NFL Extends Major Deals with CBS, FOX & NBC

The National Football League (NFL) has renewed its broadcasting agreement with CBS Corp, FOX and NBC for a further nine-years that runs through the 2022 season.

As per the new deal, CBS will televise the American Football Conference package of Sunday afternoon games that it acquired in 1998.

Fox will continue with the National Football Conference package of Sunday afternoon games that it acquired in 1994.

NBC will again carry the Sunday Night Football package of primetime games that it acquired in 2006. NBC will continue to televise the Thursday night NFL season Kickoff game to open each season and will add the annual Thanksgiving primetime game starting in 2012.

The nine-year terms are the longest for NFL’s television agreements with over-the-air broadcasters. The average fees from the three networks will increase by an average of 7 percent annually, a person familiar with the details said. That will take the total revenue from them from the current $1.93 billion per year to $3.1 billion by 2022.

The networks will each pay the NFL between $950m and $1.1bn a year starting in 2014.

This comes after the NFL in September announced an eight year, $15.2 billion extension with Walt Disney Co’s ESPN for Monday Night Football. The deal, which included additional rights beyond just the TV broadcast, represented a roughly 73 percent increase over the previous contract.

NFL games account for 23 of the 25 most-watched programs among all television shows this fall and draw more than twice as many average viewers as broadcast prime-time shows.