New Sunday Ticket pricing option available

[PanthersATL]

 

Quote

 

For the first time since Sunday Ticket was launched in 1994, viewers will be able to purchase the service for a single month, as opposed to the entire season, which costs $276 for new users (with a YouTube TV subscription) and $378 for returning users (with a Youtube TV sub).  

Beginning in September, monthly Sunday Ticket plans will be available for $85 up to four payments ($340) for new users (with a YouTube TV subscription) and $115 for returning users ($460). Those monthly price points are $16 and $20.50 higher, respectively, than the full-season Sunday Ticket plans would cost across four months.

 

Could be a good thing IF you're looking for a single month.  If you're looking for the full season, buying the full package instead of monthly is the better choice

[t96]

Frankly it’s all a massive rip off. I should be able to get only Panthers games for like $50 a year

[tukafan21]

6 minutes ago, t96 said:

Frankly it’s all a massive rip off. I should be able to get only Panthers games for like $50 a year

It really isn't though

If you were to go out to a bar every week of the season, even to just watch one batch of games, i.e. just the 1 pm or just the 4 pm, and spent only $30 a week, you're looking at $540 bucks, $510 if you're just going for the 17 weeks your team is playing, assuming no national games.

Also, from past experience, it's hard to spend only 30 bucks if you're at a bar for 3+ hours to watch the game.  Even just a small appetizer, a meal, and say 2 beers was going to run you $40ish, and that was back in 2019 when I used to go to BWW to watch all our games pre the Covid year when I just started finding streams and stuck with that until YouTube got the package from DirecTV.

At $450 for a full season, to be able to watch every game, to be able to make your own quad box, to be able to switch between the sound for any game (at a bar in Michigan, I would never get to hear the commentary on our games)...

It's really not a bad deal, and that's if you're only watching your team's games.  If you're a fantasy football junkie like myself, then it's a flat out steal, as depending on your TV set up, you can get every game from your fantasy matchup playing.  I do a projector with a quad box on it, a local game on the TV, and then if needed, I can put another game on my laptop and another on my phone.

[Vegas Heel]

I will stick with NFL Bite 

[UnluckyforSome]

Are they introducing a special Panthers package where they pay you to sign up for the punishment of having to actually watch Panthers games?

[BlazeCarolina]

1 hour ago, tukafan21 said:

It really isn't though

If you were to go out to a bar every week of the season, even to just watch one batch of games, i.e. just the 1 pm or just the 4 pm, and spent only $30 a week, you're looking at $540 bucks, $510 if you're just going for the 17 weeks your team is playing, assuming no national games.

Also, from past experience, it's hard to spend only 30 bucks if you're at a bar for 3+ hours to watch the game.  Even just a small appetizer, a meal, and say 2 beers was going to run you $40ish, and that was back in 2019 when I used to go to BWW to watch all our games pre the Covid year when I just started finding streams and stuck with that until YouTube got the package from DirecTV.

At $450 for a full season, to be able to watch every game, to be able to make your own quad box, to be able to switch between the sound for any game (at a bar in Michigan, I would never get to hear the commentary on our games)...

It's really not a bad deal, and that's if you're only watching your team's games.  If you're a fantasy football junkie like myself, then it's a flat out steal, as depending on your TV set up, you can get every game from your fantasy matchup playing.  I do a projector with a quad box on it, a local game on the TV, and then if needed, I can put another game on my laptop and another on my phone.

I can't imagine defending a corporation like this.  Things have gotten so much worse over the years, and for some reason, people fly the flag for them claiming it's not that bad.

[tukafan21]

1 minute ago, BlazeCarolina said:

I can't imagine defending a corporation like this.  Things have gotten so much worse over the years, and for some reason, people fly the flag for them claiming it's not that bad.

Because it's not that bad, it is literally saving people money if they don't live near the team they root for and are able to get them on local TV every week.

Do I wish it was cheaper?

Sure, of course.

But I can also objectively look at it and say it's saving me money compared to needing to go watch it at a bar ever weekend.  

And before anyone says to just stream it, I did it for a while once Covid hit, partially because we were so bad so I didn't care about the problems with it, but it was just awful.  To begin with, sometimes they just flat out didn't work, sometimes the quality sucked, sometimes it would just buffer every 30 seconds and be nearly unwatchable.

