‘It’s So Much Money’: Clark Howard Quits NFL Sunday Ticket After Having It Since Day One
Clark Howard has subscribed to NFL Sunday Ticket since the day it launched, so when he publicly walked away before a single game aired this season, he gave a reason that changes the calculus for every fan still on the…
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The consumer advocate who says he has subscribed to NFL Sunday Ticket since it started just admitted on air that he bailed. On the September 23, 2026 episode of his podcast, Clark Howard told listeners he had gone the first two weeks of the NFL season without NFL Sunday Ticket for the first time ever, and the reason was simple: “It’s so much money.”
Verdict: Waiting Is the Right Move for Most Households
Howard’s on-air plan is correct, and the math is not close. He told listeners that “at some point they say get the rest of the season for whatever price” and that “the season is more interesting the back half.” The concept underneath that advice is prorated pricing, and it works in the buyer’s favor as inventory depreciates.
Think of a Sunday Ticket subscription the way an airline thinks of a seat. Every Sunday that passes without a sale is revenue the distributor can never recover. That gives the seller an incentive to discount later in the season to capture buyers who would otherwise stay out entirely. The buyer’s job is to let that discount come to them.
The opportunity cost cuts the other way, too. Money not spent in August on a full-season package sits in a high-yield savings account earning interest for six weeks. It is a small amount in dollar terms, but it reinforces the principle: paying up front for a service that will be discounted later is a guaranteed loss versus paying later for the same remaining product.
Variable That Decides It: How Many Games You Actually Watch
The single number that determines whether Sunday Ticket is worth any price is how many out-of-market games you would genuinely sit down and watch. Count only the games you would truly miss if they were not available, not the ones you would leave on in the background.
Run it as a per-game cost. A household paying $480 for a full season and watching two dedicated out-of-market games per week across 18 weeks pays roughly $13 per game. A household paying the same price but watching only one game every other week pays roughly $53 per game. At that point, a single-game ticket at a bar or a day pass is cheaper. Same product, wildly different value, driven entirely by one variable the buyer controls.
This is why Howard’s mid-season strategy scales so well. Waiting compresses the denominator (fewer weeks) while cutting the numerator (lower price), and both moves push per-game cost in the buyer’s favor.
What To Do Before You Buy
- Count your real viewing weeks. Look back at last season. How many Sundays did you actually watch an out-of-market game start to finish? Multiply by any current per-week or rest-of-season offer to get your true per-game cost.
- Set a price alert for the prorated offer. The rest-of-season deal Howard referenced typically appears once the league and distributor see subscription growth flatten. Check weekly starting around Week 4.
- Check student and bundle eligibility. The $119 student price Howard’s own feed promoted in August is a fraction of standard pricing. If anyone in your household qualifies, that is the ceiling you should be paying.
- Price the alternative. If you are traveling to a game instead, Howard told an Anchorage listener the cheapest Raiders tickets to target were the mid-December Chargers game and the Christmas-week Titans game, because Chargers fans don’t travel and Christmas Day is a dead air-travel day. The same logic (low-demand opponent, low-demand travel date) applies to any team.
The core takeaway: if a subscription gets cheaper the longer you wait, waiting is the trade.
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