OT: NFL/ESPN sign new TV deal, close to $2b

[LadyStanley]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/144773

ESPN and the NFL have agreed to broad terms on a new media rights deal that will be worth nearly $2 billion per year. Specific numbers still are difficult to confirm, but multiple sources say ESPN has told the NFL that it will increase its annual rights fee by 65% to 70%%, which means it will pay the league a record fee, between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion a year.
Despite agreeing to pay the league nearly $2 billion per year to extend its rights to NFL content, including “Monday Night Football,” neither ESPN nor ABC will be in the rotation to carry the Super Bowl, according to several sources. In fact, it appears that ESPN still will not have the rights to televise any NFL playoff games, at least not initially. The league has long been unwilling to move playoff games off of broadcast television. But during the negotiations, ESPN has been pushing hard to pick up at least one wild card game, and the NFL has showed signs that it is willing to consider moving a playoff game to cable eventually.

MNF rights locked up for many years.




Labor issues notwithstanding. That's a commitment that things "won't change".

Click to read more...

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/144773




MNF rights locked up for many years.




Labor issues notwithstanding. That's a commitment that thins "won't change".

Two BILLION (Pinkey meet side of lips)

for the No Fun Leauge

I keed I keed

I'm actually not surprised at all when High school football fights with the NHL in some places *couPHOENIXgh* you know the pro leuge will rake in the dough

 

[Fugu]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/144773

ESPN and the NFL have agreed to broad terms on a new media rights deal that will be worth nearly $2 billion per year. Specific numbers still are difficult to confirm, but multiple sources say ESPN has told the NFL that it will increase its annual rights fee by 65% to 70%%, which means it will pay the league a record fee, between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion a year.
Despite agreeing to pay the league nearly $2 billion per year to extend its rights to NFL content, including “Monday Night Football,†neither ESPN nor ABC will be in the rotation to carry the Super Bowl, according to several sources. In fact, it appears that ESPN still will not have the rights to televise any NFL playoff games, at least not initially. The league has long been unwilling to move playoff games off of broadcast television. But during the negotiations, ESPN has been pushing hard to pick up at least one wild card game, and the NFL has showed signs that it is willing to consider moving a playoff game to cable eventually.

MNF rights locked up for many years.


Labor issues notwithstanding. That's a commitment that things "won't change".

And that my friends is what I call clout, or is it the cache of the NFL?

They can chop the rights up however they want and still have obscene amounts of money thrown at them. They don't even have a team in LA fer cryin' out loud!

 

[straka91*]

Thats a lot of money. Congrats NFL.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Which leads to the question, what is that adjusted to inflation? Big numbers are nice but with inflation that number is not as big as it seems.

 

[Preds Partisan]

Here are the other network contract numbers from that same Sports Business Daily article:


"Even before this negotiation, ESPN was paying the league much more than any of the NFL’s other TV partners. ESPN’s annual payout of $1.1 billion dwarfs the annual rights fees paid by Fox ($720 million), CBS ($620 million) and NBC ($603 million). DirecTV pays about $1 billion a year for exclusive access to Sunday Ticket."


Edit: I get the NHL, MLB, and NBA networks as part of my standard digital lineup on my cable. The NFL Network? Yeah, right.

 

[BigT2002]

How does this shock anyone?? How much do they make on advertisements during all the MNF games alone?? That probably takes up a decent chunk of that I would imagine.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Football is an incredible force. Didn't ESPN/ABC just shell out billions for some rights to SEC football?

Edit: Yup. In 2009.

The 2009 season marks the beginning of a new 15-year, $2.25 billion contract with ESPN, which coincides with a 15-year, $825 million deal with CBS.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/07/24/sec-espn/index.html

 

[Fugu]

Which leads to the question, what is that adjusted to inflation? Big numbers are nice but with inflation that number is not as big as it seems.

If you adjust for inflation, we all have negative wealth at this point, just haven't figured it out yet. Are you going to be adjusting the other league's contracts too?

Over which time period? WWII to now, or like the last ten years?

 

[BigFatCat999]

If you adjust for inflation, we all have negative wealth at this point, just haven't figured it out yet. Are you going to be adjusting the other league's contracts too?

Over which time period? WWII to now, or like the last ten years?

Just in comparison to the last contract to see if there is a percentage of gain vs. percentage of loss.

And can you change your avatar to something not so freaky?

 

[Fugu]

Just in comparison to the last contract to see if there is a percentage of gain vs. percentage of loss.

And can you change your avatar to something not so freaky?

Hey, it's a really cool cat with nice green eyes. Nothing creepy about it unless you're one of those "dog people".

 

[BigFatCat999]

Hey, it's a really cool cat with nice green eyes. Nothing creepy about it unless you're one of those "dog people".

Damn skippy. The only cat I like is the mascot for the Preds and he knows well enough that I'm the one in charge not him.

Now back to the thread. This seems more like ESPN making a gamble that the lockout will be short and will only be maybe at most, half a season.

Also, does ESPN pay while the NFL is in lockout? The NFL is not producing a product, why should ESPN pay.

Also, what is the TV status of the CFL in the US> I know NFL network had some of the games.

 

[He Lied to Mario]

Damn skippy. The only cat I like is the mascot for the Preds and he knows well enough that I'm the one in charge not him.

Now back to the thread. This seems more like ESPN making a gamble that the lockout will be short and will only be maybe at most, half a season.

Also, does ESPN pay while the NFL is in lockout? The NFL is not producing a product, why should ESPN pay.

Also, what is the TV status of the CFL in the US> I know NFL network had some of the games.

