"Small skirmish" emerges between NFL and YouTube TV over Sunday Ticket
The honeymoon is over before the marriage was even officially consummated.
Just days before Sunday Ticket debuts on YouTube TV, a "small skirmish" has emerged over the ability to sell Sunday Ticket in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (For the folks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, it surely does not feel small.)
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reports that YouTube TV has told the NFL that it will not be able to make Sunday Ticket available in those markets until November at the earliest. However, YouTube TV also is reportedly preventing DirecTV from making the package available to homes in those markets until YouTube TV can launch it.
DirecTV will be making Sunday Ticket available in restaurants and bars in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through a deal with EverPass Media.
Frankly, and at the risk of getting a nasty email from someone and/or having "technical difficulties" arise when my son tries to watch Sunday Ticket from the PFT barn this weekend, YouTube TV should put the consumers first on this issue. If YouTube TV can't make the service available in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, it should allow DirecTV to do so.
But just like the Disney-Charter fight, the customer gets caught in the crossfire. Thus, while we are rarely accused of throwing full support behind the league office on many/any issues, we're #Team345 on this one.
Do the right thing, YouTube. Let the customers you're not able to service get the service from someone who can.
