New NFL Venture Has Exclusive Rights To Distribute Sunday Ticket At Retail Locations
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 at 07:23PM NYSJ Sports-Entertainment Business News Service
March 28, 2023: In December, the NFL signed Google to exclusively distribute NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels to residential consumers in the U.S. starting with the 2023 NFL season.
Today, the NFL and RedBird Capital Partners unveiled EverPass Media, described as a “new media platform which will hold the exclusive rights to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket to bars, restaurants, hotels and other commercial venues in the United States starting with the 2023 NFL season.”
According to the NFL, the multi-year license of out-of-market Sunday afternoon games to EverPass Media “will provide access to NFL Sunday Ticket for commercial businesses across the country.
“Going forward, the service will be available on a non-exclusive basis through all participating cable and satellite providers.”
EverPass Media said it “intends to grow its content offering beyond NFL Sunday Ticket, providing businesses a broader premium live sports and entertainment service both in the U.S. and globally.”
NFL Sunday Ticket launched in 1994 and had been distributed on DirecTV's satellite service since its inception.
Consisting of all out-of-market Sunday regular-season NFL games (based on the viewer's location) broadcast on Fox and CBS, NFL Sunday Ticket allows people in the U.S. no matter where they reside to follow all teams and players.
“Making our games as widely available as possible has been the bedrock of our media strategy and Sunday Ticket’s presence in bars, restaurants and other commercial venues provides millions of fans a way to watch all out-of-market games on Sunday afternoons,” Brian Rolapp, NFL chief media and business officer, said via the league.
“We look forward to working with EverPass Media to expand the Sunday Ticket footprint in commercial establishments across the country.”
RedBird is funding the creation of EverPass Media; the NFL, through its strategic investment arm 32 Equity, will also make an equity investment.
The NFL and 32 Equity previously partnered with RedBird to create On Location Experiences, a global firm handling premium live-event hospitality and fan experiences.
“We are excited to partner again with the NFL to develop an innovative platform to expand the League’s reach to its fan base and the sports media ecosystem more broadly,” Gerry Cardinale, RedBird founder and managing partner, said via the firm.
“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.”
EverPass Media will be led by executive chairman Derek Chang and CEO Alex Kaplan, veteran media executives with more than 25 years each of experience in sports and entertainment.
“Our goal is to create a new model for commercial sports rights distribution around the globe, and we believe that this is just the beginning of an exciting journey,” said Chang via EverPass Media.
“Creating a platform that allows commercial establishments to deliver the content that their customers desire is a significant opportunity and technology allows us to aggregate this content to a platform that can scale and evolve the viewing experience.”
According to Kaplan via EverPass Media, “Watching the NFL in bars and restaurants continues to be one of the most popular and important ways for fans to engage with their favorite teams.
“NFL Sunday Ticket is an important offering for any commercial establishment, and we look forward to working with our partners to innovate the viewing experience to ensure that more establishments can benefit from this offering and ultimately serve more fans.”
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