I've always thought the real bargain was the NFL HD included in the basic package.
I get 3 games nearly every Sunday afternoon. The NBC Sunday Night game. And the ESPN Monday Night game. So that is 5 games a week, all in HD, and I pay nothing extra for them.
Later in the season it goes up to 6 games a week, with the Thursday Night games.
And then all of the playoff games are free HD.
All told it is something around 100 NFL games, all in HD.
On top of that is all of the ESPN Sports Center coverage, the NFL Network coverage, and all of the Fox Sports channels coverages.
I don't need ST or Red Zone to get far more NFL than I care to watch. I don't watch half what I get now.
The base package deal is an incredible one for NFL coverage, especially if you live in your favorite teams' region.