Free NFL Sunday Ticket On DirectTV Not For Existing Clients

Congratulations DirectTV on helping us all celebrate the end of the lockout by continuing to offer free NFL Sunday Ticket this fall. Yes, you heard it right folks; sign up for a 2 year channel package and your first year of NFL Ticket is free. That’s a pretty good deal and one that I was more than willing to jump right into; only, I’m already a member. How can this deal work for me?

I was delighted to go through the five-minute voice selection process just to talk to a real person about this. Finally, I spoke to a representative on the phone to get my great deal. To my dismay, this plan is only for new clients; existing clients cannot take part of this amazing deal. So then I asked if I cancel my subscription to DirectTV can I sign up again and then get free NFL Sunday Ticket. He stated that I can certainly do that, but I would have to wait 2 years to be recognized as a new client. To add insult to injury he did offer me 3 months of Cinemax or Stars for free; and we all know how much football is airing on these channels.

Leaving clients out of newbie deals like this is just the perfect way to do business if you want to anger your current client base. This is certainly not the first time Direct TV has done this, but this is by far the biggest slap in the face for existing clients. I’m sure they realize it will piss off a few clients but I’m betting very few will migrate; and DirectTV is betting on this too. NFL Sunday Ticket is only offered on DirectTV so where else are the die-hard football fans going to go? As long as there is this monopoly, someone will lose; in this case it’s the existing subscribers.

Monopoly laws were passed to protect the consumer and allow them the privilege of choice, yet decades after these laws began to really take effect, businesses are still able to get around these laws with exclusive licenses. These exclusive licenses deals are made behind closed doors, with companies offering God-knows-what to maintain these relationships year after year. The National Football League is supposed to be America’s pastime; seems to me it should be available to everyone for free… or at least to me since I’m regrettably still a DirectTV client.