DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket continues to make it easier to follow your favorite team, especially if that happens to be your fantasy football squad.
For years, dedicated fans across the country have relied on Sunday Ticket to watch every game that their franchise franchise plays, even if they're based thousands of miles away. But, the biggest benefit now might be how the service enhances your ability to follow your fantasy players on gameday.
Now that DirecTV offers NFL Sunday Ticket to fans who are unable to have a satellite at their residence, there's no excuse to not purchase an account if you have the financial means, especially if you own multiple fantasy football teams and need to keep up with all of the action real-time. There's also a significant discount for students enrolled at a university (really wish this was around when I was in college).
Before going into some of the other great aspects of NFL Sunday Ticket, here are the top three features that make it a must-have for passionate fantasy owners.
Fantasy Zone
Before the first kickoff of the day, the Fantasy Zone Channel makes it easy for you to get all of the injury updates necessary for changing your lineup without having to make multiple searches on the web. They also provide insightful advice regarding fringe players that fantasy owners are struggling to decide whether to sit or play.
When the games start, the channel transitions into covering everything-fantasy football. Every big play, breakout performance, and disappointing outing is profiled in detail as well as real-time stats on two tickers.
For example, rookie Chicago Bears running back Tarik Cohen made more than a few appearances with his impressive debut, as well as Detroit Lions receiver Kenny Golladay. If the New Orleans Saints had been playing on Sunday, they would've been all over Adrian Peterson's abysmal outing in Minnesota, which proved the difference for numerous fantasy matchups in Week 1.
Fantasy Hub/My Players
With the Fantasy Hub, you can sign into your fantasy football account on NFL.com and receive real-time updates on their stats as you watch them happen on the screens above. Instead of constantly switching back to another tab or keeping your fantasy app open on your phone, all of the numbers are right in front of you along with the action.
The top feature for fantasy owners on Sunday Ticket, though, is undoubtedly My Players.
To personalize the experience even more, you can add up to 20 players (especially important if your league is on ESPN or Yahoo!) on My Players and receive notifications whenever they catch a pass, throw a touchdown, or rush for a big gain. It will also notify you when the teams your guys play for have the ball, so you know to tune in to watch their drives and see them rack up fantasy points, real-time.
If your favorite team is your fantasy squad, this is the only way to truly follow all of your players as the action unfolds.
Of course, even if you don't care for fantasy football and just love the NFL, there are plenty of other reasons to get Sunday Ticket.
Watch anywhere you want
Not only can you get NFL Sunday Ticket regardless of where you live, you can also watch it wherever you go.
DirecTV's NFLST.TV streaming service is accessible on their app through Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Samsung smart TVs, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and PS3 systems, Roku devices, and Android, iOS and Windows devices. That's means you can watch at home on the big screen, or if you need to run to the store to grab more beer or food, you can take the action with you on your phone.
If you're as big of an NFL fan as me, you probably plan your Sundays around watching the games, but every now and then, things come up. The ability to take the games on the road is a huge upgrade over previous renditions of Sunday Ticket.
Multi-game screen
Here was my set-up on Sunday morning in Los Angeles: on the big screen I watched the only game on local TV, which was the NFC East battle between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins. Then, on my laptop, I signed into my NFL Sunday Ticket account and utilized the multi-screen function to watch the Red Zone channel and Fantasy Zone while switching between the games on the other two screens.
For years I've followed the action on Red Zone, but it's nice to actually watch multiple drives develop instead of just popping in right before they score. I have an NFL Game Pass account and often watch condensed games so I can catch up on the plays beyond just flashy highlights, but Sunday Ticket allows you to do this with multiple games as they happen.
For example, on Sunday the Oakland Raiders led the Tennessee Titans 23-16 with under 10 minutes to play. Red Zone was occupied with other games coming down to the wire, but I was able to simultaneously keep up with those games as well as the Raiders' game-clinching drive that ended with a field goal. Red Zone only switched over for the kick, but the plays that set up the try were just as vital to Oakland sealing the victory.
Catch up quickly
If you're busy on Sunday morning and tune into the games half way through, Sunday Ticket allows you to quickly catch up, categorizing all of the big plays and highlights so you can watch them all within a matter of minutes. If you want to get up to speed on a specific game, Sunday Ticket also provides a “Short Cut” that includes all of the pivotal plays from that matchup.
I utilized this feature for the Atlanta Falcons-Chicago Bears game this past Sunday. When it became clear that the winner would be decided in the final few minutes, I watched the Short Cut to catch up on everything that I hadn't already seen on Red Zone to get a feel for the action beyond just Austin Hooper's long TD.
Follow Us
Subscribe