{"id":48429,"date":"2025-08-06T02:18:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T02:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48429\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T02:18:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T02:18:16","slug":"espn-buys-nfl-media-redzone-in-major-sports-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48429\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Buys NFL Media, RedZone in Major Sports Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn a landscape-altering deal, The Walt Disney<\/a> Co. will acquire assets from NFL<\/a> Media, including NFL Network, with the league acquiring a 10 percent ownership stake in the sports<\/a> media giant.<\/p>\n

\n\tESPN<\/a> will fully own NFL Network, with plans to bake it into the upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service. The RedZone channel, meanwhile, will join Disney\u2019s linear portfolio, with Disney also planning to merge its ESPN fantasy football product with NFL Media\u2019s fantasy product.<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps most importantly, the NFL will also license games, RedZone, NFL Films programming and other content and rights to ESPN, potentially supercharging the streaming service when the deal closes.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd ESPN will get the rights to the \u201cRedZone\u201d brand, potentially opening the door to expanding the brand to other sports and platforms.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cToday\u2019s announcement paves the way for\u00a0the world\u2019s leading sports media brand\u00a0and America\u2019s most popular sport to deliver an\u00a0even more compelling experience for NFL fans, in a way that only ESPN and Disney can,\u201d said Disney CEO Bob Iger in a statement. \u201cCommissioner Goodell and the NFL have built outstanding media assets,\u00a0and these transactions will add to consumer choice, provide\u00a0viewers with even greater convenience and quality, and expand the breadth\u00a0and value\u00a0proposition of Disney\u2019s streaming ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSince its launch in 2003, NFL Network has provided millions of fans unprecedented access to the sport they love,\u201d added NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. \u201cWhether it was debuting Thursday Night Football, televising the Combine, or telling incredible football stories through original shows and breaking news, NFL Network has delivered. The Network\u2019s sale to ESPN will build on this remarkable legacy, providing more NFL football for more fans in new and innovative ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is an exciting day for sports fans,\u201d added Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN. \u201cBy combining these NFL media assets with ESPN\u2019s reach and innovation, we\u2019re creating a premier destination for football fans. Together, ESPN and the NFL are redefining how fans engage with the game\u2014anytime, anywhere. This deal helps fuel ESPN\u2019s digital future, laying the foundation for an even more robust offering as we prepare to launch our new direct-to-consumer service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal, more than a year in the making, will turbocharge ESPN\u2019s streaming ambitions, bringing additional games to the streaming platform when it closes, though the details are somewhat convoluted: \u201cESPN\u2019s platforms will license an additional three NFL games per season to air on NFL Network as a result of today\u2019s news. In addition, ESPN will adjust its overall NFL game schedule, with four games (including some from overlapping windows) shifting to the NFL Network, which will continue to present seven games per season,\u201d the NFL and ESPN explain in a press release. <\/p>\n

\n\tBasically, some of the games that ESPN already televises (including a couple of ABC games, and the annual ESPN+ exclusive) will shift to NFL Network, which will keep its current seven game schedule. The league will get a few games back as part of the deal. The total number of games all ESPN platforms will televise will rise from 25 to 28.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NFL will continue to produce NFL RedZone, even as it licenses it to ESPN, and the league will continue to fully own NFL Films<\/a>, NFL+, and other digital assets.<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven the size of the deal, it will require regulatory approval, and could take some time to close. Already some are wondering whether the administration could take a close look at the deal in a bid to seek concessions from Disney or the NFL.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe league and Disney note that the deal is still contingent on definitive agreements, as well as approval by team owners.<\/p>\n

\n\tESPN is currently 80% owned by Disney, and 20% owned be Hearst. It is not clear yet how the NFL\u2019s stake will dilute their ownership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a landscape-altering deal, The Walt Disney Co. will acquire assets from NFL Media, including NFL Network, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,3494,1161,514,82],"class_list":["post-48429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-disney","tag-espn","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}