On this week’s episode of AVWeek I mentioned a deal where you can get NFL Sunday Ticket for your tablet or mobile device. It wasn’t a joke. Here is the deal and why it is an important step; an ingenious step. If you purchase Madden 25 the Anniversary Edition from Amazon, you will get a code that gives you access to NFL Sunday Ticket on your mobile device. The game alone retails for $60. However, if you purchase the Anniversary Edition, which is only available on Amazon, for $100 you receive NFL Sunday Ticket on your mobile devices.
After receiving mine I downloaded the app from the iTunes store and began playing around with it. For a football fan, it is very cool. It gives you updates on all the games happening to the left, allows you access to Red Zone, the NFL channel highlighting the scoring from around the league, and lets you access any game on the NFL Sunday Ticket lineup. A few caveats. One; you cannot access a game that is being played in your market area. A case in point is that the Chicago/Cincinnati game was airing on my local CBS channel yesterday so it was blocked out. Other than that, you can watch anything at all. It also gives you the option to send it to an Apple TV via Airplay. That is huge. Here is why.
One of the reasons the NFL has given for not having a system similar to Major League Baseball’s online/on-demand system is the number of rights contracts it has currently. That makes sense. This is a work around for that situation. See, I have Charter Cable, so the NFL Sunday Ticket isn’t an option for me to buy as it is a DirecTV offering exclusively. With this promotion, it gives me access to something I normally wouldn’t have. With the additional option of allowing the user to put it “on the big screen” if they have an Apple TV, that makes it all the more appealing. The only thing that would make it better is if PS3, XBox, or the Apple TV had apps for the Sunday Ticket. As of this writing, I had not found one.
So, the NFL is finally coming around, albeit slowly, to giving viewers of professional football some on-demand, IPTV-based options without giving up their existing contracts. Whoever came up with this idea deserves a raise. If you haven’t yet purchased Madden 25, and are a football fan, I would encourage you to pick one up. It was a great experience yesterday.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Have a great week. And… Go Bears!