Along with RedBird Capital Partners, the National Football League has announced the formation of EverPass Media as the platform that will help deliver NFL Sunday Ticket to various commercial venues in the United States including bars, restaurants, and hotels.
For those that have been following the NFL Season Ticket news, YouTube TV recently purchased the rights, bringing an end to DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket era. Unlike with DirecTV, which held both the residential and commercial rights, it was only the residential rights to Sunday Ticket that was agreed with YouTube for its live TV service (YouTube TV) and its standalone subscription shopping service (YouTube Primetime Channels).
While this had led to some uncertainty on how NFL Sunday Ticket would be made available to commercial establishments, such as bars and hotels, the NFL’s latest deal clears things up. The announcement was made by the NFL during its 2023 Annual Meeting in Phoenix and confirms that the newly-formed EverPass Media now holds the multi-year license to provide NFL Sunday Ticket to commercial businesses.
Essentially, the NFL and RedBird created EverPass Media as a joint venture that’s specifically designed to adopt the role of the commercial distributor for Sunday Ticket. This is different to the situation before where commercial businesses had to get DirecTV to get Sunday Ticket. Instead, they’ll now be able to deal directly with EverPass Media.
According to Gerry Cardinale, RedBird Founder and Managing Partner, “Anchored by Sunday Ticket, EverPass Media will provide premium rights holders a scalable live event entertainment service that will enhance the customer experience at commercial establishments across the country.”
This would seem to suggest that Sunday Ticket is only likely to be the start, with EverPass Media eventually also helping in the distribution of other live sports and events to commercial properties.
Leave a Reply