DirecTV becomes NFL Sunday ticket provider for bars and restaurants

DirecTV has signed a multi-year deal to continue broadcasting the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket package to commercial venues, including bars and restaurants.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The NFL earlier this year sold the commercial rights to Sunday Ticket to EverPass Media, a joint venture between private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners and the NFL. The companies confirmed the Sunday Ticket deal on Thursday afternoon.

The agreement, effective for the 2023 season, gives DirecTV the ability to use its network of satellite TV installations to connect sports bars, casinos, restaurants and hotels across the US with Sunday Ticket, just like in the past few years. said the people.

Although this is the first deal EverPass has struck to distribute commercial rights, the deal does not guarantee exclusivity, say people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. The joint venture could negotiate a separate deal with other cable or streaming companies that might want a commercial connection outside of satellite TV, the people said. EverPass may also establish its own commercial connection and bypass third-party licensing in the coming years, one of the respondents said.

Since 1994, DirecTV has been the sole provider of Sunday Ticket, the NFL’s out of print Sunday afternoon game package. Bars and restaurants like Buffalo Wild Wings and Hooters rely on Sunday Ticket to generate big bucks Sundays are a big crowd during the NFL season.

The NFL signed a seven-year contract with Google‘s YouTube TV for the broadcast rights of “Sunday Ticket” to private customers in December. The agreement begins with the start of the 2023/24 season.

YouTube TV paid $2 billion a year to win the housing rights to “Sunday Ticket,” a price DirecTV refused to pay.

DirecTV is a co-owner of private equity firm TPG and AT&Twith AT&T owning 70% of the company.

The satellite TV provider has in recent months focused on its commercial sports rights business as a complement to streaming services that don’t have commercial rights. DirecTV announced in March that it will broadcast Major League Baseball’s Friday Night Baseball games and Major League Soccer’s Season Pass games to its network of more than 300,000 restaurants, bars, hotel lounges, retail outlets and other commercial venues . Both packages are streamed privately on Apple TV+.

DirecTV also has the rights to broadcast NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” commercially. These matches will be broadcast to homes on Amazon Prime Video.

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