The NFL thing everyone's mad about

DirecTV lost NFL Sunday Ticket for bars. Done. Gone. Starting this season, the only way to get Sunday Ticket in your place is EverPass, and it only works over the internet. No more satellite. If you call DirecTV asking for Sunday Ticket, they can't sell it to you. That's the whole story.

But here's what nobody's telling you: this isn't just an NFL problem.

Every sport is doing the same thing

The NFL is just first. Every league is breaking their games up across a bunch of different apps and services. Watch:

Basketball. NBA games are now split across ESPN, NBC, Amazon, and Peacock. Some are streaming-only. And a lot of bars aren't even allowed to show those apps legally. What used to be one or two packages is now a mess of subscriptions.

Baseball. MLB is spread across six different services now. Six. ESPN, NBC, Netflix, Fox, Apple TV, TBS. Plus your regional channel for the home team.

College. Peacock has Big Ten games you literally can't get anywhere else. The rest is scattered across ESPN+, ABC, Fox, CBS. Some bar owners are so fed up they're pushing their states to make leagues stop hiding games behind one app.

Soccer, hockey, UFC. Same story. Different app for each one.

The one-box-does-it-all days are over. It's not coming back. Anyone telling you to just wait it out is wrong.

Here's the problem this creates

More streaming means more boxes. And more boxes means two headaches you feel right away.

First, your internet takes a beating. Every streaming box pulls its own feed off your internet. So if eight TVs are all showing the same game off eight different boxes, you're pulling that same game eight times. That's how bars end up buffering and freezing right when the play everybody's watching happens.

Second, it's a pain to run. Now you've got a pile of remotes, a rat's nest of boxes, and a new bartender who has no idea which remote does what. On a busy Sunday that's the last thing you need.

Where DisplayHub comes in

This is the part that actually fixes the mess. DisplayHub is a control system built for exactly this problem, and here's what it does in plain terms.

It saves your internet. Instead of every TV pulling its own stream, DisplayHub pulls a game one time and sends that same feed out to as many TVs as you want over your own network. Eight TVs on the same game? That's one pull off your internet, not eight. That alone is the difference between a smooth Sunday and a frozen screen at the worst possible moment.

It kills the pile of remotes. You run everything from one place. No more walking the floor with six clickers. And you get an on-screen preview, so you can see what's playing on a source before you throw it up on a TV. No more flipping a big screen through channels in front of a packed bar hoping you land on the right game.

Adding a source is easy. Got a new streaming box or an EverPass unit to plug in? You just add another encoder. It drops into the system and now it's another game you can send anywhere. No rewiring the whole place.

Adding a TV is easy. Putting up another screen on the patio or in a back room? Add it to the system and start sending games to it. It scales with you instead of fighting you.

And it works with whatever you're using for content, so cable, streaming, antenna, EverPass, Sunday Ticket, all of it. DisplayHub doesn't care where the game comes from. It just gets it on your screens without melting your internet.

Bonus: get your game day organized

DisplayHub also includes a free planning tool called Game Plan. You build your whole day in a few minutes, auto-pull the schedules for all nine major leagues, and assign which game goes on which TV. Print a sheet for your staff so nobody's guessing what's on the patio TV, and post a QR code so guests can check what you're showing from their phone instead of blowing up your line all day. Take a look here: https://displayhub.us/gameplan/

Bottom line

Nobody asked for this and yeah, it's a pain. But the bars that come out fine aren't the ones waiting for the good old days to come back. They're the ones who get their setup right: one system that saves your internet, ditches the pile of remotes, and lets you add TVs and sources whenever you need. Get that dialed in and you'll be showing every game your people want, without the Sunday meltdown.

Sources:
NBA and bars: https://www.totalprosports.com/nba/nba-media-deal-creates-sports-bar-issues/
Streaming legal gap for bars: https://media-entertainment.news-articles.net/content/2026/05/09/the-streaming-gap-nba-s-digital-shift-threatens-sports-bar-legality.html
MLB/NBA rights spread: https://advertising.roku.com/learn/resources/the-2026-ad-buyers-guide-to-sports-on-tv-streaming
Congress and bar owner costs: https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2026/sports-bars-streaming-nfl-cost-congress-everpass-directv-1234902320/

https://www.youtube.com/live/sfESIG5ASVc?si=kP0KKAlNvvDcWc-w

Subcommittee on Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust

House Judiciary Committee

June 10, 2026

Thank you, Chairman Fitzgerald, Ranking Member Nadler, and members of the Judiciary
Committee. My name is Jim Hallers, and I am the founder and managing partner of Tailgators Pub &
Grill and Citizens Grill in the greater Houston area. Since 2009, I have built, acquired, or sold more
than a dozen restaurants and bars. I want to thank you for allowing me to testify today on behalf of
my businesses, the National Restaurant Association, and the Texas Restaurant Association.
My path into the restaurant industry was not traditional. I spent 25 years in Information Technology,
working in software consulting and technology infrastructure. Like many Americans, I loved
watching sports with family and friends, but I was frustrated by the lack of neighborhood places
where people could gather, have good food and drink, and watch competitive games together. So,
in the middle of a recession in 2009, I opened the first Tailgators Pub & Grill.

