Earlier this year, bar and restaurant owners learned that they’d need to pivot from satellite to streaming. Then, after many of them did, they found out that they didn’t need to do it.
Understandably, they’re not happy about that.
In an item for Awful Announcing, Daniel Kaplan reports that some bar owners are considering litigation over the apparent bait-and-switch for the money that was wasted to overhaul the technological infrastructure after being told that DirecTV was out of the Sunday Ticket business for good.
EverPass, which distributes NFL products to commercial establishments, sent a clear message that the obsolescence of satellite was irreversible.
“The shift happening in live sports distribution is much bigger than any one company or product,” EverPass told a bar owner in May, per Kaplan. “To clarify, there are no active discussions between EverPass and DirecTV regarding NFL Sunday Ticket. EverPass is the only authorized commercial distribution platform for NFL Sunday Ticket, beginning with the 2026 season.”
The bars and restaurants that spent the money to install a streaming capacity are now SOL, given that DirecTV suddenly resurfaced with a Sunday Ticket deal late last month.
Some bar owners played the waiting game, betting that EverPass eventually would strike a deal with DirecTV. Those who took EverPass at its word have now coughed up plenty of money that they didn’t need to spend.
No lawsuit has been filed to date. It feels inevitable that litigation is coming.
