NFL Network Moves Up Launch on DIRECTV STREAM to July 17, Bringing Channel to Service Ahead of Training Camp
Hang in there, football fans! It might currently be the slowest time of year, when the only news coming from your favorite team is that a star player has sustained a freakish offseason injury, or gotten into some kind of trouble off the field, but in just a few more weeks, players begin to report to training camp, and DIRECTV STREAM users will be able to watch their favorite players arrive on NFL Network.
NFL Network will officially become available on DIRECTV STREAM starting on July 17. The channel will be available in the channel lineup for customers on the Choice, Ultimate, and Premier plans, and it will be included in the Sports Pack add-on so that Entertainment Plan subscribers can add it to their service as well. The Sports Pack costs $14.99 per month and includes access to more than 40 additional sports-themed channels. Depending on your location, the Sports Pack will provide extra coverage from regional sports networks (RSNs), as well as ESPN College Extra and MLB Strike Zone.
It was originally announced that DIRECTV was bringing NFL Network and NFL RedZone to its services in the last week of June, and the service confirmed to The Streamable, that it would be announcing availability for legacy subscribers in the coming weeks. NFL RedZone will only be available as part of the Sports Pack add-on and will debut during the first week of the NFL regular season as it is only live on in-season Sundays.
This is all great news for fans of the league who still subscribe to DIRECTV STREAM after the company decided not to continue its relationship with the NFL’s out-of-market games service NFL Sunday Ticket. Users will find Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV this year, but they can save a tidy sum of money by simply signing up for DIRECTV STREAM and getting the Sports pack with NFL RedZone instead. They’ll still have access to the biggest plays from every game, and they won’t have to pay to watch out-of-market teams they don’t want to see.
Bringing NFL Network to DIRECTV STREAM so soon after the carriage deal between the two was announced is a smart play by DIRECTV, which is mired in a carriage dispute with the country’s largest station owner. Over 200 Nexstar-owned local affiliates have gone dark in more than 100 markets across the United States, as Nexstar and DIRECTV could not come to an equitable carriage agreement for the channels before time ran out early this week. Affected customers can save $10 off their next month's bill from DIRECTV.
There may be a new NFL-themed show to compete for DIRECTV customers’ attention before training camp begins. Netflix recently won the rights to stream a partially-completed documentary series about Jerry Jones and the 1990s Dallas Cowboys, a series that’s already reminding some of the Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance.” That series may not be complete before this NFL season begins, but if it is at least DIRECTV will have NFL Network programming to tempt users with instead.
DIRECTV STREAM
DIRECTV STREAM is a live TV streaming service, which is essentially the streaming version of the DIRECTV service. All packages include local channels and at least 31 of the top 35 cable channels. New subscribers can get a free Gemini streaming device from the company, in which case the service is called “DIRECTV via Internet.”