NFL fans living in Peru are frustrated, and with good reason. As of right now, there is no NFL package for cable or DIRECTV to be purchased for any amount of money that carries all the games. This was not the case last year when DIRECTV had an admittedly excellent service that did indeed broadcast everything. However, this year, for some unfortunate reason, they´ve changed to a format that shows only six games plus a highlight channel called "The Red Zone" (on their website they claim that they will have more games after November 22nd).

I recently wrote an e-mail to DIRECTV asking them to explain, or hopefully, improve their service. Someone from the Peruvian service department promptly called me and was very polite. He explained that the current programming was a result of a deal done with NFL service providers back in the States. Apparently all South and Latin America countries get this same amputated version of NFL Sunday ticket (except for Puerto Rico which gets all the games). I want to emphasize that this problem isn´t the fault of anyone in Peru involved with DIRECTV. I tried to get the name of the person responsible in the US from the customer service agent, but he couldn't tell me.

It is very difficult to understand the current NFL ticket programming. Not only do they not show all the games, they often don´t even show the best games. For example, on the weekend of October 14th they had the following match-ups:

Philadelphia (1-3) vs N.Y. Jets (1-4)
Two teams with two wins between them.

Miami (0-5) vs Cleveland (2-3)
Cleveland´s been exciting this year, but Miami´s been hopeless.

Minnesota (1-3) vs Chicago (2-3)
A good rivalry, but until one of these teams gets a winning record they´re irrelevant.

Carolina (3-2) vs Arizona (3-2)
OK, finally two winning records.

New England (5-0) vs Dallas (5-0)
At least they got this one right, this is a possible Super Bowl preview.

Oakland (2-2) vs San Diego (3-2)
San Diego has been under-performing and Oakland hasn't been good since Rich Gannon was their quarterback.

Noticeably absent were Green Bay (4-1) vs Washington (3-1) and Tampa Bay (3-2) vs Tennessee (3-1). If DIRECTV is only going to show some of the games, why can´t they show the teams with winning records? All NFL fans are loyal, and if you happen to be a Miami or a Chicago fan, it´s great that you got to see your game this week. But wouldn´t it be even better if you were assured that you could see your team every single Sunday? The thing that´s being overlooked here is that NFL fans are willing to pay for a complete service. The market is there for DIRECTV to pounce on, they had it last year, and if enough people show interest, perhaps they can bring it back.

In the meantime, it is possible to get ALL the NFL games on various websites. Yahoo´s game pass (http://sports.yahoo.com/nflgamepass) will set you back $279.99 for all the games, or $199.99 if you pick just one game per week. You also have the option of buying a single game for $24.99 (Now that it´s mid-season, these prices have all been reduced significantly). I´ve heard that this online video site works fairly well, but you need to have a good Internet connection (at least Speedy 900).

DIRECTV lists their schedule of the games they´re going to be broadcasting on their webpage: http://directv.com.pe/nfl/. It might be worthwhile to look for e-mail addresses on that page and to send off some requests for a more complete service. I think that if we are polite and united, and we demonstrate to DIRECTV that there is a viable market for complete NFL programming, we have a chance of getting this changed. If not, I guess we´ll have to get used to watching the NFL on the internet.