DIRECTV to carry Sunday Ticket for Business Subscribers

[KyL416]

DIRECTV struck a deal with EverPass to distribute Sunday Ticket to business customers. It will be on channels 9552 to 9565.

EverPass's deal is non-exclusive, so it's also possible for cable providers to pick it up, however very few cable systems have the spare QAM bandwidth to reserve 14 additional HD feeds for something that's only available to business customers unless they use switched video or IP delivery, so they wouldn't be able to offer it across their entire footprint. Plus those businesses would still need DIRECTV if they want to show Prime Video's Thursday Night Football.

 

[PioneerDJ]

I honestly thought it would be channel numbers 9701-9714… but this is great news for every business with existing receivers. Question is will Dish network make a deal? Will Peacock also make a deal with DTV Business or Red Bird/EverPass for NFL exclusives, Big Ten, Notre Dame, English Premier League, MLB, Olympics?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

DirecTV Sets Deal To Continue Distributing NFL Sunday Ticket To Commercial Businesses As Consumer Rights Shift To YouTube

DirecTV, which held the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket for nearly three decades until YouTube took over the package, has struck a deal to continue distributing it to bars, restaurants and other commer…

deadline.com

 

[KyL416]

Question is will Dish network make a deal?

It's probably not worth it unless they can get a per subscriber deal from EverPass, as most sports bars want a provider who also carries their local RSNs.

 

[lordodogg]

Will it have Andrew Siciliano hosting RedZone? Asking for a friend of mine since he loved that channel, lol

 

[KyL416]

They only list 14 channels which is just enough for the games, and DIRECTV will not be the ones producing the package, that will be handled by EverPass.

YouTube will have NFL Network's Red Zone Channel as an extra purchase for Sunday Ticket subscribers. DIRECTV will have to strike a new deal with the NFL Network if they also want to offer that next season.

 

[MrMars]

Most cable companies (and even Dish) had Thursday Night Football. Xfinity was the major execption, COX and Spectrum ended up picking them up later in the season.

If it's a revenue sharing deal can see the cable companies that have IP setup along with Dish picking it up. If they have to make a bid then doubt anyone else strikes a deal.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[KyL416]

Most cable companies (and even Dish) had Thursday Night Football. Xfinity was the major execption, COX and Spectrum ended up picking them up later in the season.

They aren't distributing the games directly, it's via their Prime Video apps that require you to login with your prime subscription and it is only available to residential customers. The only way for business subscribers to show Thursday Night Football is via DIRECTV channel 9526.

 

[Juan]

They aren't distributing the games directly, it's via their Prime Video apps that require you to login with your prime subscription and it is only available to residential customers. The only way for business subscribers to show Thursday Night Football is via DIRECTV channel 9526.

Legally

 

[KyL416]

Yes legally, but good luck to any business who gets caught. If it's like before, EverPass will have a list of establishments who paid for Sunday Ticket for Business, so they'll be able to confirm if a business has the rights to show the games. And many of them end up giving themselves away by either promoting that they have NFL games, or their own patrons ratting them out by listing the bar as their current location when reacting to a play on social media with a picture of a TV showing a game that's only available via Sunday Ticket in their area.

Also, many business internet connections won't be able to handle streaming multiple games, especially if the bandwidth is shared with their public wifi, so it will also be obvious if someone is sitting at a bar and the game starts buffering or the video quality dips. They will also give themselves away when the CBS and Fox feeds have local ad breaks and the bar's TVs are showing YouTube's dynamic ads instead of whatever EverPass will insert as filler on the business feeds. Businesses attempting to stream Thursday Night Football via a residential Prime account can get caught the same way as DIRECTV's feed does not have their dynamic ads.

Since these will be seperate feeds produced by EverPass for business subscribers, they might also have the ability to insert an on screen bug similar to what they do in the UK where every sports channel has a seperate "For pubs" feed with a dynamic drinking glass graphic in the corner to catch bars who show BT Sport, Sky Sports or PPV events with a residential Sky account.

 

[Johnnyspot]

DIRECTV struck a deal with EverPass to distribute Sunday Ticket to business customers. It will be on channels 9552 to 9565.

