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With a new NFL media rights deal potentially on the horizon, new outside bidders are likely to make their bid to join the football family.
To do this, the offers must be quite lucrative.
The NFL was reported to have a fall deadline to complete a new media rights deal, but Puck’s John Ourand reported earlier this month that the league is now believed to want it done before Week 1 in September. Technically, the league cannot exit current media rights agreements until after the 2029 season, but there is not expected to be 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 additional media partners potentially entering the fold of this potential new deal, as well as incumbents like FOX, CBS and NBC, the NFL should receive more of its roughly $10 billion per year.
But one former NFL Pro Bowler believes these streaming services trying to compete with each other to acquire the rights to the most profitable professional sports league in the US will need to find ways to come together.
“There are all kinds of FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) services and all different ways to distribute,” former NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman said on “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich.” “The NFL is working hard on their FAST channels that are distributed on Pluto and Amazon Freevee, YouTube. This is not going to stop and what will happen is it will turn into a bidding war. And what we will see over time, because NFL rights are becoming very expensive, is bundling.
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“These networks are going to come together: YouTube with TikTok. There’s going to have to be a lot of that because these NFL rights are going to be so expensive that these streaming services are going to have to figure it out.”
If that happens, the question then becomes how does it impact 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 include the country’s other major sports leagues like the NBA, MLB and more. For the NFL specifically, to see every ounce of action during the 2025 season, fans had to pay at least $575, with some spending nearly $800.
Shawne Merriman #56 of the San Diego Chargers walks on the sidelines in 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 membership had to shell out more than $378. Without a YouTube TV membership, it was $480. Primetime viewing then went to different streaming platforms like Netflix ($7.99 for the cheapest subscription), ESPN’s new streaming service that only includes live sports ($29.99), and Peacock’s “Premium” membership ($10.99) to watch “Sunday Night Football.”
In total for the stream, ESPN cost $179.94, Peacock cost $54.95, Amazon Prime Video cost $35.96, and NFL+ cost $20.97. If we add all this up for new Sunday Ticket subscribers, the cost of the 2025 NFL season for those fans was $575.81. If you were already a Sunday Ticket subscriber without YouTube TV, it was $779.81.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said negotiations for a new media rights deal will not happen until the NFL Players Association votes on a new executive director.
And to end with some food for thought: Ourand also noted in a newsletter last month that streamers will get the lion’s share of the NFL’s media rights pie.
Shawne Merriman attends the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures and Gravity Pictures’ ‘The Meg’ at the TCL Chinese Theater IMAX on August 6, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images)
“That model would likely include five games each, including four international games that the league brought back from NFL Network and the two Christmas Day games that Netflix currently has for another year,” Ourand wrote.
As Merriman said: “The NFL is smart. They’re going to make as much money as possible.”