It was risky, but the demand was there. What started as a side hustle became my full-time passion.
Over the last 17 years, I have built a business around bringing together two things Americans love:
good food and sports.

From the beginning, our goal was simple: create a neighborhood-focused sports bar experience
that was not cookie-cutter. We serve quality food, local flavors, good prices, and big portions in a
relaxed atmosphere where customers can cheer, holler, and most importantly, enjoy the game
together.

For years, that model worked smoothly. We subscribed to the commercial version of NFL Sunday
Ticket through DirecTV and showed the full Sunday NFL lineup on dozens of big screens. It was
expensive, but in a large sports bar it made sense. Sunday Ticket was not just entertainment for our
customers. It was an economic driver for my restaurants, my 400+ employees, and the local
suppliers we depend on.

In Texas, we also see a lot of domestic migration from other states. My suburban locations serve
customers from all over the country. On any given Sunday, I may have fans of the Texans, Cowboys,
Steelers, Packers, Bears, Bills, Eagles, and many others sitting in the same building. For that
business model, offering the full slate of NFL games is not optional. It is part of what our customers
expect.

That is why my all my locations were built around the assumption that DirecTV would continue to
be the commercial Sunday Ticket provider. We invested heavily in that system because it was the
standard way restaurants and sports bars delivered NFL games.

But the television landscape has changed dramatically. Sports programming has been split across
Prime Video, Peacock, Netflix, YouTube, and other platforms. For a home viewer, that may mean
downloading another app. For a restaurant, it means more streaming devices, more remotes, more
logins, more video inputs, more switching equipment, more cabling, and more Internet bandwidth.
Because we promise customers every NFL game, we now have to figure out how to deliver multiple
simultaneous streams across dozens of televisions. One commercial video switch with enough
inputs and outputs can cost in excess of $15,000. A full upgrade including equipment, wiring and
the labor will cost $30,000 to $40,000 per restaurant.

And then there is the bandwidth problem. It is one thing to stream a game at home. It is another
thing to stream ten noon games at once while also running point-of-sale systems, credit card
processing, security cameras, online ordering, music, office systems, and customer WiFi. When a
game freezes during a key play, the customer does not blame the provider. They blame the
restaurant.

Now we face another major transition. Beginning with the 2026 season, EverPass is the commercial
provider for NFL Sunday Ticket. But EverPass does not replace the rest of the programming my
customers expect. I still need DirecTV, cable, or another provider for the in market football game,
and all the other channels and programming that make a sports bar work.

So instead of simplifying the business, the transition is adding another layer of cost and complexity.
I cannot simply replace 40 DirecTV boxes in one venue with 40 streaming devices. It does not work
like this. The Internet capacity, hardware, control systems, and reliability are not there yet.

This is especially difficult because restaurants operate on very slim margins. Labor is our highest
cost. Food costs remain high. Insurance, rent, utilities, and repairs keep increasing. Every dollar I
spend on a major technology upgrade is a dollar I cannot spend on payroll, food costs, equipment,
or improvements for my employees and customers.

My businesses in Houston depend heavily on two seasons: football season and crawfish season.
Crawfish season depends on Mother Nature. Football season depends on the NFL, its media
partners, and the technology systems that deliver the games. When that system becomes
fragmented and expensive, it directly affects my bottom line.

I am not here to oppose innovation. Streaming may be the future, and I understand that technology
changes. But for restaurants and sports bars, this transition is not as simple as changing the
channel or swapping a box. It requires real money, real infrastructure, and real operational risk.
Restaurants and sports bars like mine are part of the game-day experience. We help turn football
into a community event. We employ people, support local suppliers, collect sales taxes, and give
fans a place to gather together.

As Congress examines the Sports Broadcasting Act and the modern sports media marketplace, I
ask that you remember the commercial establishments that bring these games to the public every
week. We need a transition that recognizes the realities of running a small business, protects
customer access, and allows restaurants like mine to keep investing in our employees, our
communities, and the fans who gather with us every Sunday.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.