DIRECTV: NFL Ticket Price 'One-Time' Deal

Washington, D.C. (May 9, 2012) -- DIRECTV says the decision to cut the price of its NFL Sunday Ticket package from $325 to $199 for current customers is a "onetime opportunity."

In an analyst call yesterday following release of DIRECTV's first quarter report, company CEO Mike White noted that roughly 1.5 million new customers got the NFL Sunday Ticket for free last year. (DIRECTV is offering it for free to new customers again this season.)

To ensure that last year's new customers don't unsubscribe this year, DIRECTV felt it was necessary to offer a more attractive price for the football package.

"We have a onetime opportunity to take advantage (of)...one million free trials we gave out last summer. I think if you look at the history, with the old approach, you might have gotten, I don't know, 100,000 at most that would've re-upped.," White said. "I want to be clear, as we looked at the (2012) pricing decision, we were looking at a 1-year thing."

White was not asked what would happen in 2013 if the Sunday Ticket price for current customers goes up again and 2012 "new customers" are unwilling to pay that much after getting it for free.