Breaking: Businesses continue to get NFL Sunday Ticket through DIRECTV

Thanks to the eagle-eyed folks at SatelliteGuys.US who noticed this before I did.

The deal is done. Commercial customers who want NFL Sunday Ticket will be able to get it through DIRECTV as they always have. According to the press release available at DIRECTV.com, the company has reached an agreement with EverPass Media, holders of commercial rights for NFL Sunday Ticket, which will keep the package on Satellite TV for years to come.

Owners of bars and restaurants can now breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the quality television service they’ve enjoyed for over 20 years will continue. A lot of establishments count on live sports to bring customers in and keep them in their seats. Your typical sports bar more or less makes it their business model. And now, as always, all the major sports leagues are represented by one company: DIRECTV.

This is a good match and a smart business deal

DIRECTV has stated several times in past years that it’s the commercial part of the NFL deal which makes money. Uptake on the residential side is said to have been flagging for some time, possibly due to the package being on the more expensive side. Allowing Google to pay the NFL’s asking price for residential rights may end up actually creating more profit for DIRECTV than if they had kept the residential rights.

This may be the minority opinion but…

I have personally come under fire for my prediction about residential NFL Sunday Ticket. I think it’s going to be a very rocky road for Google come the fall. DIRECTV itself had problems with streaming NFL games for years. It always took about three weeks to fix them. Now I know Google is a big company that already handles a lot of streaming video. I get that. But on NFL days, they’ll be handling all the streaming video they normally do, plus NFL games. And remember too it’s not just Google. It’s not just the intermediary companies that take the traffic demands off Google. You also need a local infrastructure that’s up to the task.

I personally think that a lot of areas don’t have robust enough internet to handle everyone streaming live TV at the same time. Try to stream something on a Saturday night and see how well it works for you. For many folks, it’s an exercise in frustration. Now imagine all that traffic was coming into local network switching offices from just one source. I think it’s a recipe for disaster.

Well, I guess we shall see. All I can say is, if you try to stream NFL games at home and it doesn’t work, head over to your local bar. They’ll get the game over satellite and there won’t be a problem.

If you’re a bar owner who hasn’t yet upgraded to DIRECTV, call the experts at Signal Connect. They’ll get you set up in plenty of time, no matter how many TVs you have and how many patrons are watching. Call us at 888-233-7563 during East Coast business hours. If it’s after hours, just fill out the form below. We’ll get right back to you!

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.