Thursday Night Football is headed for a new home.
FOX Sports will replace CBS and NBC as the “Thursday Night Football” broadcaster after agreeing on a five-year deal that will be announced on Wednesday.
According to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal:
inlineg
Fox’ deal will pay the NFL more than the combined $450M per year CBS and NBC paid over the last two years. Sources peg Fox’ payout at an average of around $550M per year through the ’22 season, which syncs up with the league’s other TV deals. This is a strong sign for the NFL, as it shows its programming remains among the most valuable in entertainment.
As part of the deal, Fox will carry 11 “TNF” games per season. Those games will be simulcast on NFL Network and a digital partner still to be named. NFL Network will carry an undetermined number of games exclusively in order to adhere to its pay-TV affiliate deals. As part of the deal, Fox picked up expanded mobile rights for its Thursday and Sunday games.
Fox’ top NFL broadcast team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will not be in the booth for the “TNF” games, which marks a difference from previous Thursday deals when the NFL mandated that CBS and NBC use its top broadcast teams.
Despite declining ratings, the NFL still remains king when it comes to being the highest-rated television programming available. CBS and NBC paid a combined $450 million to air 10 games last year:
$100M a year increase from last year for a property some suggested would go away. As I keep saying, ratings decline or not, media deals only going north. https://t.co/0gP82wDI8f
— Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) January 31, 2018
Comments are closed.