NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube estimated to cost around $300 per season

Ben Schoon | Dec 27 2022 - 10:30 am PT

In case you missed the news last week, Google announced that it had landed a deal with the National Football League to launch NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV starting in 2023, but a price was never mentioned. What will Sunday Ticket cost NFL fans on YouTube TV? A new estimate gives us an idea of what to expect.

NFL Sunday Ticket first launched in the 90’s on DirecTV, a satellite TV provider. The package allows NFL fans to watch games from their favorite teams when they are “out of market,” meaning games not played in their local region.

Starting with the 2023 season, though, NFL Sunday Ticket will depart DirecTV for the first time and instead move over to YouTube Primetime Channels and YouTube TV. It’s a landmark deal and genuinely exciting for fans of the sport, but the question remains on what price NFL Sunday Ticket will land on through YouTube.

Peter King from NBC Sports reported recently that an estimate of the price that NFL fans will have to pay for Sunday Ticket through YouTube will land “in the neighborhood” of $300 per season.

At first glance, that may sound like a high price to pay, but if it turns out to be true, it would actually be considerably cheaper than the previous DirecTV offer. NFL Sunday Ticket was bundled into DirecTV plans which start at $79/month. That adds up to around $400 over the five months of football season, not counting additional charges and the upfront costs associated with getting set up with satellite TV. The standalone package for NFL Sunday Ticket that streamed on the web also cost around $400.

Of course, YouTube TV subscribers could see similar numbers with Sunday Ticket as an add-on. The core service already runs $65/month, and Sunday Ticket surely won’t be free in that existing charge. But through YouTube Primetime Channels, for fans who simply want to watch games and nothing more, this deal could potentially be a huge money-saver. It’s not clear, but we expect Sunday Ticket to cost more through Primetime Channels than it would through YouTube TV.

King’s report brings out that YouTube TV is more likely to innovate on the experience of viewing NFL games through Sunday Ticket, on top of making it much easier to access compared to DirecTV. We’ve already seen this to some extent, with YouTube TV previously adding sports-centric features including integration with NFL Fantasy Football. King also proposes the idea of a single-team subscription that could be more affordable, something the NFL has allegedly considered in the past.

The price that NFL Sunday Ticket costs on YouTube and YouTube TV remains to be officially confirmed, but if this estimate turns out to be true, it could be a win for everyone.

In another report by Seeking Alpha citing analyst Colin Sebastian, it was estimated that YouTube TV would need to break 2.25 million subscribers to sign up for Sunday Ticket to “break even” on the investment. As of July 2022, YouTube TV had five million subscribers and trialers.