The National Football League has finalized its new 11-year media rights agreement with a pact that will last until 2033 and could be worth over $ 100 billion.
The league announced on Thursday that it is renewing TV rights with all its existing broadcast partners and adding Amazon Prime Video as its exclusive partner for its Thursday night football package. This is the first time a streaming service will exclusively carry a full package of games. Amazon pays about $ 1 billion a year, according to people familiar with the matter. All packages are 11 years old, the league said.
ViacomCBS, Fox and Comcast (which owns NBCUniversal) all pay more than $ 2 billion a year for their packages, while Disney (which owns ESPN and ABC) will pay about $ 2.7 billion a year, according to acquaintances. with this matter. Using these figures, the new NFL deal is projected to exceed $ 100 billion – the richest media deal in the US for the sports league.
The NFL did not respond to a request for comment to confirm the full amount of the agreements. ViacomCBS is paying $ 2.1 billion for its package, and NBCUniversal is paying about $ 2 billion, the smallest of any of the partners, but the largest increase from its previous agreement, people said. NBCUniversal paid $ 1.1 billion for its previous package, including playoff games.
Fox is also expected to pay more than $ 2 billion in his new contact, but will save $ 660 million as he abandons Thursday night’s football package. Morgan Stanley estimates that the contact will have an average annual loss of $ 400 million in 2023 upon the expiration of the Fox agreement.
Disney pays more and receives more NFL content, including exclusive rights to an international game each year, starting in 2022, said one of the people. In this pact, the ESPN network keeps the Monday Night Football package and also has the rights to broadcast two Super Bowls on its ABC network. Disney can stream all NFL games that are broadcast on ABC and ESPN on ESPN +, the league said.
Disney will now play 23 games instead of 17 in its previous business. ABC will air three football games Monday night that will not be double-headed with ESPN because the game schedule will overlap, one of the people said. ABC will also play two games on Saturday in the final week of the NFL season, which could turn into a new Week 18 if the NFL advances with the addition of a week. Disney will also receive a new playoff game in the divisional round, the person said.
“These new media offerings will give our fans even greater access to the games they love,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “We are proud to develop our partnerships with the most innovative media companies on the market. Together with our recent work agreement with the NFLPA, these distribution agreements bring an era of unprecedented stability to the league and will allow us to continue to grow and improve our game. “
“NFL games are the most watched live program in the United States and this unprecedented football on Thursday night The package provides tens of millions of new and existing Prime members with exclusive access to watch live football on Prime Video, “Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, said in a statement.
The league’s National Football Conference (NFC) games will remain on Fox, and CBS Sports will continue to host the American Football Conference (AFC) games and broadcast the contests on its Paramount + service. NBCUniversal will keep the Sunday Football Football package and use its Peacock service to stream games.
The NFL Super Bowl rotation is as follows:
- CBS: 2023, 2027, 2031
- FOX: 2024, 2028, 2032
- NBC: 2025, 2029, 2033
- ESPN / ABC: 2026, 2030
The NFL’s Super Bowl Covid-19 attracted 96.4 million viewers in February to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9. The game was the least watched Super Bowl since 2007, when the Indianapolis Colts played the Chicago Bears. The game attracted 93.1 million viewers, according to data from Octagon’s media division provided to CNBC.