Just in time for football season, DirecTV NOW will reportedly add RedZone and NFL Network to its streaming service, fixing one of the streaming service’s major drawbacks for sports fans.
One subscriber screen-grabbed a conversation he had with a DirecTV NOW representative, where she informed him that the network appears to have an announcement planned for within the next week.
@kleinja #RedZone coming to #DirectTVNow this week. #NFL Fingers crossed! pic.twitter.com/DPhSTE6dCY
— Kevin B (@KevinB_Tech) August 18, 2017
RedZone is a beautiful channel, particularly for those who play fantasy football. The channel shows every touchdown from every game, as well as many other big plays, without commercials.
While DirecTV offers its own Red Zone channel hosted by Andrew Siciliano, it appears DirecTV NOW will offer NFL Network’s more broadly distributed RedZone hosted by Scott Hanson. That would be a bit odd, as DirecTV would get the rights to a channel that directly completes with one of their exclusive offerings. The Siciliano-hosted Red Zone is part of NFL Sunday Ticket, and there’s still no indication that package will become available on DirecTV NOW.
This is huge news for DirecTV NOW. While NFL ratings dipped dramatically last season, Sling TV achieved record marks broadcasting live games. Sling TV’s success could be a reason why the NFL has grown more willing to venture into the live streaming world.
About Jesse Kramer
Jesse is a writer and editor for The Comeback. He has also worked for SI.com and runs The Catch and Shoot, a college basketball website based in Chicago. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow Jesse on Twitter @Jesse_Kramer.