Football fans watch the NFL Super Bowl XLVIII game between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks at a sports bar in New Jersey on February 2, 2014.
Jem Ozdell | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
A satellite dish is no longer the only way bars and restaurants can broadcast the National Football League’s “Sunday Ticket” package of games.
EverPass Media, the joint venture between the association and private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners that own the commercial rights to “Sunday Ticket,” has acquired UPshow, a platform with the technological capabilities that allow commercial outlets to broadcast live sports. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
With this acquisition, bars, restaurants, casinos and other businesses will be able to stream Sunday Ticket games. Until recently, they could only do so through a subscription to satellite TV provider DirecTV.
However, DirecTV will remain as a distributor to bars and restaurants. EverPass signed a non-exclusive deal with DirecTV last year to continue distributing “Sunday Ticket” games, giving it the ability to strike deals with other distribution platforms.
“More content is being streamed. Regardless of the economics of streaming, it’s become pretty clear that live sports is a big part of that,” said EverPass CEO Alex Kaplan. “We’re going to think about how to deliver a product and service to our customers that’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to gather in a meaningful way. We’re still in the early days … but this is a big step for us.”
The new distribution option will be available in the upcoming NFL season.
The acquisition for EverPass comes as more live sports games are offered exclusively on streaming services — a new frontier for business facilities that have long subscribed to traditional pay-TV packages to offer live sports.
The “Sunday Ticket” is an integral sports package for bars and restaurants as it provides all out-of-market NFL games.
At the end of 2022, Google’YouTube TV acquired the residential rights to “Sunday Ticket” for about $2 billion a year, a seven-year deal. DirecTV was the owner and exclusive home and commercial distributor of the games since the launch of the package in 1994.
This was followed by an agreement for Amazon’Prime Video will become the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football” — part of the 11-year, more than $100 billion NFL media rights deal.
Since then, media rights holders of NFL games have begun offering games simultaneously on their streaming services — and in some cases exclusively. Earlier this year ComcastNBCUniversal aired an NFL wildcard game on the Peacock, the first time a postseason game was offered exclusively via streaming. Netflix It also recently won the rights to broadcast two NFL games on Christmas this year and at least one over the holidays in the next two years.
New investor, new opportunities
The New York Stock Exchange welcomes TKO (NYSE: TKO) executives and board members. To mark the occasion, TKO management and board members, along with Lynn Martin, President of the NYSE, are ringing the Opening Bell®.
EverPass also brought on a new investor this week.
The consortium announced it TKO — the recently merged company that combines Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment — will join the ownership group. TKO is majority owned by Endeavor Group Holdings.
“Now with RedBird, the NFL and TKO behind us, we believe we have the wherewithal to put even more behind this technology,” Kaplan said.
EverPass also wants to become a distributor for content other than “Sunday Ticket” and the NFL.
“We’re out there looking for new content and we certainly think they have great content and we expect those will be conversations we have in the near future,” Kaplan said of whether EverPass will distribute TKO’s WWE or UFC. “Overall, we feel very good about our content stream.”
The company first partnered with UPshow when it began providing Peacock Sports Pass, which is a way for outlets to live stream some of the sports on NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, including the NFL, Premier League and college football.
Pricing for the Peacock Sports Pass, similar to the upcoming “Sunday Ticket” distribution, depends on the classification of the commercial institution, according to the company Website.
In addition, the acquisition of UPshow will give EverPass the opportunity to explore global distribution at a time when leagues such as the NFL, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball are pushing into international markets.
“Technology transcends borders. So suddenly we have the ability to go global,” said Derek Chang, executive chairman of EverPass. “And then the Endeavor/TKO investment, which obviously has a huge impact globally in terms of relationships.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
