A report from AVSForum, an online community dedicated to home theater owners and enthusiasts, says that when DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket experienced technical issues during the first weeks of the NFL regular season, subscribers took to the internet searching for ways to cancel their subscriptions.
Sunday Ticket is a TV subscription service giving subscribers access to every NFL game. Its technical issues reportedly lasted close to 90 minutes, forcing many subscribers to turn to the “Sunday Ticket” app or online, but those alternatives didn’t work, either. The only subscribers who lucked out were those watching via the standard satellite service.
There was a literal flock of unhappy subscribers, too. Mike Lang, AVSForum’s Head Administrator told ConsumerAffairs that searches for “Cancel NFL Sunday Ticket” have jumped 2,856% from August to September.
There’s a pattern in canceling Sunday Ticket early in the season. AVS said those searches jump every September at the start of the NFL season, but this time around, the jump is 1,752% higher than in 2021 and 413% higher than in 2020.
How can we make you happy?
Lang said that the issue has even led DirecTV to start issuing reimbursements to customers in a hope of satisfying an angry fan base who pay a premium for this service.
However, not even Tom Brady could pull off a come-from-behind win for DirecTV.
“Despite these efforts, fans have been looking to cancel in a large wave, as made evident by this surge in searches on google of people looking to cancel their subscription,” he said.
DirecTV responded to one unhappy subscriber on Twitter, saying “We know some customers can’t access NFL Sunday Ticket online or through the app” and that its “teams are working to resolve this.”
The company tried to get ahead of the bad karma it suffered in Week 1 and Week 2, saying that it planned to reimburse or offer prorated refunds to “Sunday Ticket” subscribers who had trouble streaming the games.
By Week 3, though, things had calmed down and were back to normal.
“In week 3 we saw record high concurrent streams with zero systemwide viewing or ordering issues,” DirecTV spokesperson Jon Greer said in a statement to The Verge.
“Our customers were able to enjoy the games throughout the day, and we’ve worked directly with the limited number of those who might have needed one on one attention based on their unique circumstances.”
DirecTV may not have to worry about saving its backside come the 2023 season as this is set to be DirecTV’s last season as the exclusive provider of “Sunday Ticket.” Earlier this year, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he anticipates the subscription package to relocate to a streaming service much like its current streaming deal with Amazon Prime for Thursday Night Football.