NFL teams are getting ready for the 2023 season with training camp and NFL preseason games, but fans need to get ready too to make sure they have the best possible setup for watching their team every week. A long-time key for that is NFL Sunday Ticket, which lets fans watch all out-of-market NFL games every weekend. With its new home on YouTube/YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket will have a number of new features for fans to enjoy this year.
A blog post introduced six features that YouTube is touting for this upcoming season: a new monthly payment plan, an upcoming student plan, various multiview options, live chat & polls, key plays and real-time highlights available in the YouTube Shorts player.
The first big change is the introduction of a monthly payment plan for NFL Sunday Ticket, just one of the NFL Sunday Ticket deals available for subscribers this year. The basic way to sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket is to sign up for the entire season, ranging from $349-$489. Instead of having to pay all of that money up front, football fans can spread the payment out over the course of the season. However, monthly payment plans will not be available in all states — consumers in Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New York, New Jersey and Tennessee will have to pay the entire bill right away.
Another payment feature YouTube is going to offer is an NFL Sunday Ticket student plan. This is something that NFL Sunday Ticket has offered in the past, but until this announcement had not been confirmed by YouTube. No specifics were immediately available, but YouTube said that it would share pricing and more info "within the next week," so that should be by Wednesday, August 23.
The multiview option is something that YouTube introduced earlier in 2023, allowing sports fans to watch up to four games at once on both YouTube and YouTube TV. That capability will be added to NFL Sunday Ticket, with subscribers able to choose from an assortment of multiview combinations each week, including the ability to watch NFL RedZone as one of the options (if you signed up for the Sunday Ticket package that includes NFL RedZone). On YouTube TV, you can also include your local game broadcast alongside out-of-market games available via Sunday Ticket.
YouTube's live chat and polls features will also be available for those watching games on their mobile and TV devices. YouTube adds that it plans to incorporate NFL Shop integrations in the future.
The YouTube TV key plays feature is going to be available for those watching NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube, which allows viewers to see the biggest plays of the game if they are either joining a game late or watching it after it's been completed. For this season, the key plays feature is only going to be available when watching YouTube on TV.
All YouTube viewers will be able to watch highlight plays from all the games as they are happening with YouTube Shorts, but NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers are going to be able to click directly on the red "Live" ring around these videos to allow them to start immediately watching the game on YouTube.
YouTube says that all of these features will be ready for NFL week 1, which takes place on September 10.
