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NFL Announces Media Rights Deals. Amazon, Disney and ViacomCBS Are Among the Partners. -- Barrons.com

3/18/21, 7:33 PM
The National Football League signed long-term distribution deals that will color how Americans watch the sport across the next decade. Major streaming services are in on the action.

The league said the new agreements begin with the 2023 season and run through the 2033 season. Combined, the 11- year deals are worth more than $100 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The publicly traded firms included in the league's announcement are Amazon (AMZN), ViacomCBS (VIAC), Walt Disney (DIS), Fox (FOX), and Comcast (CMCSA).

Barron's highlighted the upcoming expiration of NFL media deals back in a 2019 cover story, noting their importance to TV players fending off online upstarts.

The league said Amazon Prime Video will have the rights as the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football. But traditional television broadcasters are investing big on digital offerings, too, with streaming being a key to several companies' long-term prospects.

Disney, for example, has seen its shares fly following its success with Disney+. The company expects to hit between 300 million and 350 million total subscriptions across its streaming platforms in fiscal 2024. Those include Disney+, as well as ESPN+, Hulu, and Star.

The league said Disney's ESPN will still broadcast Monday Night Football, but the company's ABC networks will re- enter the Super Bowl broadcast rotation and air some regular-season games. The new deal will also allow ESPN+ users to stream ABC and ESPN's televised games.

ViacomCBS' Paramount+ streaming service will also air CBS' televised American Football Conference Sunday games. Fox will continue to air National Football Conference games on Sunday afternoon while adding rights to certain video-on- demand content to its Tubi service. On top of televising Sunday Night Football on NBC, Comcast's Peacock streaming service will offer a select number of NFL games.

Aside from the rights, the new deals will allow the NFL to swap in better matchups for primetime broadcasts.

Write to Connor Smith at [e-mail]


(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-18-21 1933ET
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