Next month is the start of a new NFL season, and to make things easy for iOS users, YouTube is offering access to NFL Sunday Ticket via the Apple App Store. It’s a must-have service for football fans as it lets you watch every single game in the league, even if they’re out-of-market.
But there’s a problem: purchasing a subscription on an iPhone or iPad will cost you an eye-watering $679.99 for the annual plan.
These astronomical prices appear to have been initially discovered by John Ourand of the independent news site Puck. In his newsletter, he says that if you want to add NFL Redzone, you’ll have to pay $739.99 a year. People are understandably irate. You can find multiple reports and comments across the internet expressing their shock at the massive price tag.
One X user put it best by simply responding with “Yikes” to the announcement. Fortunately, you do have options. You don’t have to pay nearly $1,000 to just watch American Football.
Deal hunting
Through YouTube TV, audiences can sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket for $479 for the year, spread across four monthly payments of $119.75. You also have the option to bundle the service with a base YouTube TV subscription. That bumps the annual cost up to about $586, spread across four payments of $146.49. It's a bit more expensive, but it’s at least cheaper than the App Store offering.
If you don’t have YouTube TV and don't plan on getting it, you can still purchase Sunday Ticket via the platform’s Primetime Channels, where costs are even lower. At the time of this writing, fans can pay a discounted annual price of $394 for a subscription. The YouTube TV bundle still costs the same.
Cost of doing business
Ourand contacted the NFL to ask why Sunday Ticket is so expensive on iOS. A representative told him that the organization “does not control the pricing of [the service] and does not set or receive any additional fee.” He instead blames Apple’s exorbitant App Store fees. As Tom's Guide points out, the company “takes a 30 percent cut of all sales on” its digital storefront.
YouTube raised prices on iOS to compensate for the cost of doing business on the App Store. To make matters more convoluted, the platform doesn’t allow people to sign up for its service on iPhones or iPads. Tom’s Guide states that YouTube forces users to “follow a link to a web browser” to manage their subscriptions.
If the cost doesn't deter you away from the App Store, the inconvinience probably will. Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best TVs for sports. We cover a wide range of budgets.
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