Roku

Roku launches new ‘NFL Zone,’ but it doesn’t support YouTube TV’s Sunday Ticket

Ben Schoon | Sep 12 2023 - 8:02 am PT

As Week 1 of the NFL season kicks off, Roku is rolling out a new “NFL Zone” on its devices with support for showing upcoming games and where to watch them, but it’s notably missing NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube.

Roku’s new NFL Zone appears within the “Roku Sports” experience and is designed to help fans keep track of upcoming games. The feature integrates with the NFL App and NFL Channel to let viewers stream select games such as with the NFL+ subscription. Game previews, highlights, and more are also available through NFL Zone.

Roku explains in a press release:

Today, Roku and the National Football League (NFL) announced the recently launched NFL Zone within the Roku Sports experience to kick off the 2023 NFL season. This strategic partnership between Roku and the NFL marks the first official league-branded zone within Roku’s Sports experience. Available now, the NFL Zone offers football fans a centralized location to find live and upcoming games, so they can spend less time figuring out where to watch the game and more time rooting for their favorite teams. Users can also tune in for weekly game previews, League highlights, and additional NFL content, all within the zone.

The feature seems genuinely useful for fans, but it is notably missing a key element of NFL streaming. Google reached a deal with the NFL this season to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket via YouTube and YouTube TV, which provides out-of-market games to fans for the entire season. Roku’s new NFL Zone, though, lacks any sort of integration with Sunday Ticket, the company confirmed to 9to5Google. While that won’t prevent Roku owners from using Sunday Ticket via the YouTube and/or YouTube TV apps, it’s a shame that there’s no integration with NFL Zone’s lists of games and such.