Football fans watch the NFL's Super Bowl XLVIII game between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks at a sports bar in New Jersey on February 2, 2014.
Cem Ozdel | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
A satellite dish is no longer the only way for bars and restaurants to broadcast the National Football League's “Sunday Ticket” package of games.
EverPass Media, the joint venture between the league and private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, which owns the commercial rights to “Sunday Ticket,” has acquired UPshow, a platform with the technological capabilities necessary to allow commercial venues to stream 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 television provider DirecTV.
However, DirecTV will continue to be a distributor for bars and restaurants. EverPass signed a non-exclusive agreement with DirecTV last year to continue distributing the “Sunday Ticket” games, which gives it the ability to strike deals with other distribution platforms.
“More and more content is streaming. Regardless of the economics of streaming, it's become pretty clear that live sports are a big part of that,” said Alex Kaplan, CEO of EverPass. “We're going to be thinking about how to deliver a product and service to our customers that they're finding increasingly difficult to integrate in a meaningful way. We're still in the early stages… but this is a big step for us.”
The new distribution option will be available next NFL season.
The acquisition of EverPass comes at a time when more and more live sports games are being offered exclusively on streaming services, a new frontier for retail outlets that have long relied on traditional pay-TV packages to offer live sports.
Sunday Ticket is a comprehensive sports package for bars and restaurants, offering all out-of-market NFL games.
By the end of 2022, Google'YouTube TV has acquired the residential rights to “Sunday Ticket” for an estimated $2 billion a year, a deal that will run for seven years. DirecTV had been the exclusive residential and commercial owner and distributor of the games since the package’s inception in 1994.
This followed an agreement to Amazon'Prime Video will become the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football,” part of the NFL's 11-year media rights deal worth more than $100 billion.
Since then, NFL streaming rights holders have begun offering games simultaneously on their streaming services, and in some cases exclusively. Earlier this year, ComcastNBCUniversal streamed an NFL wild-card game on 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 on the holiday in the next two years.
New investors, new opportunities
The New York Stock Exchange welcomes the executives and members of the board of directors of TKO (NYSE: TKO). To honor the occasion, TKO management and board members, joined by Lynn Martin, President of the New York Stock Exchange, ring the opening bell.
EverPass also added a new investor this week.
The joint venture announced that Technical knockout —the recently merged company that combines Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment—will enter the ownership group. TKO is majority owned by Endeavor Holdings Group.
“Now that RedBird, the NFL and TKO have endorsed us, we believe we have the means to further support that technology,” Kaplan said.
EverPass is also looking to become a distributor of other content besides “Sunday Ticket” and the NFL.
“We're looking for new content and we think they have great content and we hope to be able to talk about it in the near future,” Kaplan said of whether EverPass will distribute WWE or UFC TKO. “Overall, we feel very good about our content offering.”
The company first partnered with UPshow when it began offering Peacock Sports Pass, which is a way for commercial outlets to stream some of the live 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 retailer's classification, according to the company's website.
Additionally, 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 making inroads into international markets.
“Technology transcends borders. Suddenly, we have the ability to go international,” said Derek Chang, CEO of EverPass. “And then there's the Endeavor/TKO investment, which obviously has a huge reach globally in terms of relationships.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
