Is YouTube TV Preparing to Launch Mosaic Mode, Other NFL Sunday Ticket Features for March Madness?

As you might have heard, the NFL season ended this past Sunday when the Kansas City Chiefs used a nearly last-second field goal to complete the comeback against the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII. The next regular season NFL game won’t happen until September, so you might have been a little confused when YouTube TV announced that it would be allowing fans to sign up for its first season of the NFL Sunday Ticket this spring, four to six months before the action actually kicks off.

In conjunction with the Super Bowl, the live TV streaming service announced that it will unsurprisingly make Sunday Ticket cheaper for YouTube TV subscribers than for customers who opt for the standalone version via its à la carte platform Primetime Channels. Additionally, the streamer confirmed that football fans can opt for subscription packages that include NFL Redzone and packages that don’t (however, why anyone would want a football package without Redzone is beyond me).

But the most interesting aspect of the announcement was that “YouTube TV members are eligible for NFL Sunday Ticket special offers in the spring,” emphasis mine.

Of course, there are benefits to getting the most passionate fans signed up as early adopters, but why a few months after the Super Bowl and half a year before the new NFL season? Wouldn’t it be more advantageous to capitalize on last weekend’s Big Game or wait at least until summer when the excitement of organized team activities (OTAs) get underway?

Well, hear me out, is it possible that Google is looking to open up Sunday Ticket subscriptions during a different, major sporting event that just so happens to be spring-based? Could the company be looking to start signups on the heels of debuting some of the signature features promised for the football package in just a few weeks?

Since the announcement that Sunday Ticket was moving from DIRECTV — its home of nearly three decades — YouTube TV has been promoting the fact that it would be bringing a whole host of new features to the NFL package this fall. As far back as last August, even before the company signed on to take over Sunday Ticket, Google has been talking about bringing a multichannel viewing option to the streaming service that it will call Mosaic Mode. Then, in the company’s quarterly earnings call last week — just days before the Super Bowl — Alphabet confirmed that the feature, along with in-game polls, chats, comments, and more, will be a part of YouTube TV’s Sunday Ticket experience.

Those features will all be incredibly exciting during the two Sunday afternoon broadcast windows during the NFL season, but you know what else they would be perfect for, especially Mosaic Mode? March Madness. The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are the next major events on the sports calendar, and given the fast-paced, viral nature of those events — especially the first two days of the men’s tournament — there might not be any better opportunity for YouTube TV to give fans a sneak peek of what’s in store for Sunday Ticket. The action-packed, can’t-miss-a-moment Thursday and Friday slates are the closest things in sports — outside of college football — to the wall-to-wall action of a football Sunday, so why not whet fans’ appetites before opening up subscriptions?

The Streamable reached out to YouTube TV to see if the company could provide any insight into our — admittedly out-of-left-field (forgive me for complicating things with a different sport’s metaphor) — hypothesis, but unsurprisingly, the streamer didn’t want to share any plans with us just yet.

“We’ll have more details to share about Sunday Ticket ahead of the 2023 NFL season,” a YouTube TV spokesperson said.

While that was clearly neither a confirmation nor a denial, the timing would make sense. If YouTube TV was able to integrate Mosaic Mode, polls, and commenting features for NCAA tournament games broadcast on CBS, ESPN, TBS, TNT, and TruTV during the men’s and women’s tournaments, that would undoubtedly get fans excited about what the future held for the football package come fall. Then, once the tournament wrapped up in April (a few weeks into the spring season), YouTube TV could start allowing customers to sign up for Sunday Ticket with a little extra excitement generated by features previewed during the Big Dance.