NFL Reaches Lucrative Nine-Year Broadcast Rights Extension With CBS, FOX & NBC

The NFL agreed to nine-year extensions of their broadcast deals with CBS, FOX and NBC on Wednesday at the league owners meeting. The deal takes effect following the 2013 season and runs through 2022. Terms of the deal were not disclosed by the league, but the Sports Business Journal reports that all three networks will each pay around a billion dollars per year under the agreements.

FOX will still have the NFC on Sunday afternoons, and CBS will continue broadcasting the AFC. However, the extension includes several notable changes to the current deal. Starting in 2012, the Thanksgiving Day prime time game will be broadcast on NBC rather than the NFL Network. Flexible scheduling will be expanded starting in 2014, allowing CBS and FOX to swap out regional games in order to reach a wider audience. Essentially, that means those two networks can switch their AFC/NFC allegiances in the name of flexible scheduling.

The NFL makes all of its games available via free network broadcast. Thursday night and Monday night games on the NFL Network and ESPN are required by contract to be carried on over-the-air, broadcast stations in the cities of the participating teams, subject to local blackout rules.

“It is great for fans, it will continue to allow us to grow our audience,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Goodell credited the new collective bargaining agreement, finalized in July 2011 after almost five months of a lockout, for clearing the way for the broadcast-rights extension.

“I think it’s a tribute to the players and De Smith for extending our labor agreement for 10 years,” Goodell said. “I think that kind of stability gave us the ability to get these contract extensions. It’s a good thing for football fans today.”

Players stand to gain significantly from the deal, which carries major ramifications for the salary cap and revenue sharing. Under the terms of the new CBA, players receive 55 percent of the broadcast money. That was part of the agreement to help settle the impasse over revenue sharing during the lockout. As part of the same deal, owners receive 60 percent of local team revenues and 55 percent of the money from NFL Ventures, which includes merchandise and promotions.

Owners also approved the establishment of a venture capital fund today to invest in technologies directed at fans.

“The aim of it is to invest in various technologies and companies that we think are doing great things that will make our world better but also the experience in the NFL better,” Goodell explained. “They may or may not be NFL partners. They may be people who provide technology in our stadiums, on our fields, as part of media. We will look at those different technologies. We’ll have a committee that will be making those decisions. And we’re very excited about it.”