With football season coming up, you might be conisdering some alternatives to cable to watch NFL games. NFL Sunday Ticket gives you access to all the out of market games on Sunday’s (except for Sunday night games). With cable, you only have access to games in your market on Sunday’s. I found Sunday Ticket to be useful when I wanted to watch players on my fantasy football team play. I also really liked the Red Zone and Fantasy Zone options. As someone who used NFL Sunday Ticket last season, here is my review of the service and whether or not I think it is worth the money.
What is Sunday Ticket
Sunday Ticket is a streaming service provided by DIRECTV that gives you access to all out of market games on Sunday. You can also stream Sunday Ticket on any platform. One of my favorite feature NFL Sunday Ticket offers is the ability to watch multiple games at once. You can have multiple games playing at once so you do not have to keep switching back and forth. Sunday Ticket also comes with Red Zone, which shows scoring recaps from around the league, as well as Fantasy Zone which provides fantasy updates throughout the day.
Who Can Get Sunday Ticket?
If you have DIRECTV, NFL Sunday Ticket comes with DIRECTV CHOICE or any higher package. If you don’t have DIRECTV, you may still be eligible for NFL Sunday Ticket as a standalone service. You are eligible to get NFL Sunday Ticket if you:
- Live in a multi-dwelling unit that is not serviced by DIRECTV.
- Are enrolled in a U.S. College or University.
- Live somewhere that is unable to receive DIRECTV satellite service.
- Live in select areas within various metropolitan cities.
If you are not sure, you can also check your eligibility directly with DIRECTV. All you have to do is go to nflsundayticket.tv and select “check eligibility”.
How Much Does It Cost?
NFL Sunday Ticket pricing varies depending on the package you choose. As of writing this, the regular Sunday Ticket package will cost you $73.49 a month. NFL Sunday Ticket Max will cost a little bit more at $99 a month for the 2020 NFL season. Those with DIRECTV Choice or higher will get Sunday Ticket at no additional cost.
If you are enrolled in a U.S. college or university, you are in luck. You can receive NFL Sunday Ticket for only $24.99 a month. To be eligible, you have to sign up for an account using your “.edu” email address. Be on the lookout for promo codes which can drop that price even lower. In the past, there have been promo codes that have brought the price down to just $20 a month for college students!
Pros vs Cons
Now that you know what Sunday Ticket is and how much it will cost, let’s talk about the pros and cons.
Pros
NFL Sunday Ticket is a great service for those whose favorite team is in a different part of the country. For example, if you are a Cowboys fan but live in Boston, you might only get to watch a couple of games a year. DirectTV will allow you to watch all of the out of market Cowboys games, so you do not have to miss a snap.
I also really liked Sunday Ticket for the ability to watch players on my fantasy team. When my favorite team is not playing, I like to switch between games to check in on who’s playing for my fantasy football team. Without Sunday Ticket, you usually don’t even have access to the games most of your players are playing in. Sunday Ticket also lets you play four games at once on the same screen. I was able to have four different games on at the same time so I did not have to worry about missing a big play.
I also really liked the Red Zone and Fantasy Zone options that Sunday Ticket has to offer. If none were particularly interesting I would just throw on Red Zone to catch the exciting parts. The ability to watch Sunday Ticket on any platform as well as having an app available made it really accessible and easy to watch. One thing I was able to do was watch the local games on my TV and then put Sunday Ticket on my laptop. That way I was able to watch every game if I wanted to.
Cons
The biggest negative for Sunday Ticket is the price. With Sunday Ticket Max costing $99 per month (as of writing), it is tough to justify. If you don’t care about Red Zone you could go with the regular Sunday Ticket package, but that will still cost you $73.49 a month (as of writing). If you are paying for cable TV as well as Sunday Ticket, you might have a hard time justifying paying such a high monthly price.
Another negative is that you can not get local games. One reason you may be considering Sunday Ticket is because you decided to ditch cable but still want to be able to watch your favorite team play. Unfortunately, if your favorite team is local, you will need to consider other options.
Lastly, I did sometimes have issues with the games playing. These were not often and only happened a few times, but sometimes the games would not load and I would have to close out of the app or web browser to get them to play. On a grand scale though, the app worked smoothly.
Is it Worth it?
It is tough to give a definitive yes or no answer here. I think if you are a college student then Sunday Ticket is absolutely worth it. At only $24.99 a month you really can not beat the price. A lot of college students go to school away from home so their favorite team might be an out of market teams anyways.
For everyone else, I think it depends on your situation. If you are a fan of an out of market team, you might be able to easily justify the monthly fee if it means you can watch your team play every week. For everyone else, I don’t think it is worth the price unless you are a die-hard NFL fan.
I hope you found this NFL Sunday Ticket review helpful. You can check out more of our articles here. We also have sections on grilling, tailgating, and man caves if you are interested!