The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint, Amol Sharma and Andrew Beaton are reporting that DirecTV is offering refunds on their Sunday Ticket package of NFL games if the subscriber cites the national anthem protests as the reason for requesting a refund.
DirecTV typically doesn’t give refunds of the package once the NFL season is underway.
(Twitter)
The Journal spoke to several customer service representatives who gave slightly varying answers as to how to obtain a refund but one thing was clear: DirecTV is offering refunds due to the NFL protests.
DirecTV typically doesn’t give refunds of the package once the NFL season is underway.
(Twitter)
The Journal reports:
“DirecTV service representatives contacted by The Wall Street Journal had different understandings of the policy. One said refunds to those concerned about the anthem protests were only offered to subscribers with certain offers or plans. One representative said full refunds were available for those who complained about anthem protests. Another said such people could only get prorated refunds for the remainder of the season. Yet other representatives said the policy hadn’t changed and that no refunds were allowed for any reason.
However, DirecTV subscribers contacted by The Wall Street Journal showed the satellite broadcaster was offering at least some refunds.”
This DirecTV move comes at a time when the NFL is seeing an uncommon dip in ratings that while the NFL claims is due to other various reasons, many Americans claim they are tuning out of the NFL due to the increasing number of players protesting the national anthem.
This past Sunday over 200 players kneeled, joining Colin Kaepernick in the year long protest against black inequality, police brutality and now Donald Trump.
Trump became the ire of the players when he spoke out saying that disrespecting the American anthem is dishonoring American veterans and service members.
Trump’s latest comments after the protests: “Ratings for NFL football are way down except before game starts, when people tune in to see whether or not our country will be disrespected.”
(Twitter)
Trump continued, “The NFL has all sorts of rules and regulations. The only way out for them is to set a rule that you can’t kneel during our National Anthem.”
(Twitter)
The comments that drew the ire of the NFL players were on Friday during a stump speech in Alabama.
Trump said: “We are proud of our country. We respect our flag… Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘get that son of a bitch off the field right now. He is fired. He’s fired!’”
“That’s a total disrespect of our heritage. That’s a total disrespect of everything we stand for,” Trump said, adding that while we have many freedoms, it’s still “totally disrespectful.”
If a fan sees a player take a knee, the fan should “leave the stadium… Pick up and leave,” Trump said Friday night, adding that fans wouldn’t be missing out.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that,
“Aside from DirecTV, the NFL-owned channel RedZone, which provides live action and scoring from every game on Sundays, is also experiencing some cancellations due to the protests.
Chuck Plavk, a veteran who resides in Wisconsin, canceled his subscription to the channel from Charter Communications ’ Spectrum Cable. He said when he called, the customer service representative said, “everybody’s calling about that today.” Unlike Sunday Ticket, which is only available through DirecTV, RedZone is available through a number of cable providers and streaming outlets.”
