The NFL confirmed a new set of television deals on Thursday, with the contracts set to cover the next decade.
Much of the current coverage will remain the same, with CBS and FOX retaining their rights to Sunday afternoon AFC and NFC games, respectively. NBC will remain the home of “Sunday Night Football,” and “Monday Night Football” will remain on ESPN.
The contracts do contain two significant changes. ESPN will enter the Super Bowl rotation, as they had hoped, with two Super Bowls airing on ABC over the course of the deal. In addition, the “Thursday Night Football” package has been acquired by Amazon to stream on its Amazon Prime Video platform.
Reports earlier Thursday suggested that ESPN was also gaining the rights to the league’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” package. The league denied those reports, however, confirming that it remains with DirecTV. ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro made clear, however, that the network would be interested in acquiring that package if it became available.
ESPN's Jimmy Pitaro on Sunday Ticket: “We’ve had exploratory conversations with the league. Sunday Ticket is an incredibly valuable product. When the league is ready, we are interested in having that conversation with them.”
— Ben Strauss (@benjstrauss) March 18, 2021
Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported that the total value of the deals will surpass $100 billion.
The overall value of the NFL TV deals are for more than $100 billion, The Post has learned.
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) March 18, 2021
This is pretty much what Jerry Jones hinted at. While there won’t be an enormous change in the NFL TV landscape, the money is going to be massive for the league. Plus, the contract with Amazon will likely serve as a test run for future digital-only deals, and other leagues will likely be paying close attention to how it goes.
