Bars, Restaurants Can Now Stream NFL Sunday Ticket, No DIRECTV Dish Required
Formerly, the only way to get NFL Sunday Ticket in bars and restaurants was with a DIRECTV satellite.
The 2024 NFL season will see at least one big change to the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market games service. Despite switching distributors from DIRECTV to YouTube TV ahead of the 2023 season, bars, restaurants, and other commercial establishments still had to get a DIRECTV satellite dish in order to offer Sunday Ticket last year. But EverPass Media, which owns the commercial rights to Sunday Ticket, has announced that it has acquired a firm that will allow it to distribute the package via streaming instead, a move that could worsen corporate cord-cutting for DIRECTV but make it simpler for bars to offer out-of-market NFL games.
Key Details:
- EverPass has acquired UPshow, a tech platform that will allow it to stream NFL Sunday Ticket.
- Residential customers will still find NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV and YouTube TV Primetime Channels.
- DIRECTV will still be able to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket to commercial establishments, albeit nonexclusively.
EverPass Media is a joint venture formed by the NFL and RedBird Capital in 2023 to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket to commercial establishments. It appeared that the creation of EverPass would obviate the need to sell Sunday Ticket to bars and restaurants through DIRECTV, but a few months after its creation, EverPass partnered with the satellite company to help it continue offering Sunday Ticket to these establishments in a nonexclusive deal.
But thanks to its acquisition of the on-premise entertainment and performance marketing platform UPshow, EverPass can now distribute NFL Sunday Ticket via streaming. That will make it much simpler for sports bars to get the package and will mean that they no longer have to rent a satellite dish and sign up with DIRECTV for Business to get a Sunday Ticket subscription.
“We’re excited that through this acquisition, commercial businesses will now be able to stream NFL Sunday Ticket for the first time ever,” the company said in a statement.
EverPass also welcomed a new investor this week, TKO Group Holdings. TKO is the parent company of both WWE wrestling and the UFC, and its investment in EverPass raises the tantalizing possibility that it could begin distributing UFC fights and WWE events commercially going forward.
Residential customers will still find NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV and on YouTube TV’s Primetime Channels a la carte menu. The latter option allows viewers to sign up for the package without having to get a YouTube TV base plan, though the price will be $100 more expensive for the season. DIRECTV will still be able to distribute Sunday Ticket to bars and restaurants, but now it will have to do so while competing with EverPass’s direct-to-consumer option.
Does New EverPass Deal Have Any Effect on Sunday Ticket Lawsuit?
The new distribution method for NFL Sunday Ticket could make it much easier for commercial establishments to offer the package to customers. But it’s worth wondering how long Sunday Ticket will be in existence, after a jury ruled in late June that the service violates U.S. antitrust laws.
Still, it could be years before the consequences of that ruling are felt, if they ever are. The NFL has a lengthy appeals process it is expected to take full advantage of, and if at any step it manages to get the ruling overturned, Sunday Ticket will continue on much as it has since 1994.
The ruling won’t have any effect on how Sunday Ticket is distributed to bars and restaurants in 2024. EverPass’s acquisition of the UPshow platform will now allow it to stream the package in commercial establishments more closely aligning the distribution method of the service for business and residential customers.
NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket is a subscription video streaming service that allows football fans to watch every live out-of-market NFL game on Sunday afternoons on YouTube or YouTube TV.