The NFL is in active discussions on renewal rates with all four of its existing network partners — NBC, CBS, Fox, and Disney-owned ESPN, according to people familiar with the matter. The NFL is hoping to get its primary package renewals completed by March 17. NBC, CBS and Fox are likely to accept increases closer to 100% than Disney, which is currently paying much more than the three broadcast networks for its Monday Night Football package, said the people.
With the pandemic hurting NHL revenues, the league is expected to seek an increase in revenues, starting with its national TV deals. For a substantial bump, the deal will likely need to carve out some exclusive game content for one of the new subscription direct-to-consumer platforms, such as ESPN+ or Peacock.
Peter King explains in his latest Football Morning in America column that the NFL is “within a month” of finalizing 10-year TV deals. Those packages “could result in an aggregate increase of 70% to 100% in rights fees from the last contract.”
The Super Bowl is complete, and the National Football League is wasting no time shifting attention to its top revenue stream: media rights. The NFL is looking to finalize frameworks of new TV rights agreements in the next few weeks and wants to do so before setting the 2021 salary cap figure in March, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
ESPN and Major League Baseball are closing in on a TV deal that would provide the network exclusive rights to the first round of the playoffs. Now all that is needed is a first round of the playoffs. That needs to be negotiated between MLB and the Players Association, which is to say that, while an ESPN-MLB deal is close, they are still far from knowing when — and even if — there will be playoffs expanded from 10 to likely 14 teams to include a best-of-three first round.
Exclusives
In the upcoming months television networks will begin negotiations with several sports leagues for new TV contracts. The NHL and MLS are expected to open up negotiations as their current agreements expire. MLB which has already extended agreements with Fox and Turner Sports has ESPN up next. However, no contract renewal will be more important (or expensive) than the NFL.
It has been known for a long time that Disney/ABC/ESPN would be very aggressive in negotiating for more NFL, the most valuable programming in television. However, according to sources, it is more than that as the pitch Disney is making to the NFL is that it currently pays the most so it deserves the best primetime regular-season schedule. On top of that, according to officials familiar with the negotiations, Disney/ABC/ESPN wants to acquire two separate NFL packages.
Each Monday Night Football broadcast this season takes place as the NFL and the TV networks that air its games are holding critical negotiations about rights contracts that, if they aren’t renewed, could determine nothing less than the fate of traditional TV itself. To be sure, networks make tweaks and improvements to regular programs all the time, but this season, any changes to gridiron TV take place under a new and intense spotlight.
The seven-year agreement will take effect in 2022 and includes a Tuesday night game as well as additional postseason games. It also includes expanded digital rights for Bleacher Report and other WarnerMedia platforms. Turner will pay an average of $470 million per season.
Fox Corp. is willing to spend as much as $2 billion a year to maintain its rights to National Football League games on Sunday, a huge increase from its current contract, according to people familiar with the matter. Negotiations with the league are heating up because current broadcast rights begin expiring at the end of next year.
A growing number of analysts and insiders are reaching a startling conclusion: While the NFL and its sky-high viewership may be critical to networks as marketers look to unleash their budgets on holiday shoppers, the scrapping of the college Division I football season actually might come with as many silver linings as drawbacks — maybe even more. Why? Because buying the rights to college games has become so expensive that sometimes networks are better off if the games aren’t played at all.
Major League Baseball has agreed to broad terms on a new rights deal with Turner Sports at around a 40% average annual increase, sources said. Nothing has been signed formally, but this new deal will see Turner pay an average of around $470 million per year from 2022 through 2028 for a rough total of $3.29 billion. Its expiration will sync with a Fox deal signed in November 2018. Turner now pays an average of $325 million a year under an eight-year deal that expires after the 2021 season.
The group’s stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco-Oakland, Salt Lake City, Honolulu, and Bakersfield, Calif., become the “Official Home of Raiders’ Football” in their markets.
Tens of millions of people are paying for basketball, hockey and baseball that isn’t being played. The Attorney General of New York this week demanded cable and satellite operators stop charging customers for live sports programs. Many of those companies, including Charter and Comcast, have said they would love to provide a refund. There’s just one problem: they are still paying for sports too.
