The football regular season hasn’t started yet, but Chris Russo already has a bone to pick with NFL Sunday Ticket.
The league’s package, which allows viewers to watch all the NFL’s out-of-market games from Fox and CBS, will now be distributed on YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels this season after a 29-year run on DirecTV.
The seven-year deal worth a reported $2 billion hasn’t measured up, according to the opinionated SiriusXM host.
During “Mad Dog Unleashed” on Tuesday, Russo discussed how he was trying to sign up for the service, only to find plenty of flaws with the ordering process.
The host ranted about his situation, claiming the service is in the business of “losing money.”
“It’s impossible!” Russo said during his program. “All they want to do is lose money! That’s all they want to do. Lose money with the service and lose money with Fatso’s picks — that’s all I care about and they won’t let me do it.”
“So the NFL and YouTube — whether it’s YouTube TV or regular YouTube — who knows what it is! The only reason I put on YouTube is to put on an old David Crosby interview. … In this age, in 2023, if you are not tech-savvy with your televisions and all of your ‘devices,’ you’re finished — finished!”
Despite having satellite issues with storms in the past while using DirecTV, Russo said he much preferred them as a provider because it as “right there in front of” him, complaining that he has to now “work for the ballgames.”
Prices for the service on YouTube TV — which were determined based on the date of purchase and if you were a YouTube TV subscriber or not — range from $249 to $489.
This year’s iteration also will allow viewers to watch four games at once.
“We’re doing research on that right now to figure out what are the right types of packages that would be interesting to users,” Christian Oestlien, YouTube’s vice president of product management, told The Athletic earlier this year.
Russo, however, does not think this year’s service will make it any easier to watch all of the league’s games.
“They make it so gosh darn difficult,” Russo continued. “Can’t you just make it easy?
“All of the good things I did at church at 9 o’clock will be gone by 1 because I’ll be cursing up a storm and throwing things all over the house!”
After the show, Russo posted on X, formerly Twitter, a short clip of the rant and added a caption: “The @NFL Sunday Ticket might drive me over the edge! Stop making it so hard to watch the games!!!!”
Russo — and the rest of the NFL’s fans — will get to test out the service in earnest on Sept. 10 when Week 1’s Sunday slate of games kicks off.
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