Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Thursday that the company will not reopen or amend its current NFL media rights contract until after the 2029 season, becoming the first major network executive to state on the record that it will not renegotiate early.
Speaking on Fox’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Murdoch told investors the network sees “no changes to our contractual terms until the 2030 season.”
The existing NFL media deals run through the 2033 season, but the league holds opt-out clauses that can take effect after the 2029 campaign for most partners, including Fox. “We’ve had recent, thorough and productive discussions with the league, and as a result, we will not be making any amendments to our existing contractual relationship, which extends to the completion of the 2029 season,” Murdoch said.
He added that Fox maintains “an incredibly positive” relationship with the league and continues to discuss the future of its rights both for the remaining years of the current deal and beyond the opt-out window.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has previously indicated the league prefers to return to the market earlier than the contractual windows allow, potentially as soon as 2026, amid beliefs that the current packages are undervalued relative to recent sports rights deals.
Murdoch’s comments effectively close the door on any near-term adjustment for Fox’s Sunday afternoon package. Murdoch’s stance comes days after reports that negotiations between the NFL and CBS had been paused.
Those talks were complicated by the pending merger between Paramount (CBS’s parent) and Warner Bros. Discovery. Skydance’s 2025 acquisition of Paramount already triggered a change-in-control provision that gives the NFL an independent option to exit its CBS deal early.
Fox’s decision leaves the league without an immediate path to higher rights fees from one of its key broadcast partners, while other networks continue to navigate their own timelines and contractual triggers.