With its rights fees steadily creeping up on an eight-year, $12 billion deal signed with the National Football League in October 2014, AT&T will raise the price of its NFL Sunday Ticket package by 9.3% to $281.94 next season.
Those who subscribe to the package after Sept. 9 will pay even more, coughing up an additional 2.4%
DirecTV watchdog TV Predictions was the first to spot the increases in Sunday Ticket orders currently being solicited by AT&T.
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DirecTV has been offering its Sunday Ticket package since 1994. The product allows viewers to tune into every live NFL game on Sunday afternoon. DirecTV contemplated not renewing its contract back in ’14, but AT&T made the issue a nonstarter during its acquisition of the satellite operator that year.
AT&T ultimately agreed to an eight-year deal, paying an average of $1.5 billion per season to the NFL. DirecTV’s previous agreement averaged out to around $1 billion per season.
Beyond the price increase for the Sunday Ticket based package, the premium “Sunday Ticket Max” product is also getting a 5% price increase to $377.94 a month. Max packages Sunday Ticket with the NFL’s Red Zone Channel and the DirecTV Fantasy channel.
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In December, AT&T told DirecTV customers that it would raise prices of eight of its nine base packages by $2 to $6.
“Due to higher costs of programming, an adjustment in the price of our programming packages is necessary. New rates will be in effect on January 22, 2017,” AT&T said in a memo to customers.
The “Select” package, which includes over 145 channels and is promotionally priced at $50 a month for one year, saw its regular price spike by $2. The “Choice” package, which bundles over 175 channels, went up by $4 a month.
Meanwhile, the top-level “Preferred Xtra,” “Xtra,” “Ultimate” and Premier each went up by $6 a month.
DirecTV also raised its regional sports network fee to as much as $2.56 a month in select markets.