NFL plans for new media package for streaming services; What's National Football League's new business plan all about?

In a new development, the National Football League (NFL) has struck a deal with ESPN, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, where the former will put together a few games for its new media package which they would see to its potential streaming partners.

The development is a part of an agreement, announced on Tuesday, where ESPN will acquire NFL Network and certain other media assets owned and controlled by the NFL – including NFL’s linear RedZone Channel, and NFL Fantasy – in exchange for a 10 per cent equity stake in ESPN. Currently four games are being aired on NFL Network.

According to a report in Bloomberg.com, the NFL is the most sellable media property in the United States with its games topping the charts in the list of most-watched telecasts. The report further stated that the league takes home more than $10 billion a year for its broadcast rights from media companies.

As a part of the agreement, Disney will take control of the NFL network with its games to be sold to potential buyers like Apple Inc., Netflix Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, etc. Amazon.com Inc. and NBC parent Comcast Corp are already in business with NFL.

Six years back in 2019, NFL had created a package of Thursday games for Fox Corp. They eventually sold those rights to Amazon in 2022. Netflix, which is one of the largest paid streaming services in the world, had agreed to stream a couple of Christmas Day games last year.