Soccer 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.
Cem Özdel | Agency Anadolu | Getty Images
DirecTV has inked a multi-year deal to continue broadcasting the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket package to commercial venues, including bars and restaurants, according to people familiar with the matter.
A deal between DirecTV and EverPass Media could be announced as early as Thursday, the people said, asking not to be named because the talks are private. The price of the deal was not immediately clear. Earlier this year, the NFL sold the commercial rights to Sunday Ticket to EverPass Media, a joint venture between private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners and the NFL.
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 made to distribute commercial rights, the deal does not guarantee exclusivity, the people said. 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-stock 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 in December signed a seven-year deal with Google’s YouTube TV for the home broadcast rights to “Sunday Ticket.” 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 didn’t want to pay.
DirecTV is a co-owner of private equity firm TPG and AT&T, with 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 hold the 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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