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Many are excited about the inevitability of the NFL Sunday Ticket landing at a new provider for a variety of reasons, from the ability to improve customer service over DirecTV’s current “please hold” approach to the potential for expanded functionality and more options for watching off-market games. . An important change will not be made.
It will not be much cheaper.
Alex Sherman of CNBC.com reports that the language in the contracts between NFL and CBS and Fox precludes a significant reduction in the price of the Sunday Ticket, which currently has a full-season price in the $ 300 range. Similarly, an existing streaming service such as ESPN + cannot simply add a Sunday ticket at no extra charge to increase subscribers.
It makes sense. CBS and Fox want people to watch the games on their local markets. If the Sunday ticket becomes too affordable, we’ll see you later until the normal Sunday review of branches in an area.
Although I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of Sherman’s report, I would like to approach it from a different point of view. The NFL signed new contracts with CBS and Fox last year, knowing full well that the clock was ticking on the Sunday Ticket. If the NFL wanted to create a pathway for cheaper access to the Sunday Ticket, it could change the term in CBS and Fox deals.
The NFL didn’t. Supposedly he didn’t want to. CBS and Fox would probably offer much less to the NFL if it really was easier and cheaper for fans to get a ticket for Sunday, even though the games available in the local market through CBS and Fox are overshadowed. The NFL is also positioning itself for a higher salary for the Sunday ticket, given that anyone who wants to will earn significant money for the privilege of watching games other than those offered locally for free.
In other words, the NFL uses the full scope of its antitrust exemption to maximize revenue from CBS, Fox and DirecTV by agreeing and / or imposing conditions that make it more expensive for fans who, for example, live in Jacksonville, but root for Steelers to see all Pittsburgh games.
There are inherent antitrust issues with telling fans that the only way to live in Jacksonville, to see all of the Steelers’ games, would be to purchase the full package of Sunday tickets. Fans should be able to buy a Sunday ticket one game at a time or one week. Instead, it was – and still will be – a significant expense for all fans who do not live in the market where their favorite team plays to follow the only team that attracted them to the NFL in the first place.
Think of this one. The NFL wants you to have a favorite team. But the NFL fine-tunes you to the team you live on, making it much more expensive to see the team you prefer to watch. There was a chance last year to make it cheaper by reviewing the terms that protect local CBS and Fox games, but the NFL didn’t.
So while football is a family, greed is good.
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