NFL fans just scored another way to stream their favorite NFL games outside of their living rooms.
EverPass Media announced this week that it acquired UPshow, a streaming platform that allows public establishments, including bars and restaurant chains, to show “Sunday Ticket” NFL games, previously only available through a DirecTV satellite subscription.
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“More content is moving to streaming. Regardless of the streaming economics, it’s become pretty clear that live sports is an important piece of that,” EverPass CEO Alex Kaplan said, per CNBC. “We’re going to think about how to deliver a product and service to our customers that’s becoming increasingly more challenging for them to sort of aggregate in a meaningful way.”
YouTubeTV bought the residential rights to “Sunday Ticket” for $2 billion a year in a seven-year deal struck at the end of 2022. Before this, DirecTV had been the owner and exclusive distributor of the package since 1994.
The move comes as more streaming platforms look to get into the live sports business, especially the NFL.
In March 2021, Amazon’s Prime Video acquired exclusive streaming nights for the league’s “Thursday Night Football” for $1 billion a year starting with the 2023-2024 NFL season through 2033.
This marked the first time a streaming platform bought exclusive rights to an NFL package.
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In May, Netflix announced that it would have streaming rights for the first time for the NFL’s Christmas Day 2024 games — the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans.
Financial details of the EverPass and UPShow deal were not disclosed.
Last week, a jury found the NFL guilty of breaking antitrust laws for the “Sunday Ticket” program.
The damages were set at around $4.8 billion. The NFL is appealing.
