Are you as big of a pro football fan as money expert Clark Howard?
If so, adding NFL Sunday Ticket to your streaming life is probably on your to-do list as pigskin season approaches. And we have some potentially money-saving news on that front.
Verizon just announced that it will be providing new and existing customers an opportunity to receive free or discounted NFL Sunday Ticket subscriptions during the 2023 NFL season.
However, there are some strings attached: You’ll need a YouTube TV subscription and certain Verizon plans.
These offers also have some very specific hoops you have to jump through hidden in the fine print. And if you miss those hoops, you could be left paying as much as $449 for the football streaming package. Yikes!
Let’s take a look at the details to see if it’s a good fit for you.
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Verizon Offers Free NFL Sunday Ticket to Select Customers
Beginning July 27, 2023, both new and existing Verizon customers will have an opportunity to claim free NFL Sunday Ticket.
There are three different types of customers who could qualify for this perk:
Each of these have different requirements in order to receive the new perk. And there are some pretty specific things called out in the fine print of the offers.
The most important of those being: Verizon can charge you for the full value of an annual NFL Sunday Ticket subscription ($449) if you do not maintain your qualifying Verizon subscription through February 29, 2024.
Let’s look a little closer at the “ask” from Verizon for each group of customers who qualify for this promotion.
How New Verizon Mobile Customers Can Get Sunday Ticket
- Purchase a qualifying new phone from Verizon (One of: Samsung Galaxy S23 Series, Galaxy Z Flip5 or the Galaxy Z Fold5; Google Pixel Fold, Pixel 7 or 7 Pro; Motorola Edge+.)
- Subscribe to Verizon’s Unlimited Plus plan
- Sign up for YouTube TV ($73 per month) with a Google account and maintain subscription for the duration of the NFL season
- Redeem offer within 60 days of signup
- Maintain your Verizon subscription through at least February 29, 2024
How New Verizon Home Internet Customers Can Get Sunday Ticket
- Subscribe to Verizon’s home internet with one of the following plans: Fios 1 Gig, Fios 2 Gig, 5G Home Plus and LTE Home Plus
- Sign up for YouTube TV with a Google account ($73 per month) and maintain subscription for the duration of the NFL season
- Redeem offer within 60 days of signup
- Maintain your Verizon subscription through at least February 29, 2024
How Existing Verizon Mobile Customers Can Get Sunday Ticket
There are two different ways that existing mobile customers can get in on this promotion:
- Subscribers who are on a tier lower can upgrade to Unlimited Plus
- Unlimited Plus subscribers can add an additional line to their subscription
Once you meet one of those upgrade qualifications, you’ll still need to follow steps 3 through 5 listed above for new customers. That includes subscribing to YouTube TV.
Keep reading for another offer that will not require a change to your existing plan.
NFL Sunday Ticket Discount Opportunity for Existing Verizon Customers
If you’re an existing Verizon customer who is not looking to make the upgrades necessary to obtain the free Sunday Ticket offer, you may still be able to enjoy a discount for the 2023 season.
Verizon also announced that it will be offering $100 discount on NFL Sunday Ticket for all existing mobile subscribers beginning August 11, 2023.
This discount will be available through an offer accessible on Verizon’s +play platform.
Unfortunately, this offer also requires a YouTube TV subscription and cannot be combined with any discounts offered by YouTube.
What Is NFL Sunday Ticket?
After years of being an exclusive DIRECTV product, Google-owned YouTube TV purchased the streaming rights to the popular football package.
If you’re not a hardcore football fan, you may be wondering what this package is and why it is a big deal.
Since 1994, NFL Sunday Ticket has offered fans a chance to watch every out-of-market NFL football game during Sunday afternoons.
Here’s how the league describes the service:
“Consisting of all out-of-market Sunday regular-season NFL games (based on viewer’s location) broadcast on FOX and CBS, NFL Sunday Ticket allows fans in the United States the ability to follow all their favorite teams and players no matter where they live.”
So, for example, if you live in Atlanta you know that the Falcons are broadcasted on either your local FOX or CBS channel most Sundays. That’s great if you’re a Falcons fan, but pretty crummy if you’re a fan of the Seattle Seahawks living in Atlanta.
NFL Sunday Ticket is a way for that Seahawks fan in Atlanta to watch their favorite team’s game live. And they’ll get all the other out-of-market NFL games on their device as well.
This package does not include Amazon’s Thursday Night Football, NBC’s Sunday Night Football or ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcasts.
However, the good news is that YouTube TV’s base package includes the channels that broadcast Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football. So if you buy the NFL Sunday Ticket from them in 2023, you’d only be an Amazon Prime subscription short of having access to every NFL game each week.
Final Thoughts
If you’re an NFL fan, a subscription to the Sunday Ticket package is a pretty valuable perk. So people who are already considering using Verizon could score big with this deal.
But it’s not for everyone. This promotion has quite a few ways that it could “go wrong” for consumers.
Before you commit, I recommend checking our cell phone plan guide and our live TV streaming guide to determine if Verizon and YouTube TV are even the right choices for you.
If they aren’t, it makes little sense to commit to both products for the sake of a freebie on NFL Sunday Ticket.
Instead, you may find the more financially prudent thing to do is subscribe to cheaper wireless, streaming and internet providers and then put those monthly savings towards paying for the NFL Sunday Ticket plan.
Remember, you don’t have to be a YouTube TV subscriber nor a Verizon customer to pay for this subscription.
Will you be purchasing NFL Sunday Ticket for the 2023 NFL season? Did you get a bargain? We’d love to hear about it in the Clark.com community.
