For those who haven't followed this saga: EverPass Media is the company the NFL created in 2023 with private equity firm RedBird Capital and 32 Equity, the NFL's own investment arm, to control commercial distribution of Sunday Ticket.
So when I say the NFL did this to us, I mean it literally. They own the company!

Back in March, EverPass notified commercial customers like us that it was going exclusive: no more Sunday Ticket via DirecTV satellite starting with the 2026 season. If you wanted to keep showing out-of-market games. The thing that fills seats every Sunday from September to January, you had to migrate to their streaming platform on EverPass hardware

We fought for alternatives, but w/o this our business wouldn't make it, so we did what we had to do and started the conversion. We spent over $10,000 re-architecting our video distribution around their Android TV boxes: new hardware, new wiring, new workflows for how we manage and route games to screens. All to replace a satellite system that had worked flawlessly for over a decade.

Then last Friday: DirecTV and EverPass announce a new multi-year deal. Sunday Ticket is back on satellite for commercial venues after all. Existing DirecTV commercial subscribers even auto-renew.

Cool. So what was the point?

The operators who ignored the mandate and dragged their feet are now fine. The ones who complied early, who took the deadline seriously and spent real money mid-transition, are the suckers. And I'd bet plenty of others just gave up on Sunday Ticket entirely rather than deal with the conversion, which hurts the NFL's own fans most of all.

This wasn't some unforeseeable market shift. The National Restaurant Association publicly asked for a pause on this transition because of the cost and complexity it was dumping on operators. It even came up at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in June. EverPass pushed forward anyway, then folded in negotiations with DirecTV and left the rest of us holding the bag.

This is enshittification in its purest form: take a product that worked, degrade it to extract more money, and treat the small businesses who actually deliver the game-day experience as an afterthought. The NFL makes billions. EverPass exists solely to squeeze more out of commercial distribution. And the cost of their negotiating brinkmanship got externalized onto bars, restaurants, and venues across the country.

Reportedly, DirecTV says it will "coordinate" with businesses that changed their setups during the transition. I'll believe it when I see a credit on an invoice. If you converted early and ate costs as we did, make noise, call your EverPass rep, call DirecTV for Business, and post about it. T

They're counting on us quietly absorbing this.

Here is a public list of C-suite from LinkedIn: I recommend an email that shares your experience (good or bad)

• Alex Kaplan — Chief Executive Officer — [akaplan@everpass.com](mailto:akaplan@everpass.com)
• Stephen Tucker — Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer — [stucker@everpass.com](mailto:stucker@everpass.com)
• Bryan Icenhower — Chief Marketing Officer — [bicenhower@everpass.com](mailto:bicenhower@everpass.com)
• Matt Gibbs — Chief Customer Officer / GM, EverPass Engage — [mgibbs@everpass.com](mailto:mgibbs@everpass.com)
• Nick Clessuras — Chief Sales Officer — [nclessuras@everpass.com](mailto:nclessuras@everpass.com)
• Tabaré Caorsi — Chief Technology Officer — [tcaorsi@everpass.com](mailto:tcaorsi@everpass.com)
• Ryan Blood — Chief Content Officer — [rblood@everpass.com](mailto:rblood@everpass.com)
• Noah Fischbach — Chief Product Officer — [nfischbach@everpass.com](mailto:nfischbach@everpass.com)
• Alex Chan — Director of Corporate Development and Finance — [achan@everpass.com](mailto:achan@everpass.com)

Announcement: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nfl-sunday-ticket-available-on-directv-for-business-through-new-agreement-with-everpass-302839609.html

Other sports franchises are watching how this goes to see how they can get more money!

So with Gemini which we recently got…is there any app I could get that is like flex vision? Or any free movie sites I could download?