The NFL Sunday Ticket package is new and improved for 2010, as DIRECTV is finally going to include high definition broadcasts at no additional charge. Gone is the Superfan package which was priced at $99 per season in years past, and most of the content is now part of Sunday Ticket.
Pricing on Sunday Ticket will go up a bit over the 2009 offer, with two different payment options available. The all at once price for the 2010 Sunday Ticket package will be $314.93, or if you want to stretch things out you can opt for the seven payment play of $44.99 a month. Last year pricing came in at about $300 for the standard NFL package, but if you wanted HD access you had to add Superfan for $99 extra. Many long time Sunday Ticket subscribers were able to negotiate discounts by calling DIRECTV and threatening to cancel. While that worked last year, I would expect DIRECTV to hold the line with this year’s price and not offer any additional deals for existing customers.
New customers of course will probably get in on another great deal. While the 2010 Sunday Ticket deal for new customers has not been released yet, it will probably follow along the lines of past years which offered several months free of the Premier package with a new subscription.
Existing Sunday Ticket customers will no doubt be thrilled with the add-ons to the standard package. As mentioned, all NFL games will be available in HD without additional cost. This means if you already have a DIRECTV HD receiver and pay the $10 a month high definition fee, you won’t have to pay anything extra beyond the regular Sunday Ticket price. Other additions to the Sunday Ticket package include the Red Zone channel, which also used to be part of Superfan. This channel cuts from game to game when a team is in the “red zone” generally withing 20 yards of the goal line. This DIRECTV in-house Red Zone channel is not to be confused with the football league produced Red Zone channel which is now available through DISH Network and Comcast.
The Game Mix on DIRECTV channel 702 will also be included. Here you can watch all of the games going on in HD, though its hard to see much detail with as many as eight different games on at the same time. Highlighting and selecting any game will bring it full screen for you. NFL Short Cuts will also be available to Sunday Ticket subscribers at no additional charge. On Mondays and Tuesdays you can watch the replays of all games compressed into 30 minutes. This is great for fantasy football players looking to scout new talent.
All of the additional features of NFL Ticket will carry forward as well including the scoreboard feature, the NFL Player Tracker, and highlights as they happen. So what isn’t included in the new DIRECTV setup?
The two features the DIRECTV will continue to charge extra for are the Sunday Ticket Online and the Sunday Ticket Mobile features. The new package created is called NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go, and will offer both of these options for $49.95 a season, or $9.95 a month over five months. Obviously this add on targets those who are not able to be at home every Sunday to enjoy the games, so they have an option to keep watching from other locations. While Sunday Ticket Online was offered stand alone to Manhattan residents last year for $350, no mention of this offer going national can be found on the directv.com website.
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