If there is a lockout the ESPN will just have 24/7 coverage of the lockout like this.

Rex Ryan just said this, Jerry Jones said that, one of the players said something. I'm sure ESPN will have some type of compensation for games missed. But I can't see the lockout lasting for more than half a season because the politicians will get involved to make themselves look like they are actually doing something.

As far as the CFL's TV status in the US, they are on the NFL Network about 15-20 games a year, plus they are on ESPN3.com. I can't see the CFL getting much money at all for these deals. There are a few teams like Saskatchewan and Winnipeg that are community owned and publish a balance sheet at the end of the year and they may have a breakdown of American TV revenue. The main purpose for the CFL in these deals is to get some exposure to college football players and pro free agents to make it easier to recruit these players to come to Canada.

 

[BigFatCat999]

I think the ultimate decision will be in the player's hands. This one of the few times where I side with the players. I feel football players should walk to mid-field, raise their helmets in the air, and scream 'We who are about to die salute you!' Linemen die 15-20 years younger than the average human being. That's not hyperbole, that's FACT.

The NFL might not provide much in the way of coverage simply because lockout news is repetitive and boring. Note that the NBA may lockout/strike and that will add to the repetitive and boring coverage. Do you really think ESPN / TSN wants 1/2 hour of lockout coverage on sportscenter / sportscentre? (See what I did there?)

The question is: how much will the owners/players cave?

 

[Fugu]

@Le Chat Grand.

I don't see a one year lockout really getting in the way of a decade long deal. Also note that this is an extension of their current contract, and the article mentions a 9-10 yr deal takes this to 2022-23. Does that mean the current deal is set to expire next year [the lockout year if it comes to that]?

No idea on whether anyone pays during the lockout, but I would think the contract is, as you stated, for games' rights so if there are no games, no money changes hands. What do the networks sell sponsors?


Also since we like play the valuation games, this bit caught my eye:

As is part of all ESPN negotiations these days, the network is pushing forward on a “TV Everywhere†concept that includes broadband and mobile rights. The two sides still haven’t reached an agreement on mobile rights, however. Last year, Verizon signed a four-year, $720 million sponsorship deal that includes the exclusive mobile rights to stream “Sunday Night Football†and NFL Network games, as well as the NFL RedZone channel. The NFL sees significant value in these types of rights and is guarding them jealously.

I think the NFL would be smarter to hang on to their digital and mobile rights and make them accessible on multiple platforms, a ppv approach.

Regarding inflation, I think 60-70% increase over the last 8 yrs is still okay:

The NFL and ESPN started talking about extending the deal around Labor Day, when an exclusive negotiating window opened in ESPN’s current 8-year, $8.8 billion deal.
​

versus:

ESPN has told the NFL that it will increase its annual rights fee by 65% to 70%%, which means it will pay the league a record fee, between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion a year [for 9-10 yrs].

​

Even at 9 yrs, the total value is ~$17 billion.

 

[Brodie]

ESPN is really throwing cash around... not just at football but at basketball and (in a few years) the Olympics. It makes me wonder if they're willing to overpay for the NHL rights

 

[kdb209]

They don't even have a team in LA fer cryin' out loud!

NYTimes piece on the two competing LA Stadium bids - AEG's $1.2B downtown plan and another in the sticks (30+ miles east in City of Industry).

Nothing will happen until after the Labor issues are settled.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us/09stadiums.html

 

[Jumptheshark]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/144773




MNF rights locked up for many years.




Labor issues notwithstanding. That's a commitment that things "won't change".

and another example of just how small time the NHL is in the states

 

[LadyStanley]

SBJLizMullen
NFLPA Exec Dir De Smith on new ESPN-NFL MNF extension: “The NFL should be congratulated for another billion-dollar network contract.
It does make 1 question how they can announce both a TV deal worth $2B for ‘MNF’ & ‘negative cash flow’ in the same week
Fans & players continue to be confused about their claims of a financial hardship as justification for a lockout.â€

 

[TMC1982]

I'm sure that ESPN is eagerly anticipating the NFL's proposed expansion to 18 regular season games. They must be pretty delusional that the NFL will easily allow them to broadcast any playoff games (at least in the near future). Why should ABC be permitted to broadcast playoff games when they don't show any regular season games (for continuity reasons)? If that occurred, I'm willing to bet the congress would somehow intervene like they did when the Patriots were trying to go 16-0 on the NFL Network back in 2007.

 

[Fourier]

That is an insane amount of money!

On a completely off the wall note, I wonder how much of this is attributable to gambling.

 

[BigT2002]

On a completely off the wall note, I wonder how much of this is attributable to gambling.

So its basically 5am here, can you elaborate on this a little bit??

 

[danishh]

That is an insane amount of money!

On a completely off the wall note, I wonder how much of this is attributable to gambling.

it's 7AM, and i'm pretty sure i'm sober by now, so i also would like some elaboration on this.

 

[njdevsfn95]

it's 7AM, and i'm pretty sure i'm sober by now, so i also would like some elaboration on this.

i think he means you can count on fans of the teams watching the broadcast but also the fan that has money on the game in some fashion.

"Pick Em" Pools.

King of the Mountain pools.

Fantasy Football

the NFL is a gamblers dream.

 

[HabsByTheBay]

i think he means you can count on fans of the teams watching the broadcast but also the fan that has money on the game in some fashion.

"Pick Em" Pools.

King of the Mountain pools.

Fantasy Football

the NFL is a gamblers dream.

It's a gambler's/casual fan/lazy TV watcher's dream. The standard of football discourse reflects that.