NFL new TV deal (we'll get there someday)

[harttbeat]

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B99CD781F%2D428B%2D47BB%2D8797%2D9C934D536EB0%7D&siteid=mktw

$8 billion 7 yrs for national TV
$3.5 billion 5 yrs for Direct TV

anyone have the figures for EPL?

[Khansingh]

If I'm not mistaken, that's either a reduction from the previous contracts or it's flat.

[MLS3]

If I'm not mistaken, that's either a reduction from the previous contracts or it's flat.


Its not a reduction at all, well unless your talking about this only being a 6 year deal instead of 8 then ya...but not money wise, those #'s are only for FOX, CBS and DirectTV...ESPN/ABC still have to shell out another something billion to have sunday night and monday night games which they are still negotiating, plus the NFL is going to add late season thursday and saturday night games which they will probably get a couple billion for...

[chayes]

The best news to come out of that is the ability of the NFL to move high profile late season matchups to Monday night.

Nothing like watching two 4-9 teams "battle" it out on Monday night in Week 14 while two division leaders facing off get relegated to regional network coverage.

[Sykotyk]

yeah, this is probably going to be an increase. The last deal was 17.6 billion over 8 years (2.2 billion a year) but was raised with the addition of the Texans.

At this rate, this will go higher. The DirecTV deal I believe is much higher than the previous contract and is running for more years (DTV will never give it up, it's the marquee product DirecTV has to offer), and CBS and Fox were both happy to continue their current setups.

ESPN wants games, and they want a Super Bowl. The only way to get two Super Bowls is to get games on ABC since the NFL won't let ESPN get a Super Bowl.

As for the Thursday/Friday/Saturday games late in the season, from the sounds of it, it's possible that it could be turned to a smaller network even. Such as WB or UPN to bid on it without the cost issues of going after an entire package like AFC/NFC/SNF/MNF.

I could easily see UPN or WB shelling out money for four Friday or Saturday night games in December to be shown nationally on their smaller networks. But without the cost of buying an entire season.

One thing I want to change is this 'home market' rule. If the home team is on TV, the other network can't air a competing game. With the doubleheader/single setup, if the home team is on the channel airing a single, the first part of the doubleheader is blacked out (no-compete) and the channel airing the home team can't show a second game since they have a single game that week. Which means in one market you see two games.

The home town fans will watch the home town team. Those in that city that aren't fans of that city won't watch the NFL just because. They want to see other games. So putting a game opposite the home team isn't going to hurt as only non-fans of that team will tune in to watch the other game. Plus, you get channel surfers... and more people watching in general.

Sykotyk