YouTube is adding useful new features and more payment methods to NFL Sunday Ticket

The 2023 NFL season is just around the corner, and for fans like myself that don’t want to miss a single minute of a single game (watching my Tennessee Titans, that is), the anticipation is real. With NFL Sunday Ticket now being on YouTube and YouTube TV, the experience is only set to get better for a wider audience than ever.

In case you didn’t already know, Sunday Ticket – the service that allows you to watch all out of market NFL games on demand – finally left the clutches of DirecTV and landed with YouTube and YouTube TV. This change means you don’t have to sign up for satellite TV service any longer to enjoy Sunday Ticket and being able to watch or record your favorite team each Sunday. If you are anything like me, you’ve likely been waiting a very long time for a true internet-first version of Sunday Ticket and have been jumping through hoops for years waiting on something like this to finally take shape.

Honestly, the arrival of Sunday Ticket on YouTube is big enough, giving me the ability to watch all the football I want in or out of the home while being able to DVR any game and watch back at my leisure. But it seems Google and YouTube are already looking to kick up the experience a notch before we even get started, introducing new features for watching and new payment plans for taking care of the financial bits. It’s all good stuff, so let’s look at six new features already coming to NFL Sunday Ticket before it even launches.

Flexible payment plans

First up, as a response to some feedback YouTube has received, there will soon be options to skip the more daunting one-time payments. YouTube has announced new monthly payment plans for NFL Sunday Ticket, and soon, viewers in most states will be able to spread their subscription costs over several months instead of making one larger payment. This is rolling out soon, so be on the lookout for it unless you live in Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, or Tennessee. Those states will only have the option for the one-time, lump sum payment.

Special student plans for Sunday Ticket

With the new school year in swing, college students should watch out for the launch of special student plans for NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube, tailor-made for those attending school. In the past, this has led to solid discounts on the overall price of Sunday Ticket, so I’d imagine that’s what we’ll see this year as well. YouTube hasn’t stated what those terms will be, so keep an eye on the main Sunday Ticket page for those prices and conditions in the coming weeks.

Expanded multi-view options

Since its introduction in March for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (where it was epic), YouTube’s multiview feature has been slowly getting better over time. This NFL season, NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers on YouTube will be getting a slew of multiview combinations, letting those who add on RedZone experience a massive blend of both live games and curated, real-time highlights.

Furthermore, YouTube TV users will be able to mix local NFL broadcasts right in with their NFL Sunday Ticket games, giving them the ultimate flexibility to avoid regional blackout rules. Even better, those who opt to not subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket won’t miss out on the multiview action, allowing for side-by-side viewing of both NFL and college football games on standard channels.

Live chat and live polls

YouTube is taking game-day interactions to the next level, too. Soon, NFL Sunday Ticket viewers on mobile and TV platforms will be able to jump into live chats and polls. How this will work on a TV is not quite clear, but live chat on a mobile phone could be pretty epic if it is done right. I know I frequently look to cheer or jeer with other people while watching a game (that’s a lot of what sports are all about, right?), and adding polls and chats could give viewers a solid place to use some of that fan energy.

Catch up via Key Plays

Borrowing a feature from YouTube TV that I love, YouTube is introducing Key Plays to NFL Sunday Ticket, too. Whether you need a quick catch-up or want to relive the game’s pivotal moments without watching the entire thing, Key Plays will be available on YouTube when you need it.

I’d imagine this will be a huge hit for the Fantasy Football enthusiasts out there, and I now it will be a much better way for fans like myself to see a bit more of the league than just my team each week. For now, this will be exclusively on TVs this season, but I’d hope we’ll see it expand to mobile devices and onto the web in the coming years.

Instant highlights via YouTube Shorts

Finally, those who enjoy instant replay snippets of any game are in for what looks like a treat. YouTube Shorts will soon showcase real-time highlights from all NFL matches. Spotting these highlights will be easy, too, thanks to a distinctive red “Live” ring that will appear around the NFL channel avatar. Of all the features being added, this one might be the one I’m looking most forward too!

And though this all sounds frankly amazing, YouTube makes it sound like this is just the beginning. The team behind the scenes at YouTube and YouTube TV seem 100% committed to delivering what the fans want, continually updating based on early feedback. September 10th – kickoff day – can’t get here soon enough, and I along with many of you can’t wait to take all of these great new features for a drive!