Many of us out-of-market viewers depend on the NFL Sunday Ticket package from DirecTV to get our Vikings' fix every Sunday. I, personally, have been a customer since my wife and I moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2006, and have discovered it to be an absolute necessity if you live as far away from the Twin Cities as I do.
Sunday Ticket is also pretty freaking expensive, north of $300 or so for the season. DirecTV generally breaks this up into five different payments that are spread out over the course of the year. With the lockout continuing to threaten the 2011 NFL season, one would think that DirecTV would have a heck of a time charging their customers for this service, particularly if they're not going to be able to provide it.
However, in a stroke of good news, today DirecTV announced that they would not be charging anybody for the NFL Sunday Ticket package until the lockout is resolved.
We at DIRECTV love football. That's why for over 15 years, DIRECTV has been the exclusive home for NFL SUNDAY TICKET™, the only way to watch your favorite teams no matter where you live. And DIRECTV will continue to be the exclusive home for NFL SUNDAY TICKET™. Like all football fans, we are hoping for a positive resolution to the current NFL labor negotiations. And when the NFL is ready to play, we will be ready to bring you every game every Sunday.
If the NFL negotiations result in a shortened or canceled season, rest assured that DIRECTV has you covered. Your subscription to NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ is risk-free: You will not pay for any game that the NFL does not play.*
Then, in the fine print, it says that if your subscription is set for renewal, you will not get charged until there is a confirmed start date for the 2011 season. If you're one of those folks that paid for their Sunday Ticket in advance, you'll get a credit for every week that there are no NFL games.
When one considers that DirecTV is on the hook to the NFL for $1 billion in this matter whether the 2011 NFL season is played or not, one would think that this is a pretty good sign that the folks at DirecTV think that the labor situation will get figured out in time for a full 2011 season to be played.