The current lineup of NFL broadcast partners plans to stay in business with the league for a very long time. And the NFL will be much richer for it.
Daniel Kaplan and John Ourand of SportsBusiness Journal reported Monday morning that the league is closing in on renewing deals with CBS, FOX, and NBC through the 2021 season.
ESPN extended their Monday Night Football deal in September.
The current deals run through 2013. The extensions would be worth a combined $24 billion (yes, billion) over the next eight years. That makes for a huge across the board rights increase of over 60%.
The report estimates that the league could earn $7 billion-per-season in national media revenue by 2014. (That includes a Thursday package to be shopped later, plus the ESPN and DirecTV packages.) To put that in perspective, $7 billion is more than the league’s entire revenue a few years ago.
To put it another way: Television money is NFL money. It pays everyone’s salaries, from the coaches to the players.
While the dollar figures have changed over the years, that business model has stayed pretty consistent and effective for the league since the 1960’s.