The National Football League announced a new series of long-term TV deals valued at an estimated US$105 billion, including a historic contract giving Amazon.com Inc. exclusive rights to Thursday football broadcasts, a first for a streaming company.
Under the accord, CBS and Fox will continue to carry daytime games on Sundays and gain expanded digital rights, the parties said Thursday. NBC will retain rights to Sunday evening telecasts, including streaming, while ESPN will keep “Monday Night Football,” gain online rights, and see some games carried on its sister network ABC. The agreements begin with the 2023 season and run through the 2033 season.
The contracts mark some big changes: Traditional media companies will be paying a lot more for NFL football — as much as double what they were shelling out before, according to reports that preceded the announcement. But they also get online rights to coverage. And for the first time, an internet company has grabbed exclusive rights — bringing the potential for innovative coverage to the staid world of sports.
“When I started in this world, it was simple process of conducting an auction for the two conferences,” Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, said at a briefing. “Over the last two decades, renewing our media rights has become a more detailed, customized and collaborative process.”
Several networks are paying roughly double their current fees, helping push the total above US$105 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The colossal sum is a victory for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who showed the league can still command big bucks — even after years of uneven ratings and controversies involving concussions and players kneeling during the national anthem.
Here’s how they break down by network:
ESPN/ABC
Walt Disney Co. agreed to pay an estimated US$2.7 billion a year for “Monday Night Football” on ESPN and ABC, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the terms aren’t public. With the deal, ABC acquired rights to carry two Super Bowls, along with regular season games. ESPN+ subscribers can stream one international game on an exclusive national basis every season. The agreement allows ESPN the opportunity to simulcast all ABC and ESPN games on ESPN+.
Fox
The Fox Corp. network will pay about US$2 billion annually, one of the people said, for the National Football Conference package of Sunday afternoon games it has carried since 1994. The broadcaster also expanded its digital rights, including rights for its streaming platform Tubi to deliver NFL programming on digital platforms. Fox’s “America’s Game of the Week” has been the most-watched show in all of TV for the last 12 seasons and the most-watched NFL window for the last 20 seasons, the league said.
NBC
Comcast Corp.’s entertainment division agreed to pay about US$2 billion a year for “Sunday Night Football,” according to a person with knowledge of the matter. That was described as less than double the US$1.1 billion in the current deal. The accord includes rights to simulcast all “Sunday Night Football” games on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, along with an exclusive feed of select games over the course of the deal. NBC first acquired its package in 2006.
CBS
ViacomCBS Inc. will be paying slightly less than US$2 billion annually for its multiplatform package, a person said. The CBS network keeps the rights for the American Football Conference’s Sunday afternoon games. All games will be broadcast on the CBS Television Network and streamed live on the Paramount+ streaming service. CBS has been airing the NFL since 1956.
Amazon
In the NFL’s first ever all-digital package, Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video acquired exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” across compatible streaming devices, agreeing to pay about US$1 billion a year, according to a person familiar with the terms. The online giant wants to distinguish the sports-streaming experience from watching TV by adding interactive features that let viewers access real-time stats through its “XRay” feature, which can also be used on Amazon Prime Video to learn more about the cast in a movie or show.
The new deals were must-have for the broadcasters, which have lost millions of viewers to new online entertainment options in recent years. Pay-TV subscribers in the U.S. have fallen to 85 million from a peak of almost 105 million a decade ago.
“This is a seminal moment for the distribution of our content,” Goodell said at the briefing. The league helped fuel the growth of broadcast television in the 1960s, cable in the ’80s and satellite TV in the ’90s, he said. Now it may have a similar effect online.
“NFL football has shown historically the ability to advance those new technologies and change fan behavior,” he said. “I’m sure we’re going to look back at these deals in the same way.”
While TV audiences have been splintered by streaming and other entertainment options, the NFL remains the most-popular programming on television. The Super Bowl is the most-watched annual event on TV — it drew 96.4 million viewers this year — and NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” is the highest-rated regularly scheduled programming, with an audience of almost 17 million a night last season.
That makes football a huge magnet for advertisers that want to reach millions of live-TV viewers at once. It’s also a key source of revenue for broadcast and cable programmers, even if they don’t earn much profit from the games themselves because of the soaring royalties they’ll be paying the NFL. Sports broadcasts are a key platform for media companies to promote their comedies, dramas and new movies.
The league’s current contracts with ViacomCBS, Fox and NBC were to run through the 2022-2023 season, while the pact with ESPN expired after 2021-2022. The league also has an agreement with AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV that runs though 2022-2023. It lets pay-TV customers see Sunday games that aren’t carried by their local TV services.
The deal shows that traditional, or linear, TV is still key to media companies’ strategies — even in the streaming era.
“The prediction that the broadcast networks are disappearing was wrong,” Neal Pilson, head of sports-media consulting firm Pilson Communications Inc. “Look for the other major sports to keep their primary events and games on linear TV with ancillary deals on digital.”
Editor’s Note: BNN Bloomberg is a division of Bell Media, which is the Canadian NFL rights holder. A spokesperson for the company said “There is no correlation between our agreement with the league and the NFL’s media rights agreements in the United States.”
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
