21st Century Fox has won a coveted contract to air the NFL’s Thursday Night Football for the next five seasons. The deal is expected to bring some heft to its FOX broadcast network as it separates from a significant passel of media assets its parent company is selling to Walt Disney Co.
Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League, had this to say about the deal:
“We felt this was the best opportunity for the NFL to continue to grow the Thursday-night package.”
FOX takes the place of NBC and CBS, which had previously split a ten-game package for the past two seasons at a cost of $450 million each season. FOX is allegedly paying more than $650 million per year. Goodell declined to comment about the financial terms of the deal on the record.
With the new deal, FOX Sports gets to air 11 games on FOX Broadcasting that will be simulcast on the NFL Network and in Spanish on FOX Deportes. FOX will produce 18 games in total, seven of which will broadcast solely on the NFL’s cable outlet. FOX will gain some rights to distribute both its Thursday and Sunday games to FOX subscribers over mobile phones and other digital outlets, but the NFL retains the rights to find a digital partner to live-stream the Thursday games.
