Why Your Sports Bar Needs Access to Every NFL Game

The latest streaming data doesn't lie. Your sports bar needs to be able to show every NFL game available. And that means signing up for Peacock Sports Pass which has exclusive rights on two big NFL games that won't be available on other commercial vendors.

By |2023-12-06T10:41:12-05:00December 6th, 2023|Sports Bar Management, Sports TV News|0 Comments

Don’t Miss These Two Big Streaming-Only NFL Games

If your sports bar wants to show two big streaming-only NFL games this season, you'll need to sign up for Peacock Sports Pass, exclusively through UPshow. Here are the deets.

Introducing the SportsTV Guide for Digital Signage

We have been in the business of supporting sports-themed operators for nearly 30 years, but that doesn’t stop us from aspiring to bring you more every day. Which is why we are so excited to announce our newest innovation for accessing the data your subscription provides -- The SportsTV Guide for Digital Signage. This new product is made possible via our collaboration with the best-in-class digital signage and customer engagement platform, UPshow. Together, The SportsTV Guide and UPshow deliver the ultimate guest sports entertainment experience possible at your restaurant. Giving You New & Exciting Ways to Connect to Your Guests Where do we begin? It all started several years ago, when we launched our Web Widget that allowed users to embed their sports-on-TV schedule directly on their websites. This enhancement is so simple and has been widely embraced by [...]

What to Know about the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games

The last eighteen months have been a tumult of change, frustration and loss for most people around the world. Which is why the Summer Olympics in Tokyo should be a welcome distraction this year…or will it? The Games are rife with problems and the pandemic is still raging across the planet. Consequently, the Games’ success will depend on viewer interest and the performances of the athletes that attend. There’s High Interest in Both Men & Women’s Sports With the overall success of the Games anybody’s guess, there are some positives the Olympics always provide irrespective of circumstances. Among the most aspirational elements of the Games is that men’s and women’s sports are equally covered and viewed. As an example of the norm, a review of media coverage for women’s sports in Europe reveals only 12% of broadcast time at its [...]

What to Know About the 2021 NFL Season

The NFL had one helluva year in 2020. It was a season where their storybook QB won his 7th championship all while navigating a once in a century pandemic. What could they possibly offer in 2021 to compare to what they overcame and delivered in 2020? Well, there are some significant schedule adjustments coupled with continuing to explore where & how they deliver their content which should enhance this year’s NFL iteration. And sports bar owners, operators, and managers should take note. All of this adds up to a season with some new expectations and hopefully the same great results for sports-themed restaurant operators. We will review those changes and provide some insights on how to leverage them to your advantage in this post. A Longer NFL Season Way back in 1966, when the NFL and AFL merged, 24 teams [...]

By |2022-06-07T13:12:33-04:00June 25th, 2021|Sports Bar Marketing, Sports TV News|0 Comments

Our Response to the COVID-19 Crisis

While navigating this crisis, we have all had to make the concession that life is not returning to normal anytime soon. Consequently, the SportsTV Guide is pausing all of our clients subscriptions. We have marked March 1st as the beginning of this crisis and will move your anniversary date based on when televised sports return and restaurants are able to operate again. We will continue to email you The Daily Rail newsletter every morning. We want to stay in touch, keep you posted on what's happening in the industry and generally commiserate about the situation. If you didn't attend, we hosted a Live Event last week that was very well received. We spoke to a business attorney about issues related to your business and it's solvency and got some great insight from a DIRECTV dealer on how to manage your account. [...]

By |2022-06-07T13:17:23-04:00March 26th, 2020|Sports TV News|0 Comments

What to Know About the ACC Network

Ladies, gentlemen and other esteemed guests, your long wait is over. The ACC launched their new network on August 22nd. If you’ve been in the sports-themed restaurant world for a while, then you’ve seen this dance before. It’s a new channel on DIRECTV (ACCNX – 612) that will carry extra content that doesn’t appear on the nationally distributed networks. It’s a collaboration with ESPN and includes content on the streaming system ESPN+. You’ll need to contact your dealer to determine the price for your location. Here are the Details. Currently ACC Net is only being carried by Spectrum, Google FiberTV and DIRECTV. The programming is also streaming on YoutubeTV, Hulu, Charter/Spectrum TV, DIRECTV & Playstation Vue. It’s also included in content available via an ESPN+ subscription. Currently, ESPN told us that they have no plan to sell ESPN+ commercial, but [...]

By |2022-06-07T13:01:05-04:00August 27th, 2019|Online Sports, Sports TV News|0 Comments

Beta Test Our New ‘Q Score’ Program

When SportsTV Guide started in 2003, we delivered 90% of our service via fax machine. That number has flipped to under 3% of our subscribers in the intervening 15+ years. The technology we employ today has profoundly changed the quality and reliability of our product and we see a bright future in further leveraging technology to improve our product and its value. To that end, we are ecstatic to inform you all about a beta test we are undertaking to validate a new feature. We are inviting current STVG subscribers to help us vet our new Q Score program that will rate game quality for all events listed on your SportsTV Guide. The Q Score will help sports bar operators and managers identify the best matchups and games for their establishment to show. If you want to see this powerful [...]

The Gap Between Sports Bars & Showing Women’s Sports

According to a Nielsen research study, 84% of sports fans are interested in watching women’s sports. But are sports bars taking advantage of that fandom? We polled our subscribers of The Daily Rail newsletter and the SportsTV Guide (all sports bar & restaurant owners, operators and managers), to find out that answer. Most Sports Bars Show Women’s Sports The good news is that sports bar operators and owners are taking advantage of the women’s sports fanbase. The majority of sports bar operators (82%) said they show women’s sports at their bar or restaurant. How often varies greatly in the industry, however. A third of sports bars reported showing women’s sports several times per week while another third said they only show women’s sports a handful of times per year. Fewer than a quarter of sports bar (22%) reported that they [...]

Will the AAF Bring Success to Sports Bars?

Every February we all cry poor as the NBA and NHL drag on, the interminable college basketball schedule continues, and pitchers and catchers finally report. Well, your poverty ends on February 9th as the Alliance of American Football (AAF) kicks off its inaugural season. To be direct, your guess might be as good as mine, but I am going to attempt to look at history and current trends and divine what will happen and how you can profit from it. Let’s start with a brief history lesson and see what we can glean from that. Will History Repeat Itself? In the ‘60s an upstart league called the American Football League took on the NFL. By 1969, the New York Jets had beaten the unbeatable Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. From there, it was just a formality for the leagues [...]

By |2022-06-07T13:54:36-04:00February 6th, 2019|Alternate Sports Programming, Sports TV News|0 Comments

The OTT Sports Program Provider Directory

In a previous post we talked about why sports bars need to show sports programming only available on OTT services. In short: if you're looking to stand out from every other sports bar that shows what's on ESPN, Comcast, Fox, etc. then you need to look for different and interesting content that sports fans can't get anywhere else. That means OTT sports program providers. Sports bars looking to dip their feet in the OTT sports content waters have a lot of options to choose from. Depending what your bar’s specialty is might sway you one way or another, but here are some of the more mainstream players and what they provide. Amazon Prime Launched: N/A Cost: $99/annual for Amazon Prime, $8.99/month for Prime Video Amazon is a relatively new player in OTT sports but is quickly making waves. Amazon Prime subscribers [...]

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