Verizon offers free NFL Sunday Ticket with package

[Skaggs]

Verizon Entices Sports Fans With NFL Sunday Ticket
by David Goetzl, Yesterday, 6:24 PM, Media Post News

Verizon's FiOS telco TV service is taking customers away from cable companies; now, the telecom giant is using its partnership with satellite operator DirecTV to potentially lure more.



It is offering new customers a triple-play package that includes DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket package free for the coming season. Customers do have to agree to a Verizon deal for a year that includes a certain high-speed Internet service and DirecTV for two.

The triple play includes phone, Internet and TV. Bundling the three has been a boon to cable operators.

One version of the Verizon/DirecTV package -- for $120 a month after a rebate -- includes Showtime free and a DirecTV HD DVR service. The Sunday Ticket package, which offers every NFL game each Sunday, is valued at $300 a month.

New customers who sign up for versions of the package also get a free Compaq netbook or Flip camcorder. That offer has been in place for more than a month.

The Sunday Ticket deal is in markets where Verizon does not offer FiOS.

[Skaggs]

DirecTV: Sunday Ticket Isn't Actually 'Free' With Verizon DSL Bundles
Satellite Operator Says Subs Will Be Paying For Out-Of-Market Football Package
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 7/31/2009 1:57:26 PM EDT

While Verizon is positioning DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket as a free extra -- "valued at $299.95," according to the telco -- for customers who sign up for certain DSL-based bundles, the satellite operator says subscribers will, in fact, be paying for the exclusive football package.

NFL Sunday Ticket "is part of the bundle and it's a great offer," but the package "is not a free add-on as it was being characterized in the press," DirecTV director of public relations Robert Mercer wrote in an e-mail.

Mercer said "subs are paying for the Ticket," but that DirecTV cannot disclose details of how the various components of the bundle are priced.

On Wednesday, Verizon -- in a bid to breathe life into its sagging DSL business -- announced that customers who sign up for a bundle with 3- or 7.1-Mbps DSL Internet, the Freedom Essentials calling plan and DirecTV's Plus HD DVR for $119.99 per month for one year (after a rebate) "will also get 2009 NFL Sunday Ticket only on DirecTV (valued at $299.95)."

The offer also extends to subs who take the DirecTV standard-definition DVR for $109.99 per month as part of the bundle.

Verizon, asked for clarification on the Sunday Ticket offer, said the characterization of the NFL package as included for "free" with certain bundles was "100% accurate."

To qualify for the bundles, customers must sign a one-year Verizon commitment and a two-year DirecTV agreement that includes a hardware lease. Verizon expects the Sunday Ticket promotion to extend through September.

In addition to the football package, Verizon is proffering 12 months free access to Showtime, plus either a Compaq Mini netbook or a Flip Ultra camcorder, to new DSL customers who take the 3- or 7.1-Mbps tiers, DirecTV and phone service. All told, the value of the "free" incentives offered with the telco's newest DSL-based triple-play bundles is as much as $750.

DirecTV earlier this year agreed to pay $4 billion to extend its exclusive deal with the National Football League to offer more than 200 out-of-market games per season to subscribers.

[xzi]

They've been running this deal for a few years now, it's "free" if you pay for 5 months of their most expensive package for a year. Now they are just bundling that with DSL it sound like.

It's "free" like 50 hours of AOL was free for $19.99/month. It's not.