Game Pass price reduced.... features added

[George Cantstandya]

(09-08-2020, 01:51 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Exactly.

Methinks they are in a bad deal with DirecTV. DirecTV won't even offer Sunday Ticket separate unless you can't get DirecTV where you live.
Luckily, the NFL's deal with DirecTV is set to expire after the 2022 season, so hopefully we see a true streaming option in 2023.

Amazon has been getting involved with streaming NFL games.  They have bought in to a bunch of Thursday games again this year.  They are streaming 11 games this year, same as the last 2 years.  With their assets and the popularity of Prime, I would not be shocked to see them try to get more involved when the DirecTV contract expires.  Maybe an add package to Prime members for a Sunday Ticket type package.  They already offer other Prime upgrades for premium channels like HBO, Showtime and Starz paid by the month.

A quick web search shows there are over 150 million Prime members vs. an estimated 16.3 million DirecTV members (and seem to be losing members fast). So Amazon already has a much larger customer base to market it to than DirecTV by a long shot. Plus it would be incentive to get nonmembers to sign up with Prime so they could purchase the package.  I can see that large of a market reach being inviting to the NFL so they can get their cut.

I wouldn't buy a package like that myself as I'm already in the Bengals local broadcast area and don't care about watching other teams that much.  But for others it would probably be inviting.  Especially if they offered separate packages.  Say a 1 team only package at a reduced cost and an expanded Sunday Ticket type package at a higher cost.

Edit: After my post I did a little more looking. It seems the NFL may already be exploring options for 2023 with Amazon and Disney.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonogus/2019/04/23/the-nfl-is-reportedly-in-discussions-with-amazon-and-disney-for-the-sunday-ticket-streaming-rights