Football season is just weeks away, and soon people with Google TV-centric devices will have a new way to watch.
In a blog post, Google announced that NFL Sunday Ticket will be “fully integrated” into Google TV, which is the streaming interface built into Google’s latest Chromecast devices as well as some third-party TVs from companies like TCL and Hisense. Think Fire TV, but for Google.
Anyway, the NFL streaming package (which includes live streams of all out-of-market games on Sundays) will surface available games on your Google TV homepage and in the “Live” tab. The screenshot Google included to demonstrate this seems to imply that you’ll get Sunday Ticket on your home page even if you aren’t signed up for it, as evidenced by the big “SIGN UP NOW” button.
Why don’t you just sign up?
Credit: Google
This isn’t horribly surprising, given that Google pays a reported $2 billion annually for the rights to stream NFL games. If you’re going to spend that kind of money, you need a return on investment in the form of subscribers. And even though Sunday Ticket costs a minimum of $300 to buy into right now (and that’s just for one season), it’s not a huge stretch to imagine someone paying for it out of a desire to see a game that’s being advertised on their home display.
After all, never underestimate America’s hunger for football.