The NFL and Amazon have inked a multi-year extension to their Thursday Night Football deal, which sees the digital giant stream 11 games throughout the season. First signed back in 2017 and extended in 2018, the agreement sees Amazon show the games on digital via Prime Video and Twitch, with Fox retaining broadcast (plus showing in Spanish on Fox Deportes) and NFL Network handling cable.
Sports rights are expected to go higher in the next three years despite pressure from COVID-19, possibly driving increased retransmission-consent fees and pushing poorer homes out of the pay TV bundle.
For years, U.S. television networks have spent increasing amounts of money on “sports packages,” paying billions of dollars for the rights to show baseball, basketball and other games exclusively. The high fees were justified because live contests offered a unique asset — unskippable, real-time drama in the age of DVR. But that immediacy is now proving to be a great weakness.
The PGA Tour, the organizer of the main professional men’s golf tours in the U.S., has struck a new nine-year deal with CBS Sports, NBC Sports and ESPN that significantly raises the costs of bringing golf to U.S. fans while gaining new traction for digital coverage of the sport.
Baseball fans who also subscribe to YouTube TV got some bad news today when YouTube TV announced it will drop all Sinclair-owned Fox regional sports networks on Feb. 29. The announcement means fans in several markets — including New York, where the Yankees’ YES Network will be going away — will not be able to catch their favorite teams on YouTube TV. YouTube TV tweeted it was “unable to reach an agreement with Sinclair” to continue carrying Fox’s RSNs.
NFL owners and the NFL Players Association are likely nearing a collective bargaining agreement after owners approved the terms Thursday. Media companies and the NFL have been waiting for the CBA’s approval before negotiating new broadcast rights for NFL games, which are locked up until 2022. The results will have a major impact on traditional media as millions of Americans cut the cord on pay-TV each year.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Sunday that his organization is “very open to changing packages, very open to changing partners” when it comes to negotiating media contracts that will expire in the next few years.
CBS will walk away from the SEC when its contract ends after the 2023 football season, and all indications are that the package will move to ESPN/ABC. CBS decided to exit the negotiations for college football’s most-watched TV package after making an aggressive bid in the neighborhood of $300 million per season — a massive increase from the $55 million it currently pays annually.
Comcast, Cox Communications and Charter Communications are blaming retransmission consent fees and sports rights for hikes to their monthly cable rates.
Safe Bet: TV Sports Getting Bigger, Pricier
A TV2020 panel explores the growing impact on broadcasting of sports, with a heavy focus on the NFL and the potential impact of legalized sports betting.
Global sports TV rights fees — pushed by rapidly growing streaming platforms — are predicted to continue rise sharply over the next six years. Worldwide sport rights revenues will grow 75% over seven years — 2018 through 2025 — to $85.1 billion from $48.6 billion, according to research group Rethink TV.
Jimmy Pitaro said today: “I have no idea if [Amazon, Google and Facebook] are going to be interested specifically in Monday Night Football, but I do believe that several new media companies are going to be interested in acquiring more NFL rights.”
The Wall Street Journal reports the PGA Tour is seeking a new media-rights deal with a big increase in fees and a dedicated golf channel, and has drawn interest from suitors including AT&T Inc., Fox Corp., Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Amazon.com. Journal subscribers can read the full story here.
CHICAGO (AP) — The National Women’s Soccer League has a television contract for the second half of its season to replace the partnership with A+E Networks that was cut short […]
CBS and CBS Sports Network will televise 20 Big East Conference men’s regular-season basketball games per year through the 2024-25 season in a new sublicense deal with Fox Sports. The pact includes at least two appearances for each of the 10 Big East schools.
CBS Sports Network will broadcast 40 WNBA games beginning next month when the season opens. The Minnesota Lynx vs. the Chicago Sky on May 25 will be the first game on the CBS Sports Network.
Many UConn fans are upset over a new media-rights deal between ESPN and the American Athletic Conference that could force them to pay an added fee to watch those games on ESPN-plus, a direct-to-viewer subscription streaming service, which currently costs $5 a month.
The agreement calls for CBS Sports Network to televise 15 WTT matches through the season beginning July 15, said network officials. The network will also air the semifinals and finals from Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3.
