YouTube TV is bringing a fan-favorite feature to NFL Sunday Ticket
Condensed replays will let you watch games in under an hour
If you want to watch every NFL regular season game, NFL Sunday Ticket is your only option. And this year, the service is going to YouTubeTV after spending its past seasons on DirecTV.
But even though Sunday Ticket is leaving DirecTV, it looks like it will bring one of its best features with it — condensed replays. In response to a recent Reddit post in the r/youtubetv subreddit, a YouTube TV engineer confirmed that the DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket feature would be coming to the YouTube TV version as well (h/t/ 9to5Google). Unfortunately, we don’t yet know any details beyond the fact that condensed replays are coming.
Condensed replays considerably shorten the length of the average game. By removing time between plays, commercials, etc. these replays can often clock in at just 30-40 minutes rather than the typical three hours an NFL telecast takes or even the 60 minutes of game clock in an NFL game.
So, if you’re in a fantasy football league or just a diehard football fan, this feature could make it so you can watch every single game without sacrificing your entire week.
The NFL also has its own version of this feature that you can get through its streaming service called NFL Plus. With NFL Plus, you can watch or listen to live local and primetime regular season games provided they are available in your local TV marker, and then with NFL Plus Premium, you also get access to NFL game replays.
These replays are available as full or condensed replays that are available “right after the conclusion of the applicable game's telecast.” Right now, you can sign up for NFL Plus Premium for just $9.99 for the entire season — the same as what it costs per month.
So condensed replays on NFL Sunday Ticket could simply be the same condensed replays from NFL Plus Premium. Or it could be a suped-up version of watching Key plays, an existing YouTube TV feature that allows you to catch up on a live game by watching a playlist of highlights until you are caught up to the live broadcast. YouTube TV could simply use Key Plays to generate its condensed replays, rather than relying on the NFL’s condensed replays.
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That said, YouTube TV should just focus on making sure its streams are working, as a YouTube TV NBA Finals glitch hit some during the last minute of the final game, with only one point separating the teams.
NFL Sunday Ticket pricing
For a standard Sunday Ticket TV subscription, you'll sign up through YouTube Primetime Channels, where it costs $449 per season.
If you subscribe to YouTube TV, Sunday Ticket will cost less: just $349. You can also add NFL RedZone for just $40 more.
Header Cell - Column 0 | Without NFL RedZone | With NFL RedZone |
---|---|---|
YouTube TV subscribers pay: | $349 | $389 |
Non-subscribers pay: | $449 | $489 |
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Malcolm McMillan is a senior writer for Tom's Guide, covering all the latest in streaming TV shows and movies. That means news, analysis, recommendations, reviews and more for just about anything you can watch, including sports! If it can be seen on a screen, he can write about it. Previously, Malcolm had been a staff writer for Tom's Guide for over a year, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI), A/V tech and VR headsets.
Before writing for Tom's Guide, Malcolm worked as a fantasy football analyst writing for several sites and also had a brief stint working for Microsoft selling laptops, Xbox products and even the ill-fated Windows phone. He is passionate about video games and sports, though both cause him to yell at the TV frequently. He proudly sports many tattoos, including an Arsenal tattoo, in honor of the team that causes him to yell at the TV the most.