Fans watch the 48th NFL Super Bowl between the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks at a sports bar in New Jersey on February 2, 2014.
Cem Ozdel | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Satellite dishes are no longer the only way for bars and restaurants to broadcast National Football League “Sunday Ticket” game packages.
EverPass Media is a joint venture between Alliance and private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners. have Acquired the commercial rights to UPshow, a platform with the technical capabilities to allow commercial organizations to broadcast live sports events. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Through the acquisition, bars, restaurants, casinos and other businesses will be able to play the “Sunday Ticket” game. Until recently, they could only do this through a subscription to satellite TV provider DirecTV.
However, DirecTV will still serve as a distributor for bars and restaurants. EverPass signed a non-exclusive agreement with DirecTV last year to continue publishing “Sunday Ticket” games, allowing it to strike deals with other distribution platforms.
“More and more content is moving to streaming,” said Alex Kaplan, CEO of EverPass. “Whatever the economics of streaming, it’s clear that live sports is a big part of it.” “We will consider how to deliver products to our customers. and services, it’s becoming increasingly challenging for them to aggregate in a meaningful way. We’re still in the early stages…but it’s a big problem for us to take a step forward.
New distribution options will be available for the upcoming NFL season.
The acquisition of EverPass comes at a time when more and more live sports events are available exclusively on streaming services — a new frontier for businesses that have long subscribed to traditional pay-TV packages to offer live sports.
“Sunday Ticket” is a must-have sports package for bars and restaurants as it offers all out-of-market NFL games.
At the end of 2022, Google’YouTube TV acquired the broadcast rights to “Sunday Ticket” for about $2 billion per year in a seven-year deal. DirecTV used to be owner has been the exclusive residential and commercial distributor of the game since the package’s launch in 1994.
This follows a transaction Amazon’Prime Video will be the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football – part of an 11-year NFL media rights deal worth more than $100 billion.
Since then, media rights holders for NFL games have begun making games available simultaneously — and in some cases exclusively — on their streaming services. earlier this year ComcastNBCUniversal aired an NFL Wild Card Game on Peacock, marking the first time the playoffs will be exclusively broadcast on streaming media. Netflix The company also recently acquired the rights to broadcast two NFL games this Christmas and at least one game during the holiday period over the next two years.
New investors, new opportunities
The New York Stock Exchange welcomes senior executives and board members of TKO (NYSE: TKO). To mark the occasion, TKO management and board members, accompanied by NYSE President Lynn Martin, rang the Opening Bell®.
EverPass also brought on a new investor this week.
The joint venture announced Tseung Kwan O – The newly merged company combining Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment – will enter the ownership group. TKO is majority owned by Endeavor Group Holdings.
“Now with the support of RedBird, the NFL and TKO, we feel we have the means to further support this technology,” Kaplan said.
EverPass also hopes to become a reseller of “Sunday Ticket” and other content outside of the NFL.
“We’re looking for new content and we certainly think they have great content and hopefully we’ll be able to talk about it in the near future,” Kaplan said of whether EverPass will release TKO’s WWE or UFC. “Overall We feel very good about our content pipeline.”
The company first partnered with UPshow when it began offering Peacock Sports Pass, a way for commercial organizations to live stream select sports events on the NBCUniversal streaming platform, including the NFL, Premier League and college football games.
According to the company, pricing for the Peacock Sports Pass will be similar to the upcoming “Sunday Ticket”, depending on the commercial organization’s classification. website.
In addition, the acquisition of UPshow will provide EverPass with the opportunity to explore global distribution as leagues such as the NFL, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball enter the international market.
“Technology transcends borders. So, all of a sudden, we actually have the ability to go international,” said Derek Chang, executive chairman of EverPass. “And then you have the investment in Endeavor/TKO, which obviously has huge global reach. ”
Revealed: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
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