The exorbitant price of Sunday tickets has always been a nuisance for hardcore NFL fans who want to catch all the games or their favorite team out of the market.

Sunday ticket prices were even the subject of a lawsuit in 2024. And while it initially seemed like a jury’s verdict would upend the industry by ruling against it, the league found an antitrust violation by keeping the price high and refusing to offer options to individual teams to offer, among other restrictions for the time the service was available on DirecTV. However, the judge in the case overturned the verdict after finding that the jury used erroneous testimony to determine the amount of damages that could have cost the NFL billions.

For the 2024 season, YouTube TV charged fans $479 for Sunday ticket ($519 for the RedZone channel) for non-subscribers. If you were a YouTube TV subscriber, you got $100 off $379 for the premium content (total $423 at RedZone). Of course, that discount was reversed when YouTube TV announced a massive price increase from $10 per month in 2025, all the way up to $82.99 per month.

But as Week 18 begins, leaders at Google and the NFL have heard your concerns about affordability and accessibility and are offering the final week of Sunday Ticket at the low price of $4.99.

Great contact with new fans and kind of an olive branch considering how much excitement there has been about the high prices, right?

Not so fast, my friend.

Let’s start with the Week 18 schedule for Sunday Ticket. As the NFL offers more and more exclusive games on networks and streaming platforms, the value of Sunday Ticket is drastically decreasing. And that’s especially true since there’s so little to gain in the final week of the playoffs this year, with the best games all moved to the national windows.

ESPN and ABC will get two AFC North games with playoff implications on Saturday as part of the extended flex scheduling between Browns-Ravens and Bengals-Steelers. These games will decide the AFC North champions and whether or not the Bengals still have a chance at the final Wild Card slot.

The biggest game of Week 18, the Vikings-Lions duel for the NFC North crown and No. 1 seed, will be broadcast nationally in prime time on NBC Football on Sunday evenings.

There are only two more playoff spots up for grabs. First up is the NFC South champion, which will be determined in the division games between the Falcons and Panthers or Saints and Buccaneers. The Bucs are in the driver’s seat in the division, but the fact that Fox is sending its top crew of Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady to see if Spencer Rattler and the 5-11 Saints can play spoilsport is a sign of how The team is weak on Sunday.

In the AFC, the Broncos have a win-and-get-in game against the 15-1 Chiefs, who have already agreed to start Carson Wentz and rest Patrick Mahomes. Feel the excitement!

It feels like offering the player’s jersey that was just 75% off at the local sports store.

The downside to the massive discount is that it leaves annual subscribers wondering how and why they spend so much money on the service when it can be given away so cheaply. If you could pay $4.99 per week for the entire season, the Sunday Ticket season subscription would cost just under $90…nowhere near $500.

Is the message to fans that they’ll get an incredible, fan-friendly discount for the uninspiring Sunday Ticket games of Week 18… or that they’ll get ripped off in the other 17 weeks of the season? Neither news is very comforting to NFL fans when you really think about it.

(YouTube)