Google spent big money to score the rights for NFL Sunday Ticket and bring the popular service to YouTube and YouTube TV this season. So it makes complete sense that you’re about to start seeing Sunday Ticket plastered all over the company’s major platforms as Google looks to maximize that investment and make sure everyone is keenly aware of Sunday Ticket’s new home and expanding features.
If you have a recent Chromecast or a TV in your living room that runs Google TV — think Sony, TCL, Hisense, and others — that heavy promotion will be starting as early as today. Sunday Ticket will be getting prominent placement on the Google TV homescreen.
“Starting this football season, NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV will be fully integrated into Google TV in the US,” Google’s Nick Staubach and Sal Altayyar wrote in a blog post. “This means you can now access live out-of-market Sunday afternoon games, see top highlights, and get recommendations for top games of the week, all right on your Google TV homescreen. And if you’re a YouTube TV subscriber with NFL Sunday Ticket as part of your membership, the content will be available in the channel guide on your Live tab, so you can quickly find any game you’re looking for.”
Google’s blog post also notes that buyers of select TCL TVs can get $200 off of a Sunday Ticket package this season. So if you’re in the market and a diehard football person, that’s a good deal to keep in mind.
Alongside making Sunday Ticket’s presence felt, Google is bringing even more free TV channels to Google TV’s live tab today. Back in April, the company announced it would be bringing over 800 FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) channels to the platform through a combination of third-party services (like Tubi) and dozens of channels available directly from Google TV itself.
Today, it’s tacking 25 more channels onto the latter list — meaning you can watch them without downloading any separate apps — and these will feature content like Baywatch and Top Gear. Random doses of nostalgia are basically the main reason for FAST programming to exist, from my experience. The new channels will be available on Google TV and also Android TV devices like the Nvidia Shield lineup.