EverPass's deal is non-exclusive, so it's also possible for cable providers to pick it up, however very few cable systems have the spare QAM bandwidth to reserve 14 additional HD feeds for something that's only available to business customers unless they use switched video or IP delivery, so they wouldn't be able to offer it across their entire footprint. Plus those businesses would still need DIRECTV if they want to show Prime Video's Thursday Night Football.

They could do the same thing Directv does now. Throttle down the bandwidth on the least watched channels at that time to pick up the feeds

Also almost every cable company has some form of IPTV now anyway The spare QAM piece isn’t really relevant anymore

 

[KyL416]

They could do the same thing Directv does now. Throttle down the bandwidth on the least watched channels at that time to pick up the feeds

DIRECTV does NOT throttle bandwidth to squeeze in part time feeds. For part time HD feeds they repurpose the CINEHD channels, for part time SD feeds they use a mix of reserved space and the infomercial channels.

i.e. this is what they used last season for Sunday Ticket's HD feeds:
701 Repurposed the MLB Game Mix
702 CINEHD 142 & 143
703 CINEHD 126
704 CINEHD 146
705 CINEHD 147
706 CINEHD 138
707 CINEHD 137
708 CINEHD 134
709 CINEHD 140
710 CINEHD 128
711 CINEHD 153
712 CINEHD 152
713 CINEHD 151
714 CINEHD 150
715 CINEHD 149
716 CINEHD 148
717 CINEHD 144
718 CINEHD 155
719 CINEHD 156

SD varied from week to week, but in general 705-716 used dedicated reserved space on 101 TPNs 8 and 17, 9530 Red Zone for airlines repurposed FRESH, and if they needed 717-719 or there were other part time SD feeds needed that afternoon for RSN alternates or Stadium College Sports, they repurposed additional infomercial channels like RENEW, NEW, XTRA, WOW, IDEA, VISION, SECRET, GETIT, CRAVE and BEST.

You can easily tell it's a busy day for part time feeds if you browse the CINEHD channels or the infomercial blocks and you see a lot of "Programming will resume at ..." or 6 hour "Upcoming: ...." blocks in the guide.


That isn't an option for cable because both iNDemand and Avail/TVN discontinued their dozens of PPV movie channels in the mid 2000s when VOD became widely available, while their out of market packages are supplied by iNDemand's 14 GAME (MLB/NHL) and 10 TEAM (NBA) channels, which both conflict with the NFL season. For the local RSN Plus/Extra/2 channels cable providers usually carry their 24/7 feeds that have filler programming, display a custom sports slate as filler, or repurpose their leased access/community bulletin board channel, while for national channels with regional variations like ESPN, BTN and the NFL, NHL and MLB Networks they just get the designated game for their area on the main channel.

 

[Stuart Sweet]

DIRECTV does NOT throttle bandwidth to squeeze in part time feeds. For part time HD feeds they repurpose the CINEHD channels, for part time SD feeds they use a mix of reserved space and the infomercial channels.

I agree here with KyL. Lack of bandwidth is certainly not a problem DIRECTV has. They have plenty of it, thanks to the big 'ol satellites at their primary locations. Those things were planned with the idea of providing 4K locals to the top major markets, as well as about 50 4K national channels.

 

[lordodogg]

display a custom sports slate as filler, or repurpose their leased access/community bulletin board channel

Only system I know that still carries such channel (at least per Zap2It) is Comcast Gettysburg, PA. It’s channel 12 on there, lol
Gettysburg gets ATTSN Pittsburgh, NBCS Washington, and MASN.
On the Comcast system, MASN 2 is its own channel, 24.
NBCS Washington Plus though, is all the way in the 1000s, on channel 1256.
An alternate ATTSN Pittsburgh is on channel 262. I would think it’s only used when a Pirates game conflicts with the Penguins, but it has a full schedule and doesn’t say “Local Programming” which is basically their definition of TBA

 

[lordodogg]

Those things were planned with the idea of providing 4K locals to the top major markets

Except for maybe ATSC 3.0, I don't think 4K locals are a thing...yet

 

[Don in CT]

How do bars handle the Apple TV games. MLS and MLB. Does Apple have business accounts.

