#NFL, RedBird Capital Launch New Company to Deliver Games to Bars and Restaurants

The NFL is partnering with Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital on a new venture that will offer NFL games to commercial venues like bars, restaurants and hotels.

The new company is called EverPass Media, and has a multi-year license to sell the NFL’s Sunday out-of-market TV package NFL Sunday Ticket to commercial venues. The NFL says it will be offered on a non-exclusive basis through all cable and satellite TV companies.

YouTube has the consumer streaming rights to Sunday Ticket beginning with next season.

“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,” said Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s Chief Media and Business Officer. “We look forward to working with EverPass Media to expand the Sunday Ticket footprint in commercial establishments across the country.”

EverPass will be led by media veterans Derek Chang, who will be executive chairman, and Alex Kaplan, who will be CEO. According to RedBird and the NFL, while its first offering will be Sunday Ticket, it “intends to grow its content offering beyond NFL Sunday Ticket, providing businesses a broader premium live sports and entertainment service both in the US and globally.”

“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,” adds Chang.

EverPass’ only real competitor in the space is satellite company DirecTV, which used to hold exclusive Sunday Ticket rights. DirecTV is the provider of NFL Thursday Night Football to commercial venues (the game streams on Amazon Prime Video), and also offers Apple’s MLS and MLB games to commercial locations.

RedBird is funding EverPass, with the NFL participating through its investment arm 32 Equity. The two companies previously partnered on the launch of On Location Experiences, which eventually was sold to Endeavor.

“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,” said Gerry Cardinale, RedBird Founder and Managing Partner. “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.”