People are already starting to think about football season as last week’s NFL draft put the league back in the spotlight. While the regular season is still several months off, some fans may want to start considering whether they will take advantage of the Sunday Ticket deals that come out each year before the start of the NFL season. Others may already be DIRECTV customers who have subscribed to Sunday Ticket in the past but are looking for a deal on this years’ football package.
If you are with Dish Network, Comcast, or some other cable provider it may be a difficult decision to switch to DIRECTV. Cable TV companies often bundle their cable service along with high speed internet and phone service. This makes it difficult to cut them loose and switch to DIRECTV, as you will then also have to sign up with the local phone company for DSL, or pay higher rates to the cable company because you broke up your bundle. The advantage though if you do switch is that DIRECTV is always offering incentives for new customers, especially right before Sunday Ticket season kicks off.
In 2008, the DIRECTV Sunday Ticket offer included four free months of their top package, the Premier bundle. In 2009, they upped the ante by offering five months free of the Premier package, representing almost $600 in value. While the 2010 Sunday Ticket deal has not yet been announced, I expect it to be as good if not better as far as the dollar value goes.
Now if you are considering a move over to DIRECTV, when should you look to get the best Sunday Ticket deal? Right now, you can get a discounted rate on service of $29 a month off of any package. This translates to about $360 in savings plus you also get free equipment in th form of the DIRECTV HD DVR which they value at $200. Of course you still have to pay for the monthly DVR service which right now is $7 a month. If you aren’t really interested in the Premier package, then you could sign up for DIRECTV now and enjoy these savings for one year and of course order Sunday Ticket before the season starts. Usually there is a free preview of Sunday Ticket on the first weekend of the NFL season so you have the option of checking it out to see if you really like it before paying the $300+ pricetag.
If you definitely want the NFL package, then you are probably better off waiting until mid July and then signing up with DIRECTV. Then you will be able to review whatever offer comes along with Sunday Ticket make your decision at that point. If it follows what has been offered in the past, you will simply sign up and pay for the Sunday Ticket package which is broken into monthly installments. Then you will be able to enjoy the Premier package for several months at no charge.
Here is one money saving tip if you can use to your advantage. Once your free programming period is over, you do not have to stay with the Premier package, although there is a 24 month commitment. DIRECTV offers you this package in hopes you will stick with it, as it costs $115 a month normally. But you can go down to one of the other packages such as the Choice Xtra or Choice Ultimate, though they will be billed to you at the regular price and not the discounted rate that you can get now separate from the NFL Sunday Ticket deal.
Now if you are an existing customer, what kind of Sunday Ticket discount can you get? This is where things get a bit sticky as there aren’t any advertised deals for existing DIRECTV customers. What it usually involves is calling the DIRECTV customer service phone number, 1-888-777-2454 to see what they can do for you.
Many who have been ST subscribers for several years have reported that deals are sometimes offered if you call and negotiate. The Superfan package which is normally $99 in addition to the regular package has been one deal offered to many current DIRECTV customers. You can only get the NFL games in HD if you have the Superfan package, which is another discussion for another day – but if you ask nicely you might get this thrown in with your NFL bundle.
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