The $450 this costs for the season is a significantly better deal than the $180 I have to spend to watch Wrexham matches for the season.  That pass, you have to sign up for an individual team and you only get their games (and not even all of them sometimes).  At least with Sunday Ticket, you get every single non national or local game, which again, is amazing for fantasy football junkies.

[cvlngnir]

3 minutes ago, BlazeCarolina said:

I can't imagine defending a corporation like this.  Things have gotten so much worse over the years, and for some reason, people fly the flag for them claiming it's not that bad.

I don't have a dog in this fight (I use an antenna and almost never miss the game), but I don't read tukafan21's post as defending the corporation. He just laid out the math.

[tukafan21]

7 minutes ago, cvlngnir said:

I don't have a dog in this fight (I use an antenna and almost never miss the game), but I don't read tukafan21's post as defending the corporation. He just laid out the math.

Exactly

I can see how people who live near their favorite team would hate it, because I'm sure they'd love to have it to watch other games, such as for fantasy watching.  But the cost is way too high if that's what you're getting it for, if you don't need it to watch your favorite team, it doesn't make much sense to buy.

But I'm saving money on the season, getting to listen to the commentary on our games (which when you go a decade or two of only getting that a couple times a year if you're lucky, it's pretty nice to have), and then get to watch all my fantasy players (and opponents) every week of the season.

So the price doesn't bother me, it's totally worth it.

Edited August 28 by tukafan21

[BlazeCarolina]

6 minutes ago, cvlngnir said:

I don't have a dog in this fight (I use an antenna and almost never miss the game), but I don't read tukafan21's post as defending the corporation. He just laid out the math.

Math in favor of them.  That is the same logic I would expect them to spew.

I am old, so I remember when cable prices were substantially less and things like this were just included.  We just keep falling, and because people will pay it (and seemingly defend it) there is no reason for companies to stop raking us.

I am sure I will get the old man yells at cloud meme for this, but I just found a price guide for cable in the 90s and it was insane how much they have increased since then.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, t96 said:

Frankly it’s all a massive rip off. I should be able to get only Panthers games for like $50 a year

The league will never agree to it because it would make it painfully obvious which team's were actually driving the revenue for the league and the owners of those teams would start wanting their fair share of the cut versus an equal share.

[PanthersATL]

Sunday Ticket was never intended for local viewers to watch the local team (local games are blacked out on the service)

For out-of-town viewers who want to watch their favorite team? The price is on par (or cheaper) than going to a sports bar to watch their game, with the added bonus of being able to watch other games too

it'd definitely be cheaper to offer a per-team subscription, but there are technology restrictions in figuring that specific subscription model out because it's not always the same network feed week after week

That YouTube has determined there's interest for a monthly option, that's a step in the right direction that they're actively listening and trying to make things work without disrupting the base model

[DeeJay]

34 minutes ago, UnluckyforSome said:

Are they introducing a special Panthers package where they pay you to sign up for the punishment of having to actually watch Panthers games?

Give me this deal

[PanthersATL]

4 minutes ago, BlazeCarolina said:

Math in favor of them.  That is the same logic I would expect them to spew.

I am old, so I remember when cable prices were substantially less and things like this were just included.  We just keep falling, and because people will pay it (and seemingly defend it) there is no reason for companies to stop raking us.

I am sure I will get the old man yells at cloud meme for this, but I just found a price guide for cable in the 90s and it was insane how much they have increased since then.

don't blame the cable companies for high cable bills

blame the networks/channels that are charging the cable company for the privilege of carrying that material. ESPN itself runs about $13/per subscriber AND there's contractual obligation to keep ESPN on the basic tier, regardless of whether the household watches it or not. The cable company ain't making money on the ESPN carriage fee

there's a terrific book about the history of ESPN that goes into how they created their carriage fee ... and how cable companies were stuck having to pay it because that's what the customers wanted.  Then again, when ESPN started it was just cents per subscriber, so didn't sound as painful as it is today

All the carriage disputes that happen (like YouTube TV's upcoming FOX blackout, if the contract isn't signed) are because the cable company is trying not to raise rates for their customers, but the channels are saying "pay up"