Super Bowl LVIII Will Not Be on NFL Sunday Ticket, Even Though YouTube TV’s New Discount Offer Might Lead You to Believe Otherwise
An email informing customers of the discount on Sunday Ticket may confuse readers as to whether they can watch the Super Bowl on the service.
The Super Bowl is every football fan’s final opportunity to enjoy the NFL before the offseason. Super Bowl LVIII is coming this Sunday, Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS, and to celebrate the Big Game, YouTube TV is offering new subscribers a discount on their next season of NFL Sunday Ticket if they sign up for the league’s out-of-market games service before Feb. 28. However, the Super Bowl — as is true for every postseason game — is not available on Sunday Ticket.
- YouTube TV is giving new subscribers $50 off their season of NFL Sunday Ticket if they subscribe now.
- An email sent by YouTube TV to customers informing them of the discount could be misinterpreted to suggest that fans can stream the Big Game on Sunday Ticket.
- NFL Sunday Ticket is purely an out-of-market games service, and cannot ever be used to watch the Super Bowl.
How to Get YouTube TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket Deal
Sunday Ticket, which provides access to every out-of-market NFL game that airs on Sunday afternoon during the regular season, normally costs $449 per season for fans who subscribe without picking up a YouTube TV subscription as well. Those who choose to sign up for YouTube TV as well only have to pay $349 per year, but they’ll also have to subscribe to at least four months of YouTube TV at $72.99 per month during football season to save this $100.
New subscribers are eligible for a $50 discount through the end of the month. That means that YouTube TV subscribers will pay $299 for the next season of NFL Sunday Ticket, while those who sign up through YouTube TV Primetime Channels will have to shell out $399. To sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket at the discounted rate now, simply click here.
In The Streamable’s expert opinion, NFL Sunday Ticket is not a particularly good value even with the current discount. The NFL and YouTube TV know they have something of a captive audience with the streamer, as there are no other ways to watch out-of-market NFL games from start to finish outside of Sunday Ticket. That audience is so captive, in fact, that the league and Sunday Ticket’s former rights owner DIRECTV are being sued by former customers for violating antitrust laws and creating a noncompetitive environment.
Is YouTube TV’s Messaging Around the Discount Purposely Misleading?
YouTube TV customers shouldn’t be confused by an email sent out by the company this week boasting that you can watch “Every game, every Sunday with YouTube TV*.” That statement is equipped with a conspicuously placed asterisk, but the email forces the subscriber to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page before they learn that the statement only encompasses out-of-market games.
Since the Super Bowl is available nationally on CBS, it does not fall under the purview of Sunday Ticket, even if you ignore the fact that the package only includes regular-season contests.
To be sure, every advertisement these days comes with some fine print at the bottom, but the “Every game, every Sunday” statement combined with the work the email forces the reader to do to find out what it means may lead some to the conclusion that they need Sunday Ticket to watch the Super Bowl this year.
A screenshot of YouTube TV’s email offer of a discount for NFL Sunday Ticket.
The Super Bowl is a nationally broadcast game, and thus has never been offered via Sunday Ticket. That will still be the case this year; fans can stream the Super Bowl with a base YouTube TV subscription, but they do not need one to watch the Big Game, and they certainly won’t find it on NFL Sunday Ticket if they sign up for that service to get the discount this week.
MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson’s assessment of YouTube TV’s deal to acquire Sunday Ticket rights suggested that the company needed to attract more than 4 million subscribers per year to break even on the $2 billion yearly rights payments it makes to the NFL. Data released by Antenna in October showed that Sunday Ticket had only garnered 1.3 million customers in its first season, and that may be driving YouTube TV to use marketing practices that some may find objectionable in offering deals on the service.
YouTube TV has gotten in hot water for its advertising methods in the past. In October, the live TV streamer agreed to stop advertising itself as $600 cheaper than cable. A review board found that the claim was based on outdated statistics and that YouTube TV did not clearly disclose the formula it used to arrive at that calculation to consumers.
Customers who wish to stream the Super Bowl without cable don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to watch it on NFL Sunday Ticket. You can stream the Super Bowl absolutely free if you’re a new Paramount+ subscriber; Paramount+ offers all new customers a seven-day free trial, but you can upgrade that to a 30-day trial by using promo code GOAT when you sign up.
Paramount Plus
Paramount+ is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 40,000+ TV show episodes from BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and more. The lineup includes “1883,” “Tulsa King,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and “PAW Patrol.” Subscribers can watch the NFL, college football, The Masters, college basketball, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa, Serie A, and NWSL. The service also offers the option to watch your live CBS affiliate. The upgraded ad-free package includes premium movies and shows from Showtime.