Against the wishes of some within the league, the NFL moved forward with free agency despite the COVID-19 pandemic halting the in-season American sports. And the league plans to proceed with its expected negotiations with TV networks this year as well, Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand reports.
Despite the networks that carry the NFL losing revenue because of the other sports’ seasons pausing or ending early, the major sports league not in-season is expected to negotiate new television deals in the coming months. The NFL’s TV deals will play a key role in determining the salary caps over the course of this new CBA.
The NFL TV contracts, which expire in 2021 (ESPN) and ’22 (the other networks), must be at least partially renegotiated this year now that the CBA includes two extra playoff games starting this season. It is not known which network(s) will air each conference’s third wild-card games, but Ourand adds the rate is expected to be close to the same as what ESPN pays for its annual wild-card broadcast (approximately $100MM). ESPN’s Monday Night Football package costs around $1.9 billion, per Ourand, who adds the CBS and Fox current deals also exceed $1 billion. It is expected these prices will rise when the NFL renegotiates.
The league will be negotiating with networks with the carrot of a 17th regular-season game coming soon. The 17-game season option can be exercised beginning in 2021, but it is not a lock to begin at that point.
Three days after Rudy Gobert’s positive coronavirus test brought the sports world to a standstill, NFL players narrowly ratified the owners’ CBA proposal. And the league is not expected to change much about its approach to new TV contracts, Ourand adds. A future where the NFL’s salary cap spikes higher than the approximately $10MM-per-year rate it did over the past several years still appears to be in play, even with the uncertainty this virus has brought.
More interested if the Sunday Ticket gets opened up to a streaming platform in conjunction with or instead of Directv.
I just do redzone. You get much of the same but for much less.
Yes, I do Redzone quote I bit, currently.
Quite a, not quote I.
i dont buy most GMs dilsliked the free agency decision. the league year (as in all of the league’s total activities) moving along as expected should have been enough of a reason to play things out.
ESPN is currently paying more than $100M to the NFL per game for MNF… That’s an amazing number to me.
Yes, not to mention the MNF games are usually bad. Although I look more forward to the MNF game than I do the SNF game since we get that day of break. Usually by SNF I am foootballed out for the day.
You said it, brother.
Yup, I’m there as well… Though Romo as part of the SNF booth crew was a draw.