There has not been a Super Bowl broadcast on ABC in 15 years, but that drought is set to come to an end following a new agreement between the NFL and ABC/ESPN parent company Walt Disney Co.
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reported on Friday that Disney and the NFL have reached agreement on a new media rights deal. The deal includes the renewal of “Monday Night Football” and the return of ABC to the Super Bowl rotation.
The new agreement is reportedly worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.6 billion, which is a roughly 30 percent increase over the previous rights deal between the two sides.
The NFL has already reached new deals with CBS, NBC and FOX. The league could make a formal announcement on all the new contracts at some point next week.
A recent report indicated that ESPN and the NFL were at odds over money, but the two sides obviously found a middle ground. That was the expected outcome all along.
There has been talk that ESPN will try to hire one of the biggest names in sports broadcasting, but that seems unlikely to happen. Either way, the new agreement sounds like a win for the network if it means getting back into the Super Bowl rotation.
