While most have been preparing for the NFL to renegotiate its media rights agreements in 2029-2030, when the league can exercise opt-outs in its current contracts that run through 2034, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is opening the door for earlier negotiations.
In an interview with Alex Sherman of CNBC Sport, Goodell broached the possibility of negotiating new media deals “as early as next year” so the league can capitalize on an increase in rights revenue.
“I think our partners would want to sit down and talk to us at any time, and we continue to dialogue with them. I like that opportunity,” Goodell told CNBC. “Obviously it’s not going to happen this year. But it could happen as early as next year. That could happen.”
The news comes on the precipice of the NBA starting its new set of media rights deals, worth $76 billion over 11 years compared to the NFL’s current 11-year, $111 billion agreement. Given how much the NBA received, and that the NFL is orders of magnitude more popular than pro basketball, the NFL believes it can notch a substantial increase in broadcast revenue.
The league may also want to take advantage of negotiating new deals while legacy media companies — like Fox, Paramount/CBS, and Comcast/NBC — are still strong enough to compete for rights with tech giants like Netflix, Google, and Amazon.
“The reason why we felt so strongly about the option is the landscape is changing. It could be a long-term deal with the benefit of having that stability and security of it. But I think the reality of it is it changes so quickly that you want to have the ability to move. I think those options are going to give us a lot of flexibility to potentially go earlier,” said Goodell.
Negotiating now would ensure the league has more bidders than if it waited until the end of the decade, when legacy networks have diminished even further from four more years of cord-cutting.
CNBC notes that there are a couple potential hang-ups to the early negotiations. For one, the NFL’s recent equity deal with ESPN would raise a huge conflict of interest as both sides await regulatory approval. Negotiating a new media rights deal prior to that deal being approved would raise red flags.
Additionally, the league may be incentivized to wait until it solidifies an 18-game schedule before reaching new deals. The timeline of that is murky with the NFL Players Association currently in a state of flux.
Earlier this year, John Ourand of Puck was first to report that the league may be weighing its option to move early. The NFL has an opening, in particular, with CBS after Skydance’s merger with Paramount opened a two-year window in which the league can exercise a change of ownership clause in its contract and, hypothetically, take those rights back to market. But, per Ourand’s report, the NFL is looking at the bigger picture. If the league were to renegotiate its deals early to ensure a larger pool of bidders, it’d look to redo them all, pushing the end term further into the 2030s.
Historically, the NFL has been keen to telegraph its future business plans with the media. The 18-game schedule, expanded international slates, and selling exclusive games to streamers, have all been topics Roger Goodell has talked about publicly before they come to fruition. Suffice it to say, when the commissioner says something, it would behoove NFL stakeholders to listen carefully.
Therefore, the NFL’s media rights negotiations may come together much sooner than we all expected.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.