rewatch every Monday like I used to. Completely agree that whatever the league tries to do to be innovative with Sunday Ticket they will bungle it.

 

[Kontradiction]

I don't know what Sunday Ticket does now, I don't know what it's going to do in the future, but what I do know is this:

I shouldn't have to buy a whole cable subscription with a bunch of channels I'll never watch just to get the 4 football channels.

You don’t. If you have the fire stick, you just download the app and pay.

 

[Bill Lee]

I don't know what Sunday Ticket does now, I don't know what it's going to do in the future, but what I do know is this:

I shouldn't have to buy a whole cable subscription with a bunch of channels I'll never watch just to get the 4 football channels.

Yes, this has been a pet peeve of mine for decades now.

We're to the point where the only thing bringing in revenue on mainline tv is the NFL, look at the ratings and you'll see I'm right.

They certainly have the technology to offer an internet subscription by team, but that would really disrupt the entire industry.

It seems they have managed to largely shift the bundling business model to internet if you look at how Hulu, YouTube TV, et al. are structured.

Therefore I don't subscribe to those, most of my tv viewing has shifted over to youtube premium where I can get lots of ad-free content.

For NFL I'm lucky I live in the Pats home territory and that I have an over-the-air tv antenna in my attic that can capture CBS, NBC and FOX.

Sooner or later they will close that loophole, but I suspect that won't happen for a while, because when they do they will take down most of TV with it.

I finally gave up on my gamepass subscription. It didn't work right half the time and crashed constantly. Now with an 18 month old I hardly have time to watch live let alone a rewatch every Monday like I used to. Completely agree that whatever the league tries to do to be innovative with Sunday Ticket they will bungle it.

NFL, for all its money, has a history of low-balling its media operations. NFL Network is largely run using contractors on temporary contracts that they dump after six months to keep within legal limits for temp jobs. NFL just out-sourced its podcast operations to iHeart and now they are riddled with stupid ads. All this to just save a few employees worth of salaries since they kept the production staff and outsourced operations and management.

Bottom line, I have no faith NFL will do anything good with any future in-house version of GamePass. The best hope is they out-source it to someone else who knows they have to run it as a halo kind of project rather than capturing the contract then killing the goose laying the golden eggs.

 

[Hyped]

Yup, I am stuck with Sunday Ticket for another 1.5 seasons.

I don't even care if they charge me the same amount ($360 a season)...

I care more about ditching my DTV Dish and just using my "Smart" TV. Currently, I have to connect a cable to my DTV box and then to the TV.

But on the plus side...DirecTV/ATT keep giving me good deals because I am a bundled customer. I get free HBO Max, 5X faster internet upgrades, more data on my phone plan, etc...etc... they are sweetening the pot to keep me on and it's working.

Note: I CANNOT get Sunday Ticket via the app even if it is available in my area because I am an original DTV customer and cannot PROVE that I CANNOT get a dish unless I organize my HOA to ban dishes in my hood.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

would like to see sunday ticket on youtube or apple tv…

rumor has it that, if apple becomes the new provider, they are looking at allowing customers to pay for watching games of only one team…

 

[Ring 6]

Interesting article:

Brian Rolapp: Sunday Ticket is "ripe for innovation"

The NFL's longstanding arrangement with DirecTV for the Sunday Ticket product expires after the 2022 season.

profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

I feel like if DirecTV loses this, they'll be in serious trouble and it could be a potential death-knell to the service. At the same time, I would love to see it evolve a little more but for any of us with a Gamepass subscription, is anyone else a little skeptical after the league ruined something they had done pretty well prior to recently? Talk about a major step backwards...it completely sucks right now compared to previously.

Directv will go under without Sunday ticket. It’s really the only reason to have it.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Somehow my Denver address qualified for the streaming service this season. Limited to (1) device but I can log in at my buds place across town. We will see if it is worth it after the season is over. So far watched (2) games. Going to be (3) after this Sunday. The GF watched her Iggles too so that's actually (4) games. How much would I have spent at the bar? Uber rides are super expensive these days so this season it should be a winner.

Back to the question at hand. Yes they should make this available to anyone. Would millions drop their DTV subscription if they could just pay to stream the NFL? Not sure. but what if Amazon outbids them? They are screwed either way I think.

 

[Ian]

Directv will go under without Sunday ticket. It’s really the only reason to have it.

100% agree with this. Could be why they're already starting to shift to a streaming service, even for existing customers. So at least they won't lose as many once they lose the one reason people have had to switch to them to begin with.

 

[Hyped]

Directv will go under without Sunday ticket. It’s really the only reason to have it.

Not really. I bet DTV will buy out Dish Network and become the sole satellite TV service in the country. There are still A LOT of customers in remote areas that need dishes to get TV.

And AT&T paid a lot of money to divest themselves of DTV....and still own some of DTV. For DTV to turn a profit...they just need to downsize to a satellite TV business and focus on those remote area customers or RV'ers.

 

[Bill Lee]

Not really. I bet DTV will buy out Dish Network and become the sole satellite TV service in the country. There are still A LOT of customers in remote areas that need dishes to get TV.

And AT&T paid a lot of money to divest themselves of DTV....and still own some of DTV. For DTV to turn a profit...they just need to downsize to a satellite TV business and focus on those remote area customers or RV'ers.

Right, but that's a huuuuge downsizing, from being able to capture many NFL fans who happen to live out of market, along with the rural customers trapped in the dish-only fringes. Presuming they lose the contract, they also lose those who are using them for the online Sunday Pass only.

 

[Rob0729]

Directv will go under without Sunday ticket. It’s really the only reason to have it.

