The National Football League (NFL) has finalized a new 11-year media rights agreement that runs through 2033 and could be worth more than $100 billion U.S.
The league announced Thursday it’s renewing TV rights with all of its existing broadcast partners and adding Amazon Prime Video (NASDAQ:AMZN) as an exclusive partner for its Thursday Night Football games.
The deal with Amazon Prime marks the first time that a streaming service will carry a full package of NFL games exclusively. Amazon is paying $1 billion U.S. per year for the Thursday night games. The deal with Amazon runs 10 years and begins in 2023.
ViacomCBS, (NASDAQ:VIAC) Fox (NASDAQ:FOX) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) (which owns NBCUniversal) are all paying more than $2 billion U.S. per year for their 11-year-long NFL packages, while Disney (NYSE:DIS)(which owns ESPN and ABC) will pay $2.7 billion U.S. annually, according to people familiar with the matter.
Based on the numbers, the NFL’s new agreement is projected to be worth more than $100 billion U.S., the richest sports league media deal ever.
Disney is paying more and receiving more NFL content, including rights to exclusively air an international game each year, beginning in 2022. In the new deal, the ESPN network keeps the Monday Night Football package and also has rights to air two Super Bowls on its ABC network. Disney can stream all NFL games that air on ABC and ESPN on the streaming service ESPN+.
Disney will now carry 23 games instead of 17 in its previous deal. ABC will air three Monday Night Football games, which will not be double-headers with ESPN because the timing of the games will overlap, one of the people said.
ABC will also carry two Saturday games the last week of the NFL season, which could turn into a new Week 18 if the NFL moves forward with adding an additional game per year as planned.
The NFL’s new Super Bowl rotation is as follows:
CBS: 2023, 2027, 2031
FOX: 2024, 2028, 2032
NBC: 2025, 2029, 2033
ESPN/ABC: 2026, 2030
This year’s Super Bowl, which aired in early February, attracted 96.4 million viewers. The game, which saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-9, was the lowest watched Super Bowl since 2007 when the Indianapolis Colts played the Chicago Bears.
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