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With a new NFL media rights deal potentially on the horizon, new outside bidders are likely to promote themselves to be brought into the football family.
To do this, the offers must be quite lucrative.
The NFL reportedly had a fall deadline to reach a new media rights deal, but Puck’s John Ourand reported earlier this month that it’s now estimated the league wants that done before the first week of September. Technically, the league cannot end current media rights agreements before the 2029 season, but there should be no opposition to doing something new with its partners.
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Shawne Merriman attends the Grand Opening of Resorts World Las Vegas on June 24, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ryan Steffy/Getty Images for Resorts World Las Vegas)
With other media partners likely to come into the fold in this potential new deal, as well as incumbents like FOX, CBS and NBC, the NFL stands to see more than its roughly $10 billion per year.
But a former NFL Pro Bowler believes those streaming services trying to outdo each other to acquire the rights to America’s most profitable professional sports league will have to find ways to partner together.
“There are all kinds of FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) services and all different ways to distribute them,” former NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman said on “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich.” “The NFL is working hard on their FAST channels to distribute them on Pluto and Amazon Freevee, YouTube. This thing is not going to stop and what’s going to happen is it’s going to become a bidding war. And what we’ll see over time, because NFL rights become so expensive, is consolidation.
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“These networks are going to come together – YouTube with TikTok. There’s going to have to be a lot of them because these NFL rights are going to be so expensive that these streaming services are going to have to get by.”
If this happens, the question then becomes what impact will this have on the NFL consumer?
The FCC said last month it would seek public comment on the ongoing shift of live sports from broadcast channels to streaming services, which includes the nation’s other major sports leagues like the NBA, MLB and others. For the NFL specifically, to witness every ounce of action throughout the 2025 season, fans had to pay at least $575, with some spending almost $800.
Shawne Merriman #56 of the San Diego Chargers walks the sidelines during the game against the Seattle Seahawks on August 15, 2009 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
New NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers had to pay $276 for the season, but existing customers with a YouTube TV subscription had to fork out more than $378. Without a YouTube TV subscription, it was $480. Then the prime time slots were allocated to different streaming platforms like Netflix ($7.99 for the cheapest subscription), ESPN’s new streaming service to include only live sports ($29.99) and Peacock’s “Premium” subscription ($10.99) to watch “Sunday Night Football.”
In total for streaming, ESPN was $179.94, Peacock $54.95, Amazon Prime Video $35.96, and NFL+ $20.97. Add all that up for new Sunday Ticket subscribers, and the cost of the 2025 NFL season for those fans was $575.81. If you already subscribed to Sunday Ticket without YouTube TV, it would cost you $779.81.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell noted that negotiations for a new media rights deal won’t happen until the NFL Players Association votes for a new executive director.
And to end with some food for thought: Ourand also noted in a newsletter last month that streamers would get the biggest slice of the NFL’s media rights pie.
Shawne Merriman attends the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures and Gravity Pictures of “The Meg” at the TCL Chinese Theater IMAX on August 6, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Christophe Polk/Getty Images)
“This model would likely include five games each, including four international games that the league took over from NFL Network and the two Christmas Day games that Netflix currently offers for one more year,” Ourand wrote.
As Merriman says, “The NFL is smart. They’re going to make as much money as possible.”
