The National Football League unveiled long-term media deals that people familiar with the matter said are valued at over $100 billion, providing a windfall for the league and significantly expanding the availability of games on streaming platforms, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The league secured a combined average increase of 75% to 80% in fees from its media partners in the 11-year deals that were announced Thursday, one of the people said.
Amazon.com Inc. will become the new home of Thursday Night Football. The major broadcast and cable TV packages are staying with the same networks, with CBS and Fox retaining Sunday afternoon games and NBC keeping “Sunday Night Football.” ESPN will hold onto “Monday Night Football” and its sister network ABC will join the rotation of broadcasters who televise the Super Bowl.
The new contracts show the balance the league is trying to strike by embracing digital platforms, as younger audiences migrate to them, without alienating fans used to watching games on TV. Viewership of NFL games fell 7% in the 2020-2021 regular season, amid the pandemic. Beyond the Amazon deal, all the TV networks will get new rights to air certain games on their nascent subscription-streaming platforms.
The deals give the league a financial boost after a season in which revenue plummeted amid the coronavirus pandemic. They also have implications for players and teams. The NFL’s labor deal with its players ties the salary cap for teams to leaguewide revenue, so higher media revenue means teams will be able to spend more on their rosters. The labor deal gave the league the right to add an additional regular season game—making the season 17 games—in exchange for more revenue to the players.
Amazon’s move to take over Thursday Night Football is scheduled to start with the 2023 season, but could start as early as the 2022 season. Fox Corp.-owned Fox currently has the rights to the franchise through 2022, but there is a possibility that the network could exit the deal early, people close to the situation said.
Amazon will stream 15 games per season on its Prime Video service, the company said. The games will not be available on television beyond the local markets of the two teams playing. Amazon had been simulcasting Thursday games along with the league-owned NFL Network and Fox for the past few seasons.
Amazon is paying an average annual fee of around $1 billion, people with knowledge of that agreement said. The company is betting that the addition of exclusive NFL games will drive people to sample its original content, said Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios.
CBS, Fox and NBC will see their fees as much as double to the range of $2 billion per season, on average, people familiar with the situation said. The new Sunday deals kick in with the 2023 season.
ESPN will pay an average annual fee of $2.7 billion to continue airing “Monday Night Football,” up from its current deal of $2 billion, a person with knowledge of the agreement said. The network is getting two playoff games per season, up from one. ABC is also carrying three exclusive Monday Night Football games and two late-season Saturday games.
ESPN is also getting something it has long desired—the ability to “flex” better matchups into the “Monday Night Football” slot during the last month of the season. Most of the new terms with Walt Disney Co.-owned networks kick in with the 2023 season.
Here are the details:
- CBS retains the AFC package of Sunday afternoon games. CBS picked up rights to stream its games, on a regional basis, on Paramount+.
- Fox will carry the NFC package of Sunday afternoon games and will stream its games regionally via Tubi.
- NBC renewed “Sunday Night Football,” which it will stream via Peacock. The Peacock streaming service will produce several exclusive games.
- ESPN renewed “Monday Night Football.” ABC picked up the rights to carry three Monday night games per year, which will be part of Monday doubleheaders when ESPN has a different game.
- ESPN is allowed to simulcast games on ESPN+
- NFL Network no longer will simulcast Thursday night games.
- The Super Bowl rotation will see CBS (2023, 2027, 2031), Fox (2024, 2028, 2032) and NBC (2025, 2029, 2033) carry three games each. ESPN/ABC will have two (2026, 2030).
- The NFL’s Super Bowl rotation is as follows: CBS: 2023, 2027, 2031
FOX: 2024, 2028, 2032
NBC: 2025, 2029, 2033
ESPN/ABC: 2026, 2030
No comments:
Post a Comment