While the NFL is making new deals with ABC / ESPN, CBS, Fox and NBC, the most interesting aspect of the upcoming deal is the continued likelihood that Amazon will have a large share of the “Thursday Night Football” package.
In December, The Post reported that everything was trending there for deals that will far exceed $ 100 billion. On Friday, the Sports Business Journal said the NFL and Disney had a broad agreement that would include the renewal of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” and Super Bowls on ABC in what will take eight to 10 years. The NFL said the report was incorrect.
Wherever the deal stands, there could very well be an official announcement coming next week, according to officials briefed on the matter. It will happen soon.
Here are four takeaways on the upcoming new deals for television’s most highly regarded programming – the NFL.
1. What is Amazon’s registration fee?
In 1993, Fox paid $ 400 million a year to get CBS’s NFC package. It was kind of out of the blue. And in doing so, it helped Fox join NBC, ABC and CBS as a major network.
The Amazon portion of the deal that results is the most interesting. The more exclusivity it has, the more likely the NFL will receive more money.
Fox currently owns the Thursday Night package, which was previously owned by CBS and NBC. None of them wanted it this time.
If Amazon gets national exclusivity for Fox’s 11 games, how much will the current $ 650 million per year for the Thursday Night package grow?
If the NFL somehow gets $ 1 billion plus, that would be quite an achievement considering none of the previous owners wanted it. If the NFL Network were still simulating the games, the value to Amazon would drop.
2. Who receives the NFL Sunday ticket?
Sunday Ticket allows fans to watch every game. For years it was featured on DirecTV, which recently reported having $ 2.5 billion in net losses related to Sunday Ticket. ESPN + and Amazon Prime would turn out to be big players, but none of the subscription services cannot be completely ruled out. Customers could pay $ 300 for the full season. This will very well be a game changer as previously you had to have DirecTV to access all the games not available in the market.
3. ABC back in the Super Bowl shuffle
From what we’ve heard, it could be ABC’s first Super Bowl at the end of the next cycle. NBC next year, followed by Fox, the current deal.
This is subject to change, but we heard it was going to be CBS, NBC, Fox and then ABC. That would mean ABC would have the Super Bowl in 2027. If it happens like that, it isn’t exactly tomorrow.
4. The more things change, the more they stay the same
While we’ve yet to see the completed deals to fully assess, there’s a lot of talk about how everything is changing in the media.
The magnitude of Amazon’s potential involvement is a big deal, but, as we reported last year, these deals will last for the next decade. That’s a long time.
For the most part, the way you view the games remains the same. So essentially the pause button has been pressed to see how we watch sports. Sundays are spent mostly on Fox and CBS, while Sunday nights are with NBC and Mondays are with ESPN and ABC.