Sunday Ticket Shrinkflation: Fewer NFL Games, a Higher Price and Fans Who Wait for Deals
The NFL keeps moving games to prime time, holidays and international slots, leaving Sunday Ticket with 191 last season. Returning YouTube TV customers pay $378; new subscribers can pay $240.
By Sean Anees Saifi · Capital Wealth · Published Tuesday, September 15, 2026 · Source: The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2026 edition (Business & Finance)
Key Points
Sunday Ticket carried 191 games last season, down nearly 10% from 211 in 2021, according to Wall Street Journal research.
The early Sunday afternoon window shrank faster, down 13% to 127 games from 146.
Returning YouTube TV customers pay $378, nearly 30% more than DirecTV’s $293.94; new subscribers can get it for $240.
YouTube, part of Alphabet (GOOGL), pays an average of more than $2 billion a year under a seven-year deal.
Morgan Stanley (MS) estimated in 2023 that YouTube could lose nearly $9 billion over the contract.
191
Sunday Ticket games last season, down from 211
$378
regular price for returning YouTube TV customers
$240
price for new subscribers
$2B+
YouTube’s average yearly payment for Sunday Ticket
Sunday Ticket’s lineup has shrunk as the NFL moves games to prime time, holidays and international slots. Returning YouTube TV customers pay $378 this season; new subscribers can pay $240.
In one line: The NFL is selling more games to more partners, which leaves Sunday Ticket fans paying more for fewer games unless they hold out for a deal.
John Dinsenbacher, a Denver Broncos fan in Boise, Idaho, did the math and dropped Sunday Ticket. “If you do the per-game thing, it’s cheaper to go to the bar and eat wings and drink beers,” he said. He has a point. The NFL’s out-of-market Sunday package carried 191 games last season, down nearly 10% from 211 in 2021, even as the price climbed. Call it shrinkflation — paying more for less — with a chin strap.
Where the games went
The NFL keeps creating prime-time and stand-alone games it can sell separately to media partners. The spillover lands on other nights of the week, holidays and international slots, none of which Sunday Ticket carries. This season, Netflix (NFLX) adds a Thanksgiving Eve game on top of the Black Friday game Amazon (AMZN) carries. The Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys each played eight stand-alone games last season.
Sports media consultant Patrick Crakes put it bluntly: “Today, if you just want to watch most of the best games every week, you don’t need Sunday Ticket.” What’s left, he argued, is mostly midtier matchups. YouTube, part of Alphabet (GOOGL), took over the package in 2023 and pays an average of more than $2 billion a year under a seven-year deal. DirecTV paid about $1.5 billion a year.
What fans pay now
DirecTV charged existing subscribers $293.94 in its final years with the package. Returning YouTube TV customers now pay a regular $378, nearly 30% more, and it costs as much as $480 without a YouTube TV subscription. New subscribers can get it for $240. So some fans, like six-year YouTube TV subscriber Michael Kilgore, switch off automatic renewal and wait for a promotion.
Illustrative math: if you’d watch only 12 of your team’s games on the package, $378 works out to $31.50 a game, and $240 to $20. Subscriptions are easy to add and easy to forget, which is how a household’s streaming bill creeps up. Before the next renewal date, it’s worth checking what each one costs and how much of it you actually watch.
What It Means For Your Portfolio
Hold — Alphabet stays; audit the subscriptions
Nothing changes in our Alphabet position over a football package; at home, the smarter play is checking renewal dates before auto-pay decides for you.
General planning principles, not advice for anyone in particular. Automatic renewal is convenient, and that convenience is how full prices tend to stick. Put each subscription’s renewal date on a calendar and ask, a week ahead, whether you’d buy it again at today’s price. Where promotions exist, switching off auto-renew can pay, though a deal is never assured.
Alphabet (GOOGL) is held in the Capital Wealth portfolios, and nothing changes because of this story. We’re not buying anything new ahead of Wednesday’s Fed decision. The household move is a subscription audit. Don’t wait for the first raindrop to go looking for the umbrella — fifteen minutes with your card statement shows what’s set to renew.
