Before you read the fine print and conclude that it's only available to people who can't get DirecTV, please see this clarification [2] from Anthony Stevenson (Madden's director of marketing).
If the clarification turns out to be false, Amazon will be getting a return from me and a strongly worded complaint. :-)
[1] - http://www.amazon.com/Madden-Anniversary-Edition-Sunday-Play...
[2] - http://kotaku.com/madden-special-edition-includes-sunday-tic...
Blackouts exist to limit the extent that remote viewing substitutes for live attendance, as a means to support the live ticket prices. The alternative to blackouts is to accept that remote viewing is a substitute for live attendance, and to make the prices for remote viewing higher and those for live attendance lower.
I don't even care about not getting all the games for every team, let me pick a set of teams (say 3-6) and get all their games live. Hell, I'll even take a pick of two teams for live streaming. I already subscribe to NFL network's streaming service for game replays, but there are some games -- like for the teams I support -- that I want live.
> If a company (in this case the NFL) doesn't want me to be their customer then I simply won't be.
Sacrificing low-revenue customers to preserve revenue from high-revenue customers isn't exactly a novel business model.
The NFL has driven me crazy with not adopting a similar model. I can't get DTV at my home (condo), I don't care about the local teams, and paying for the whole league wasn't available on my local provider. They had a PS3 streaming option last season but I read it didn't work reliably so I didn't bother. Like you, I'd happily pay to follow a few teams teams + Red Zone. Luckily, as someone above posted, there's a great deal for $99 this season to purchase Madden and get Sunday Ticket included. I jumped all over that!
Its been a few years since I moved to the US so my memory is probably a little spotty but I seem to recall all games, live, HD with the ability to replay on demand (like gamerewind). You could also have the feed use the audio from teams radio network instead of the TV commentary. Man, I really miss that feature!
I know, on top of that when I spent time in Switzerland I found out they get all the NFL games for free, live on TV. I've never understood why.
Y'all are confusing your words. "Blackouts" you describe are local TV broadcast blackouts if they don't sell out the stadium. "Blackouts" the GP describes are the blackouts on Sunday ticket because you are supposed to watch them locally.
Opinions: The former is good, it forces attendance. The latter is not, as it puts prevents regions that otherwise can't watch the games locally from being able to watch them at all (due to poor blackout zoning). MLB.TV is about to enter a lawsuit about this very thing, and though they'll likely win, it is a huge problem.
Couple that with the ESPN's and others having a hatred for cord-cutters and you have an area ripe for disruption, even though the sports leagues themselves can hold it down w/ their anti-trust exemptions and unfair practices. But that won't last forever once the Googles and Netflixes have the capital to force the leagues' hands.
My alternative was to visit a local bar for games I needed to see, and just not watch anything else.
No, I'm not.
> "Blackouts" you describe are local TV broadcast blackouts if they don't sell out the stadium.
That's one set of blackouts to limit the extent that remote viewing substitutes for live attendance, but...
> "Blackouts" the GP describes are the blackouts on Sunday ticket because you are supposed to watch them locally.
...that's also a set of blackouts to limit the extent that remote viewing substitutes for live attendance (in part). (It prevents Sunday Ticket from providing an end-run around the other kind of blackout.)
It also serves another similar purpose, to protect the local TV contract revenue in the same way that local TV blackouts protect stadium revenue.