DIRECTV and EverPass Media have signed a deal that allows bars, restaurants, hotels and other public venues to subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket through their DIRECTV for Business subscription, the companies announced on Friday.
The deal gives DIRECTV for Business customers the ability to offer every Sunday afternoon and evening out-of-market NFL game in their public and private venues, and prevents businesses from having to upgrade their equipment simply to offer NFL games that aren’t available on their local CBS or Fox stations.
The arrangement is non-exclusive. Charter’s Spectrum TV also offers the NFL Sunday Ticket through its Xumo Stream Box for business customers under a similar arrangement with EverPass Media.
The consumer rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket shifted to YouTube with the start of the NFL’s 2023 season, but DIRECTV for Business was allowed to offer the package through its satellite platform under a temporary agreement with EverPass Media.
That agreement ended when the 2025 season concluded. In a statement posted online, EverPass Media warned bars, restaurants and other public venues that they needed to purchase a subscription through them in order to continue receiving NFL Sunday Ticket in subsequent seasons.
“EverPass is the exclusive commercial distributor for bars, restaurants, hotels, casinos, and other businesses, and there are no active negotiations that would change that outcome,” the company wrote in their blog post, according to a copy reviewed by The Desk.
A frequently asked questions (FAQ) section attached to the blog post expanded over time, with EverPass Media telling public venues that streaming offered a more-streamlined, reliable way to receive sports programming, including the NFL Sunday Ticket.
But sports bar owners didn’t see things that way, with some making public comments criticizing the move away from DIRECTV for Business. Most public venues invested thousands of dollars years ago to deliver the NFL Sunday Ticket and live sports to multiple screens in their venues, they said; having to upgrade equipment to receive the same programming through EverPass Media wasn’t financially feasible, especially if equipment would need to be upgraded again in the near future to take advantage of emergent streaming technologies, they complained.
“That’s the problem when we change to the world of streaming, because if you basically have any kind of glitches or delays, they don’t blame the NFL, they won’t blame EverPass streaming, they’ll blame the restaurant,” Jim Hallers, the founder of a chain of sports bars called Tailgators, said during a panel appearance at StreamTV Show in June.
Hallers continued: “They’ll go to the bar down the street, because they didn’t mess up the game last week. It’s a critical infrastructure for us all; it just needs to work. The bars and restaurants are the gathering place for fans to come together….it’s been working for 30 years and we just want it to keep working.”
That system will keep working, at least for one additional football season, according to DIRECTV and EverPass Media. The deal allows more than 300,000 commercial establishments with a DIRECTV subscription to continue offering NFL Sunday Ticket in their venues. In addition to bars and restaurants, DIRECTV for Business clients include hotels, hospitals, college dorms, Las Vegas casinos, resorts, cruise lines, senior living facilities and aircraft.
“For decades, businesses have trusted DIRECTV to deliver the biggest moments in sports,” Mike Wittrock, the Chief Operating Officer at DIRECTV, said in a statement. “This agreement gives businesses more flexibility in how they watch NFL Sunday Ticket and other sports content, with access to one of the most comprehensive commercial sports offerings.”
DIRECTV for Business customers will be able to tack on NFL RedZone, the league’s whip-around channel, to their NFL Sunday Ticket package if they prefer, the company said. NFL RedZone continues to be available to DIRECTV’s residential subscribers as well.
