Approaching the halfway point in its first season with NFL Sunday Ticket, YouTube has slashed the price of its prized football media property.
The Google-owned streamer lowered the base package of Sunday Ticket to $174 from $349, and its version with NFL RedZone included to $194 from $389. Further, the plan through YouTube Primetime Channels is reduced to $224 from $449, with the RedZone included package on Primetime Channels going to $244 from $489, according to TV Answer Man.
The price reduction comes after YouTube experienced its first major technical glitch related to Sunday Ticket during Week 8 of the NFL regular season.
During the 1 p.m. ET window, YouTube experienced widespread buffering problems across its products, including YouTube TV and Sunday Ticket. Before that, YouTube’s presentation of the NFL’s out-of-market games had gone mainly without a hitch.
However, while the price reduction could be seen as a reaction to the bad press, it’s likely something YouTube was already planning.
In September, YouTube chief business officer Mary Ellen Coe told Deadline that a prorated subscription with fewer games remaining was “in the mix” for the steamer. “Ultimately, we want to make sure that pricing is relative to what the user-value proposition is,” she said.
YouTube is paying $14 billion for seven years of exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package. Per a recent report, investment bank Morgan Stanley does not expect it to be profitable for Google but could improve its profitability over time.