 

[PioneerDJ]

How do bars handle the Apple TV games. MLS and MLB. Does Apple have business accounts.

No, DirecTV exclusively carries Apple TV games
MLS is channels 9475-9490
MLB is channels 9528-9529

MLB is no extra cost, MLS costs $100 for the season, though they are now offering bars, restaurants 50% off

 

[PioneerDJ]

They will also give themselves away when the CBS and Fox feeds have local ad breaks and the bar's TVs are showing YouTube's dynamic ads instead of whatever EverPass will insert as filler on the business feeds. Businesses attempting to stream Thursday Night Football via a residential Prime account can get caught the same way as DIRECTV's feed does not have their dynamic ads.

Since these will be seperate feeds produced by EverPass for business subscribers, they might also have the ability to insert an on screen bug similar to what they do in the UK where every sports channel has a seperate "For pubs" feed with a dynamic drinking glass graphic in the corner to catch bars who show BT Sport, Sky Sports or PPV events with a residential Sky account.

The YouTube icon in the Sunday Ticket logo will be the giveaway for scouters and spies looking for bars not listed on the EverPass accounts. EverPass is like Joe Hand Promotions. This will be like how PPV fights are handled… federal copyright lawsuits

 

[slice1900]

Every once in a while you'd hear about some place getting sued for showing NFLST illegally, where the owner was bringing receivers from a home account or something like that. Since the places doing that weren't the profitable ones that can afford paying for NFLST legitimately, it invariably drove them out of business.

If you can't make the numbers work driving enough additional revenue to pay for NFLST then it is smarter to concentrate on the games available OTA in your area instead. In many places that's who most of your customers want to see anyway.

 

[Johnnyspot]

DIRECTV does NOT throttle bandwidth to squeeze in part time feeds. For part time HD feeds they repurpose the CINEHD channels, for part time SD feeds they use a mix of reserved space and the infomercial channels.

i.e. this is what they used last season for Sunday Ticket's HD feeds:
701 Dedicated bonus mix feed
702 Repurposed the MLB Game Mix
703 CINEHD 126
704 CINEHD 146
705 CINEHD 147
706 CINEHD 138
707 CINEHD 137
708 CINEHD 134
709 CINEHD 140
710 CINEHD 128
711 CINEHD 153
712 CINEHD 152
713 CINEHD 151
714 CINEHD 150
715 CINEHD 149
716 CINEHD 148
717 CINEHD 144
718 CINEHD 155
719 CINEHD 156

SD varied from week to week, but in general 705-716 used dedicated reserved space on 101 TPNs 8 and 17, 9530 Red Zone for airlines repurposed FRESH, and if they needed 717-719 or there were other part time SD feeds needed that afternoon for RSN alternates or Stadium College Sports, they repurposed additional infomercial channels like RENEW, NEW, XTRA, WOW, IDEA, VISION, SECRET, GETIT, CRAVE and BEST.

You can easily tell it's a busy day for part time feeds if you browse the CINEHD channels or the infomercial blocks and you see a lot of "Programming will resume at ..." or 6 hour "Upcoming: ...." blocks in the guide.


That isn't an option for cable because both iNDemand and Avail/TVN discontinued their dozens of PPV movie channels in the mid 2000s when VOD became widely available, while their out of market packages are supplied by iNDemand's 14 GAME (MLB/NHL) and 10 TEAM (NBA) channels, which both conflict with the NFL season. For the local RSN Plus/Extra/2 channels cable providers usually carry their 24/7 feeds that have filler programming, display a custom sports slate as filler, or repurpose their leased access/community bulletin board channel, while for national channels with regional variations like ESPN, BTN and the NFL, NHL and MLB Networks they just get the designated game for their area on the main channel.

Some former engineer commented and confirmed on here before that they did in fact throttle down some channels for Sunday ticket I seem to recall he commented it wasn’t that hard due to the variable bit rate encoders they use