The NFL’s First-Ever Digital Package
With the new 10-year exclusive agreement signed, Prime Video will be the only place to watch the NFL’s Thursday Night Football games nationally, starting in 2023. Previously, these games were also available on terrestrial and cable TV.
The NFL’s other four licensees—Fox Sports, Disney’s ABC/ESPN, Viacom’s CBS, and Comcast’s NBC are reportedly paying north of $2 billion/year each.
What About Mainstream TV Networks?
CNET has more on the new rights arrangements:
CBS: The American Football Conference’s Sunday afternoon games will broadcast on the CBS network and stream on the company’s new Paramount+ streaming service. Additionally, CBS will broadcast 2023, 2027, and 2031 Super Bowl games. ABC/ESPN: The Monday Night Football will continue to be available on Disney’s ESPN networks. ABC has won rights to broadcast two Super Bowl games and some exclusive regular-season games. ABC and ESPN will air the 2026 and 2030 SuperBowls. All ABC/ESPN games will be simulcast via Disney’s ESPN+ streaming service. Fox Sports: The NFL’s Sunday afternoon games will continue to be available on Fox, while the company’s free streaming service Tubi has won rights to stream NFL programming. On top of that, Fox gets to air 2024, 2028, and 2032 Super Bowls. NBC: Comcast’s NBC has retained rights to produce the Sunday Night Football games (its new Peacock streaming services will simulcast all of the games, too). A select number of NFL games will have “an exclusive feed” throughout the duration of the ten-year agreement. NBC’s also secured rights to air 2025, 2029, and 2033 Super Bowls.
As you can see for yourself, these new 10-year deals and arrangements have also helped expand the online availability of many of the NFL’s games.
