Millions of football fans now have a reason to not ditch DirecTV. After months of negotiations, the satellite service has finally renewed its deal to be the exclusive carrier for NFL Sunday Ticket. DirecTV has been the sole pay-TV source for Sunday Ticket, which shows all Sunday afternoon out-of-market football games… for the price of several hundred dollars a year per subscriber. Neither the NFL nor DirecTV is saying exactly how much the new deal is worth, but ESPN’s Darren Rovell reports that it will cost the satellite company about $1.5/year for the next eight years. If true, that’s more than DirecTV earns from the fees it charges to Sunday Ticket subscribers, but the company knows that many of these customers might consider switching switch to cable — or simply drop pay-TV service altogether — if it weren’t for being able to see their favorite teams play each week. Additionally, the exclusivity deal allows DirecTV to continue selling online-only versions of Sunday Ticket to non-satellite customers.