REPORT: NFL And ESPN Officially Close Deal With Government Approval, NFL Now Owns 10% of ESPN

The National Football League and ESPN have officially closed their massive deal on Saturday after receiving approval from government regulators, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reports.

The deal, which was originally agreed to in August, will see the NFL acquire a 10% stake in ESPN in exchange for ESPN adding NFL Network to its family of networks, as well as NFL RedZone and the league’s fantasy football platform.

The deal is valued in the billions of dollars and will see the largest league in the world formally commingle with the largest sports network in the world, the culmination of a decades-long relationship. The affected NFL employees will reportedly become officially part of ESPN in April and NFL Network will be integrated into ESPN’s platforms at the start of the next regular season.

The two parties’ statement, via The Athletic:

“The NFL and ESPN are pleased to announce the official closing of the sale of NFL Network and other NFL Media assets to ESPN,” the NFL and ESPN said in a joint statement to The Athletic. “With the closing, we will begin integrating NFL employees into ESPN in the months ahead. As we look to the future, NFL fans can look forward to expanded NFL programming, greater access to NFL Network, innovative Fantasy experiences and unparalleled coverage of America’s most popular sport.”

The deal is large enough that the full ramifications will take a while to see. According to The Athletic, one intriguing possibility is ESPN using the RedZone channel name across different sports, though that idea would come with limitations due to television rights ownership.

In addition, ESPN will no longer air “Monday Night Football” doubleheaders, as four of ESPN’s games will be on NFL Network. Overall, ESPN will reportedly broadcast 28 games total, while NFL Network will have seven. There could be a sharing of personalities as well, such as ESPN’s Adam Schefter appearing on NFL Network, his former employer.

A major motivation at play here appears to be the new ESPN Unlimited streaming service, which comes in at $29.99 per month unless you have certain cable subscriptions and will soon be featuring NFL Network. ESPN swung another massive deal last fall to take over the MLB.tv streaming platform as well, expanding its reach across the sports world.