YouTube introduces live chat, key plays features to NFL Sunday Ticket

San Francisco, Aug 20 (IANS) Google-owned YouTube has introduced six new features for Sunday Ticket subscribers ahead of the National Football League (NFL) season, including student plans, monthly payment plans, live chat/polls, real-time NFL highlights in YouTube Shorts, multiview and the key plays.

Now, viewers will start seeing a monthly payment plan option when signing up for NFL Sunday Ticket, which will enable them to pay for their NFL Sunday Ticket subscription over time, versus all at once. 

"We will be rolling this out over the next week on both YouTube and YouTube TV," YouTube said in a blogpost.

The company will be introducing student plans on YouTube for NFL Sunday Ticket within the next week. 

The regular Sunday Ticket plan currently priced at $299 for the season, however, it will be priced at $349 starting September 19.

YouTube also reminded users of the recently launched multiview feature, which allows viewers to select between four-game, three-game, and two-game viewing combinations.

Sunday Ticket subscribers will now be able to choose from an extensive assortment of multiview combinations every Sunday afternoon.

For example, they can watch a Sunday game alongside a local NFL game, or even NFL and college football games at the same time. Users who purchase the NFL Sunday Ticket + NFL RedZone package can watch both out-of-market games and RedZone with multiview, according to the company.

In terms of watching the games, YouTube has introduced updates and new features to improve the viewing experience. 

For instance, YouTube users can use live chat and polls to interact with other fans in real-time via their mobile and TV devices. Mobile users can also watch highlights on YouTube via NFL Shorts and then jump to a live game by clicking on the red "Live" ring around the NFL channel avatar. 

NFL Shop integrations will be available soon on the platform, the company said.

Moreover, the key plays feature, previously exclusive to YouTube TV, will now be available on YouTube. 

With key plays, viewers will either be able to catch up on a game they missed or watch a quick snippet of each major play before jumping into the live game

However, the feature will only be available on TVs this season.