Government regulators have approved ESPN’s billion-dollar blockbuster acquisition of multiple NFL Media assets, and the two sides closed the agreement late Saturday, the NFL and ESPN told The Athletic in a statement.
As part of the agreement, the NFL will take a 10 percent ownership stake in the Disney-owned network, which is valued in the billions. ESPN will own and operate NFL Network, become the official home of fantasy football by merging the NFL’s product with its own, and have the linear rights to the RedZone Channel.
While coverage for next week’s Super Bowl will remain unchanged, ESPN and NFL Network will become intertwined over time. The two networks already provide the most continuous on-air coverage of the league on TV.
NFL Network will be a part of ESPN’s family of networks that already include offshoots, like ESPN2, SEC Network and the ACC Network. ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, who fight for scoops as insiders, could now appear on their once rival networks.
As part of the rights to the RedZone Channel, ESPN will also be able to use the name to create similar offerings for other sports, but there are some hiccups. In college football, for example, the network doesn’t own the rights to all the games. Other major sports, like the NBA, MLB and NHL, do not have the standalone quality of Sunday afternoons.
Digitally, on fantasy football, ESPN will roll the NFL’s platform into its own, with the network now becoming the official partner of the league. An NFL.com fantasy player would now be in a league run by ESPN.
With the NFL having a significant stake in ESPN, the owners may be even more incentivized to keep the network as a long-term partner when negotiations for new deals occur.
Already, this agreement will increase the number of games ESPN airs to its most ever. There is also a caveat that will impact next year’s game scheduling.
The NFL and ESPN will do away with the “Monday Night Football” doubleheaders, shifting four of its overall games to NFL Network.
ESPN will broadcast 28 games per season, including NFL Network’s seven. NFL Network retained three games it already had. ESPN previously had 25 games. The NFL took back four games that it is expected to sell, potentially to one of the streamers.
Starting in the fall, anyone with ESPN Unlimited will have full access to NFL Network at the same current $29.99 per month price or through their cable or multichannel video programming distributor.
“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.”
Sources briefed on the plans said that NFL employees will officially become a part of ESPN in April, meaning that viewers will not notice anything different until then, at the earliest. NFL Network will be integrated into ESPN direct to consumer at the start of the next regular season in the fall.
The complicated deal was part of multiple separate agreements that were negotiated over several years and were announced in August, pending government approval. The official go-ahead will allow ESPN to go full bore into the new arrangement as it gears up for the network’s first Super Bowl in February 2027.
The NFL Network was created in 2003 by the league, while RedZone was introduced six years later.
The NFL will continue to operate NFL+, NFL.com and other assets. The NFL will still produce RedZone and sell the digital rights to the service. ESPN made the agreement in large part to boost its direct-to-consumer platform that it began selling last fall for $29.99 per month. ESPN is still available through cable services and other bundle packages.
The NFL is in the midst of 11-year deals with its network and streaming partners that are worth more than $110 billion. The league has an opt-out in its contracts with NBC, Fox, CBS, Amazon Prime Video and ESPN at the end of the decade. However, there is a growing expectation that the league wants to renegotiate those deals, starting this year.
The traditional broadcast and cable partners have new competitors from not only Prime Video, which is entering its fifth season as the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football,” but also from Netflix and YouTube, which have aired games over the past two years.