DirecTV will stay in the "NFL Sunday Ticket" business, after the pay TV company's commercial division signed an agreement to re-up rights to the out-of-market games package for more than 3,000 restaurants, bars and other publicly accessible U.S. establishments.
The multi-year agreement, which kicks off with the upcoming 2023 pro football regular season, was announced without disclosed terms. Earlier reports suggested the NFL was looking to get paid around $200 million a season for exclusive Sunday Ticket commercial rights.
However, according to CNBC, citing unnamed sources, DirecTV's deal doesn't stipulate exclusive rights.
In December, the league announced that Google would take over rights to the main NFL Sunday Ticket package, paying a reported $2 billion a season. NFL Sunday Ticket had been an exclusive premium offering of the DirecTV satellite TV service since its inception in 1994.
DirecTV's deal was actually with EverPass Media Reach, a new joint venture set up by the NFL and private equity firm Red Bird Capital Partners in March to manage commercial Sunday Ticket rights, and perhaps other live event rights down the road.
As for DirecTV for Business, the division has been on an aggressive sports-rights licensing spree recently, having locked up Major League Baseball's “Friday Night Baseball” and Major League Soccer’s “MLS SEASON PASS” via Apple, as well as the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” via Amazon Prime Video.
“EverPass is creating a platform for commercial businesses that allows for seamless access to must-have live sports and entertainment content," said Mike Wittrock, DirecTV's chief sales and service officer, in a statement.
"We are pleased to partner with DirecTV for Business in this multi-year agreement to deliver NFL Sunday Ticket,” added EverPass CEO Alex Kaplan.
