The future of Sunday ticket. (Remote Patrol).(NFL Sunday Ticket, sports satellite television service)(Brief Article)

Brethren, I've experienced heaven (or is it nirvana?) on autumn sabbaths. This exalted state rests between channels 701 and 715 on DirecTV--hallelujah, NFL Sunday Ticket! The view from my Barcalounger is glorious. See, I don't just watch the three or four network games on any given Sunday. I GET EVERY GAME! Lead a chaste and decent life, pay less than $1 per game, and you, too, can be blissful.

Sunday Ticket, age 7, was among the first all-you-can-eat subscriptions that now include baseball, NHL, NBA, college football and basketball. NFL bacchanalia is offered only in a seasonlong pass and is limited to DirecTV and C-band (Big Bertha) dishes, and has 1.4 million subscribers. Very uncultish. (DirecTV has 10.3 million subscribers.)

Tola Murphy-Baran, NFL senior vice president/marketing, can tell you Sunday Ticket targets "displaced fans," such as Broncos faithful in Kalamazoo or ex-Raiderettes in Los Angeles. With up to 13 games on 13 channels, no waiting, it's at its remote-control best when the game of choice is a rout, like 49ers-Colts on November 25. Also, when several are competitive, a la October 28, when six were decided by four or fewer points, a seventh went into overtime and the finger toggled down the dial for thrill upon voyeuristic thrill.

Fantasy players and gamblers (gasp!) swear by the bonus Sunday Snap channel, with real-time scoring and statistics indexed by channel. That little goal post next to Jacksonville? It means the Jags are ...