Call me old-fashioned, but isn’t the point of buying a premium product to receive a premium experience? For instance, I subscribe to SiriusXM because I enjoy listening to my favorite metal tracks from the 1980s without commercial interruptions. I pay for ESPN Unlimited because I enjoy watching WWE premium live events. The same reasoning should apply to those who purchase NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube TV. Pick what you want to watch and when you want to watch it.
However, a growing problem with NFL Sunday Ticket involves the league’s “bonus coverage” during the early Sunday afternoon slate. Sunday was just the latest example. As the New York Giants and Washington Commanders went to overtime, FOX Sports continued showing their game as bonus coverage instead of providing access to the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers divisional showdown.
I don’t subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket. The $240 price tag for new subscribers is a little steep for my taste. Returning subscribers, meanwhile, face a $480 price tag for the season. I can’t imagine that’s an easy pill to swallow for many fans. But when you charge a premium price, you should deliver a premium experience, one that cable and satellite subscribers without Sunday Ticket cannot replicate.
Yet Sunday’s 49ers-Seahawks matchup was blacked out for some subscribers. Not because the game was being shown locally, but because the Giants and Commanders were playing overtime. In fact, because New York and Washington finished in a tie, Sunday Ticket subscribers missed the first 10 minutes of the 49ers-Seahawks game. Not just live, but even on demand.
So why is bonus coverage mandatory for Sunday Ticket subscribers?
Deliver On The Promise
The NFL has long marketed itself as a fan-first league. Sunday Ticket is sold as a way for fans to watch their favorite teams play on Sunday afternoons, regardless of where they live outside the home markets. If subscribers pay for access to out-of-market games, shouldn’t they be able to watch those games when they kick off?
Shouldn’t this be an easy fix?
Consider, too, that the NFL promotes the availability of its games on free, over-the-air television. This past Thursday, I was able to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the Dallas Cowboys. The game aired on my local FOX affiliate without a Prime Video subscription. If I lived outside the local broadcast market, however, I wouldn’t nor shouldn’t expect to watch that same game. Why? Because I didn’t pay for Prime Video.
Sunday Ticket is different. It’s marketed and sold as a premium product, yet the viewing experience can prevent subscribers from watching the very games they’re paying to access. That’s a problem for fans, but it’s also a problem for the NFL. It adds to the frustration surrounding how the league distributes its games. Especially at a time when its antitrust protections under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 face broader scrutiny.
The NFL cannot continue to market a product, charge a premium price and fail to deliver the access subscribers expect. Here’s a potential solution.
Instead of withholding a game’s live feed while another matchup receives bonus coverage, why not make the feeds available to Sunday Ticket subscribers as the games unfold? The league and its distribution partners could work out a system that allows subscribers to watch the scheduled game. Meanwhile, preserving existing local broadcast protections.
Consider what happened Sunday. Because of bonus coverage, viewers who did watch the 49ers-Seahawks game from the beginning saw nearly 10 minutes of commercial-free football during the first quarter. Advertisers still had their scheduled opportunities to reach the national audience once the broadcast returned to the game.
If the network can provide the game feed without interrupting its existing coverage, the NFL and YouTube TV should explore how to make that feed available to subscribers who paid for it.
This seems like a logical place to start. Advertisers retain their scheduled commercial inventory, subscribers receive the access they purchased. Plus, the NFL takes a meaningful step toward addressing the concerns that accompany its exclusive distribution arrangements.
Avoiding Congress
It also raises a broader question: Should federal regulators take a closer look at how the NFL’s broadcast arrangements affect consumers who pay for access to games that are otherwise available over the air? That question deserves consideration, even if the legal and regulatory issues require more examination.
The NFL has built its business by giving fans access to the teams and players they love. Sunday Ticket is supposed to take that commitment a step further by allowing subscribers to watch out-of-market games they otherwise couldn’t see. Yet when a paying customer misses the opening minutes of a divisional showdown because another game goes into overtime, the league falls short of the experience it promises.
This isn’t a problem that should require years of negotiations, a congressional hearing or a federal investigation to resolve. The NFL has the technology, the distribution partners and the resources to find a solution. It simply needs to prioritize the customer experience over a broadcast practice that no longer makes sense in a streaming environment.
Fans shouldn’t have to choose between accepting a blackout and hoping their favorite team’s game doesn’t compete with an overtime finish somewhere else. They paid for access, and they should receive it.
The NFL can do better, and it should do better immediately. Anything less is a disservice to the fans who continue to invest their time and money in the league.
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