The evolution of live sports programming has become a battleground between traditional broadcast companies and streaming platforms, vying for the right to air the best games possible year after year.
The NFL is the cream of the crop, generating roughly $10 billion per year on its current media rights deal. And the league is likely to renegotiate that deal by the end of this year, with reports indicating that they want it done before kickoff in Week 1 of the 2026 season in September.
With additional media partners potentially entering the fold in this new deal, where do the incumbents like FOX, CBS and NBC lie in the pie chart that is the NFL schedule?
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Curtis LeGeyt, the CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, which lobbies federal agencies and lawmakers alike on behalf of the broadcast industry, spoke with John Ourand on “The Varsity” podcast, where he suggested the broadcast industry must consolidate if it wants to continue competing with streaming platforms for live sports rights.
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“I think, for better or worse, (consolidation) is an essential thing right now,” he explained. “And I’m looking at this purely through the lens of broadcast. If we’re going to compete for those NFL sports rights, if we’re going to compete locally to ensure that teams feel like they have a local distribution option that is freely available through local broadcasts as opposed to the cable regional sports networks or even streaming, broadcasters need some scale in order to complete for that. The only way to gain that scale is through some level of consolidation.”
We’re already seeing key mergers across broadcast television, including Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, which is awaiting approval that will likely go through. Also, the NFL and ESPN reached a landmark deal where the sports giant acquired NFL Network, NFL RedZone and NFL Fantasy. In exchange, the league received a 10% equity stake in ESPN, which was valued at around $3 billion.
Merging these broadcasters together can help compete against the likes of Amazon, Netflix, and perhaps others will join the fray if and when negotiations ensue for a new media rights deal. With JC Tretter elected as the NFL Players’ Association’s new executive director, those negotiations could be coming sooner than later.
Now, where does the NFL fan come into play here? The price of simply watching the NFL schedule is quite expensive, with fans having to pay at least $575 to watch every game if they wished in 2025. The need for ESPN, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and NFL+ subscriptions, among others, only points upward as media rights prices for the league continues to grow.
Fans would like it if they could access their favorite sports if its free-to-air broadcasts doing so.
The FCC said last month it would seek public comment about the ongoing shift of live sports from broadcast channels to streaming services, which includes the other major sports leagues in the country like the NBA, MLB and more.
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