Netflix’s Christmas NFL games might not be on at your local bar
Netflix’s Christmas NFL games might not be on at your local bar
DIRECTV is choosing not to pay a hefty licensing fee to get the games, leaving establishments with a tough choice.
Christmas Day is a great opportunity to spend time with friends and family, but there’s no doubt that it can get a little stifling. Many might want to sneak out to their favorite local watering hole or eatery to catch a little bit of the NFL Christmas action as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens face the Houston Texans. For the first time in the platform’s history these games will be streamed exclusively on Netflix. Unfortunately, according to new reporting from CNBC's Alex Sherman, many bars and restaurants aren’t going to have the games available at all.
Key Details:
- Most bars and restaurants get sports and other channels through DIRECTV, which has declined to license the games from Netflix.
- Any commercial establishment who wants the games must now subscribe to EverPass, a streaming service run by the league and RedBird Capital.
- DIRECTV runs the risk of losing these establishments in the future if they are satisfied with the content they get from Everpass.
The reason that many commercial establishments, such as bars, restaurants, casinos, and even hotels won’t get the Christmas Day NFL games is that most rely on DIRECTV to deliver live sports and other programming. DIRECTV had the opportunity to license streams of the games from Netflix but declined to pay a six-figure fee to do so.
That means that any bar or restaurant that wants to stream the games must subscribe to EverPass, the joint-venture commercial streaming service established by the NFL and its partner RedBird Capital. EverPass is also responsible for distributing “Thursday Night Football” games on Prime Video, NFL Sunday Ticket, and Peacock’s live sporting events as well.
Many establishments may decide that an extra subscription to EverPass isn’t in the budget, particularly if they’d have to equip the TVs they want to show Netflix’s games on with new streaming devices to make the whole operation work. Thus, there will likely be a large swath of businesses that don’t have the games available at all.
If Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL games experience the same streaming issues as the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match hosted by the streamer in November, DIRECTV could quickly pounce on those problems. Representatives from the company pointed out to Sherman that when DIRECTV distributed the fight to commercial establishments, it did not experience the same problems that hundreds of thousands of customers who tried to stream it at home did.
A DIRECTV spokesperson sent The Streamable a statement regarding its decision not to license the games from Netflix.
“While DIRECTV expressed interest in providing Christmas Day games in partnership with Netflix, similar to what we provided for the Tyson/Paul fight, the NFL and EverPass Media, a NFL-owned property, made it cost prohibitive and overly complicated for non-NFL owned distributors to provide the games to fans in bars and restaurants outside of the local team markets,” they said. “We remain committed to providing the widest lineup of sports for commercial locations and will continue to work with programmers to find unique solutions to deliver live sports.”
It’s reasonable to note that deciding not to license the games from Netflix is a bit of a risk on DIRECTV’s part. It has around 300,000 commercial establishment partners around the United States, and if streaming the games on EverPass goes well for those who choose to do so, it could lead them to the conclusion that they don’t need DIRECTV service any longer. On the other hand, the NFL may lose out on some bar, restaurant, casino, or hotel customers as owners decide they’d rather simply stream the games illegally than buy a new subscription.
Now, the country must wait and see if Netflix can pull off its Christmas Day NFL streams. Fans will be watching eagerly, but many will have to do so on their mobile phones if they want to escape the holiday atmosphere at home to watch the games.
Netflix
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