• by Wayne Friedman , April 12, 2023

Looking to help foot the new bill of $2 billion a year for the rights to air NFL Sunday Ticket (as well as NFL Red Zone), YouTube is increasing regular pricing by around 16% to 20% versus what consumers paid to DirecTV this past season.

Subscribers to virtual pay TV service YouTube TV will see a price tag of $349 for NFL Sunday Ticket. Adding in the NFL Red Zone package, the price will rise to $389. 

“NFL Sunday Ticket” is the NFL's out-of-market package of games. 

NFL Red Zone features eight games airing at once, in eight screen boxes of video content.

The package touts that it airs every touchdown from every game every Sunday afternoon during the regular season -- seven non-stop hours of live programming.

In addition, YouTube TV has raised its package of more than 100 channels to $72.99/month from $64.99/month.

Last NFL season, DirecTV pricing for Sunday Ticket was around $300. Adding in the NFL Red Zone as well as a fantasy-focused channel to Sunday Ticket boosted the price tag to around $400/month. Some DirecTV subscribers also received Sunday Ticket for free this past season.

The least expensive DirecTV package is $64.99/month -- slightly lower than a comparable YouTube TV package.

For those subscribers who are not subscribers of virtual pay TV provider YouTube TV, the regular-season price of NFL Sunday Ticket -- through YouTube Primetime Channels --  will be $449 for the season. Adding in the NFL Red Zone, will push pricing to  $489 for the season.

YouTube TV's deal with the NFL Sunday Ticket and Red Zone has a duration of seven years.

According to reports, the deal amounts to YouTube paying an average of $2 billion a year to the NFL.