End Of An Era: DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket Run Is Officially Over
The end of the NFL Regular Season is a very bittersweet time for football fans. For fans of teams who make the playoffs, they are one step closer to turning the dream of winning the Super Bowl into a reality. For fans of teams who miss the playoffs, the harsh reality of a slow, long offseason has arrived.
As fans, we get in such a routine for four months that leads up to that 1 PM ET kickoff each and every Sunday. And once the games begin, it goes by very quickly. Since 1994, millions of people around the country have watched their Sunday football through the DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Package. For a varying price (that was certainly worth it every year), fans could watch NFL games out-of-market at their leisure.
Stuck in Cleveland and want to watch a couple of winning teams? Don't worry, a showdown between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning is just three channels away. You're a Kansas City Chiefs fan, but Patrick Mahomes is on his bye week? You can put on any other game you want.
That was the case for DirecTV customers for the last few decades, but starting next season, that will no longer be the case. In case you missed it, the NFL Sunday Ticket package will be exclusively moving to YouTube TV starting with the 2023 season…
A true end of an era for football fans. Channels 700-720 on DirecTV were the core of our Sundays for so, so long, but that will no longer be the case.
And shoutout to Andrew Siciliano, too. I know Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter aren't the biggest fans, but hearing his voice each week meant football was on at the time, and that resulted in automatic happiness.
Siciliano and Scott Hanson are both FANTASTIC at their jobs. While I haven't seen anything official just yet, it seems like next year, Hanson is going to be hosting the lone version of the NFL RedZone Channel (AKA, the greatest invention in sports media history). Could we see the two split duties or even split 1 PM games and 4 PM games? Maybe that's an option as well.
We'll still see Siciliano on our TV's over at NFL Network, but his appearances each Sunday in the fall for the last 18 years were always fantastic.
RIP, NFL Sunday Ticket. There were some good memories, and there were some technical difficulties in between. You will be missed (by some).
