SportsPro presents all the commercial details you need to know about the world’s most lucrative sports league and its 32 franchises.
The NFL starts the 2023 season with its most important commercial deals locked in for the next decade and safe in the knowledge that it has tens of billions of dollars secured in committed revenue.
The league stole the show in 2021 when it announced long-term domestic broadcast agreements with CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox, NBC and Amazon, which are cumulatively paying more than US$100 billion to broadcast live games until 2033.
While last year saw Amazon make its debut as the exclusive broadcaster of Thursday Night Football (TNF), this season is the first to fall under the league’s new contract with the majority of its domestic media partners.
The main changes? More money and more options for fans to watch.
All five of the NFL’s main broadcasters are paying significantly more than they were under their previous deals, which together were worth US$5.9 billion a year. The new contracts are said to be worth a total of US$113 billion over 11 years, which amounts to around an 80 per cent increase.
Financials aside, perhaps the biggest difference fans will notice is the increase in digital distribution.