I read somewhere that they don't even have that many subscribers who have the Sunday Ticket package. They have about 15 million subscribers and only about 3-5 million subscribe to Sunday Ticket from what I have read. People aren't paying for the Sunday Ticket anymore and it is costing DirecTV a fortune.

In recent years, they have picked up a decent amount of cord cutters with their streaming app, but the streaming app doesn't have the Sunday Ticket as an option and the only way to get Sunday Ticket streaming only is if you have an address that doesn't allow a dish. But their streaming app has everything else they carry so they get cord cutters for streaming like YouTube and Slingbox do. Their dish subscribers are quickly becoming mostly people who live in rural areas or other areas where it is hard to get good Internet speeds.

But overall, they have been bleeding subscribers because they are losing more dish customers than they are picking up streaming ones. I don't think they will be dead if they lose Sunday Ticket because it isn't the loss leader that it used to be, but AT&T sees DirecTV as a loser and is trying to spin it off. Letting Sunday Ticket go will allow them to look more profitable at least in the short term to at least make some money when they spin it off. But their future is online through streaming which is perplexing that they never brought Sunday Ticket to streaming.

 

[203Pat]

NFL, for all its money, has a history of low-balling its media operations. NFL Network is largely run using contractors on temporary contracts that they dump after six months to keep within legal limits for temp jobs. NFL just out-sourced its podcast operations to iHeart and now they are riddled with stupid ads. All this to just save a few employees worth of salaries since they kept the production staff and outsourced operations and management.

Bottom line, I have no faith NFL will do anything good with any future in-house version of GamePass. The best hope is they out-source it to someone else who knows they have to run it as a halo kind of project rather than capturing the contract then killing the goose laying the golden eggs.

About 5-6 years ago when I was living in Tampa I bought their preseason app so I could watch the preseason games live since I was out of market. It was a complete disaster and 2 of the 4 games I couldn't watch at all live and then even the second two kept freezing nonstop. I remember checking Twitter and saw the preseason app was trending and every person was having the same issues. I think they ended up refunding me half or offering me a coupon code or something stupid.

I know even with some teams they employ a lot of temp workers. My then girlfriend, now wife, worked for the Bucs for a year during the Raheem Morris era while she was in school and she was a temp. They extended her contract another 6 months after the initial 6 but of course she got no benefits and was paid next to nothing. They wanted her to sign another 6 month temp contract after a year but she basically told them give me a permanent position or no thanks. They didn't and she walked then a month later tried to get her back as a permanent employee lol.

 

[JackBauer]

Hmm, Sunday Ticket or free HQ streams widely available on the Internet? Tough decision.

 

[Ian]

Hmm, Sunday Ticket or free HQ streams widely available on the Internet? Tough decision.

I hear you - but those are pretty risky, even the better-known ones. I've got people I know that ended up with some serious issues thinking their anti-virus/malware program would keep them out of trouble. It ended up being pretty ugly.

 

[Kontradiction]

100% agree with this. Could be why they're already starting to shift to a streaming service, even for existing customers. So at least they won't lose as many once they lose the one reason people have had to switch to them to begin with.

Good idea, but they’re a dollar short and a day late. Cable’s downfall should have been the shot across the bow for them to adapt and they held firm to an aging model.

 

[Bill Lee]

I read somewhere that they don't even have that many subscribers who have the Sunday Ticket package. They have about 15 million subscribers and only about 3-5 million subscribe to Sunday Ticket from what I have read. People aren't paying for the Sunday Ticket anymore and it is costing DirecTV a fortune.

In recent years, they have picked up a decent amount of cord cutters with their streaming app, but the streaming app doesn't have the Sunday Ticket as an option and the only way to get Sunday Ticket streaming only is if you have an address that doesn't allow a dish. But their streaming app has everything else they carry so they get cord cutters for streaming like YouTube and Slingbox do. Their dish subscribers are quickly becoming mostly people who live in rural areas or other areas where it is hard to get good Internet speeds.

But overall, they have been bleeding subscribers because they are losing more dish customers than they are picking up streaming ones. I don't think they will be dead if they lose Sunday Ticket because it isn't the loss leader that it used to be, but AT&T sees DirecTV as a loser and is trying to spin it off. Letting Sunday Ticket go will allow them to look more profitable at least in the short term to at least make some money when they spin it off. But their future is online through streaming which is perplexing that they never brought Sunday Ticket to streaming.

Yes, I agree, their future is streaming, plus whatever satellite customers they can retain/capture.

A retired couple I know just bought a house in internet fringe country, DSL only. It can barely sustain video speeds but one of the couple is hooked on the Hulu app on her tablet, she watches old comedy reruns on it hour after hour. She also insists they buy DirectTV so the big screen TVs have something on them, but they hardly ever watch them. He can't convince her to switch over to using the DTV app to access the same content, nor can he convince her to drop DTV and just use the Hulu smart apps on the TV or a Roku. I tried to help out by getting their Rokus up and running on their internal WiFi, and in one case gifting them a new Roku, but that didn't help.

The point is, there's lots of people who are using stuff just because that's what they are familiar with, not because it's the best tech choice. So, I guess I'm contradicting my previous post. Also your info on DTV not having a lot of Sunday Ticket subs is interesting too. I personally knew some people keeping DTV just for Sunday Ticket, but also can imagine that it'd be easy for them to cut it due to its expense.

 

[borg]

What a sweet spot for the NFL and the timing couldn't have been more ideal?
Corporations so flush with cash and stock values in the stratosphere
Billionaires looking for side investments as they race one another to space

Bezos' probably looking to bundle..."Give me a team and Sunday Ticket and tell my secretary how much on your way out"