NFL talking to Google -- could Sunday Ticket go to YouTube?

Google can also use it as the centerpiece of a five-year strategy in a way that DirecTV probably can't.

 

Sunday Ticket started three months after DirecTV's launch date in 1994. It means a great deal to DirecTV, especially the commercial market.

 

There's actually only a handful of UT and KU football games on between the two, but there's a hell of a lot of clamoring going on in KC right now about what cable systems will allow people to see Andrew Wiggins' college debut. Google Fiber is one that will carry it.

 

I don't know how anyone can justify having DirecTV unless they get NFL Ticket. It's considerably more expensive than Dish and Time Warner and it's only a good deal if you're in the first year of a promotion. Of course, that's what they're banking on, people getting it for the promo year and then being too lazy to switch. There are also places in the sticks that can't get regular cable, so that might be the best option for them as well.

 

I've had DirecTV for a few years and only had Sunday Ticket one of those, and that season it was comped. When we switched DirecTV was cheaper, offered a lot more sports than Dish, and I'm not just talking about Sunday Ticket, and had a way, way better DVR. The customer service is also about 10 times better. Every guy Dish ever sent to my house was super creepy and made me feel like he was casing the joint. DirecTV techs have all been great.

 

It's the opposite where I am. I was with DirecTV for about a decade, but the prices kept going up and we got a pretty sweet promotional deal to switch to Dish. To get the channels I'm getting now on Dish would cost me $40 more a month on DirecTV. But like you said, sometimes it just depends on where you are...

 

I don't doubt that if I shopped around and looked for the best deal Dish or one of the cable companies might come in cheaper, but DirecTV hasn't done anything to lose our business so we haven't really given much thought to switching.

One really smart thing Direct does is the way they deal with people moving, which would naturally be a time people might look at their other options. But DirecTV makes the process of switching to a new address so painless and throws a bunch of freebies at you when you move most people don't even consider switching.

 

I'm guessing we're about one contract negotiation cycle away from this actually happening.

 

That would be my guess too and who knows what kind of technology Google might have by then. We might all be watching games on our Google Glass or projecting them from our phones to the nearest white wall.

 

Do people not realize that just because it's web based that it shouldn't preclude you from utilizing your 60-inch screen TV? Just because Google got this (even if it went through YouTube, and it probably won't), you can still watch it on your big screen with minimal set up.

 

I spent $35 on a Chromecast device and now 80 percent of what I watch on my big-screen entertainment system is via online.

That said, I wonder, in all seriousness, if the "Information Superhighway" (Hi, Al Gore!) can actually hold all the data that would need to be streamed if a majority of NFL viewers were watching games online.

 

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what's happening. As anybody who already has the technology can attest to, you can already watch YouTube on your 60 inch TV.

Earlier, MizzouGrad mentioned people having to scramble to buy an Apple TV or a gaming device to watch. That is an observation based on the current reality which, of course, will soon change. Apple has been rumored to be working on a TV that will integrate these kind of devices into the TV itself.

It doesn't take long to figure out the next big media movement:

1. Google Fiber increasing internet speeds, all but eliminating "lag" on streamed media.
2. Devices that stream media to your TV; TVs subsequently built to show online streamed media without needing a middle man device.
3. Companies that stream media competing for broadcast rights as their abilities to deliver viewers increase.

It's an inevitable transition that will change broadcasting in the same way the internet changed newspapers. Just my opinion.