While we all try to understand what it will mean for the NFL to own 10 percent of ESPN, we now know the league has a similar arrangement with CBS.
As part of its write-up of the groundbreaking ESPN-NFL deal completed this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the NFL also took an ownership stake in CBS as part of the acquisition of its parent company, Paramount Global, by Skydance Media. The WSJ article notes that the league will take equity in CBS “through a content partnership with Skydance Media,” with no other details given.
Prior to the deal, the NFL owned a stake in Skydance. Their content partnership included co-production on Hard Knocks. The league also maintained a partnership with RedBird Capital Partners, a venture capital firm that provided funding as part of Skydance’s merger with Paramount. These numerous ties led some to speculate that the NFL could sell NFL Media to the new company once the merger went through.
It is unclear from the WSJ‘s report whether the NFL acquired partial ownership of CBS as a result of its existing stake in Skydance or whether the NFL took on a larger stake in the new company as part of the merger.
Regardless, the NFL has a financial interest in the health of the new company. And as the league looks into the future (which includes a change-of-ownership clause that allows the NFL to opt out of its broadcast rights deal with CBS), that could weigh heavily.
Like all of the league’s traditional broadcast partners, without NFL games, the entire CBS enterprise would likely be on life support. Many wonder whether CBS (and Fox and NBC) will be able to compete with bids from digital companies like Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube in 2029 when the league’s rights package comes up for renegotiation.
Still, the league and commissioner Roger Goodell have maintained that they value having games on free, traditional broadcast television.
If any traditional partner is going to stay holding onto the coattails of the NFL, it would appear CBS will have a leg up due to the league’s equity in the company and financial interest in its continued success.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.