DirecTV offers NFL Sunday Ticket to PlayStation 3 owners, mobile users - with limits

DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) is offering its NFL Sunday Ticket subscription package to football fans who own Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3 gaming consoles, as well as owners of a range of mobile devices, including Motorola (NYSE: MMI) Android phones and Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad and iPhone.

DirecTV's NFL Sunday Mix channel, which can display up to 8 live video feeds.

DirecTV's move could give easier access to cable subscribers and cord-cutters who want to watch every NFL game on Sunday, but are unable to due to regional broadcasting restrictions (also known as out-of-market games). But it comes with a steep price--$340 per season, which is $5 more than DirecTV charges its satellite customers.

A limiting factor for potential PlayStation 3 subscribers that will probably impact subscriptions: Light Reading Cable reports that the service is only available either to those who can prove that regular DirecTV service is unavailable to them because they can't get a signal, or to existing DirecTV subscribers (for an additional $50 fee).

It'll be interesting to see how many viewers who don't want to pay for a monthly pay TV subscription would be willing to pay hundreds of dollars each year to watch football.

DirecTV is also launching a new Mix Channel which will display a mosaic of up to eight live video feeds from football games.

Cable operators have long complained about DirecTV's exclusive distribution of the popular Sunday Ticket package. The top DBS provider pays the NFL about $1 billion annually for the package. Its contract with the league expires in 2014.

For more:
- see news release from DirecTV
- and this Light Reading Cable article

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