Did Lachlan Murdoch just tackle the NFL?
The Fox CEO on Thursday surprised investors by announcing that Fox’s current deal with the National Football League would remain as is through its end after the 2029 season, despite the league’s recent interest in using an “opt-out” clause baked into the 11-year pacts it struck with all of its media partners that would allow it to update terms to match market levels.
“We don’t see any changes” to Fox’s current pact with the NFL until the 2030 season, Murdoch said during a call with investors. The company “will not be making any amendments” to the rights deal it has at present. Murdoch said the decision came after recent talks between Fox and the league, but declined to elaborate.
The NFL has been in discussions with many of its rights partners, which also include Amazon, Disney, NBCUniversal and CBS, about updating its current contracts. The league has good reason to do so. It deliberately struck its most recent pacts with the opt-out clause, knowing full well that sports are one of the few things in the current media sector that continue to win the large, live audiences that advertisers and distributors crave. The value of sports deals continues to increase at an exponential rate — so much so that NBC is believed to be paying the NBA more for its current rights contract with that league than it is paying the NFL for “Sunday Night Football.”
At the same time, the TV companies are no doubt loath to pay more money for their current NFL contracts, given the state of the industry. The rise of streaming has eroded the traditional TV business, with flows of revenue from advertising and distribution in general decline. Preserving a lower rights fee would serve the media companies well in the current moment.
A spokesperson for the NFL could not be reached for immediate comment.
The appeal of sports continues to play out in real time. Disney on Wednesday announced it had sold out all its commercial time tied to its 2027 broadcast of Super Bowl LXI — months ahead of the actual play date. TV networks with rights to the Big Game typically don’t unveil that status until the end of August or sometime in the fall.
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The NFL has also held what are believed to be serious discussions with Paramount Skydance about the status of its deal to show Sunday-afternoon NFL games. The change of control of the company, from the Redstone family to the Ellison family, gave the NFL the ability to open new discussions with CBS Sports.
Spokespersons for CBS Sports, NBC Sports and Amazon’s Prime Video sports division could not be reached for immediate comment. The NFL cannot exercise an “opt-out” on Disney’s deal to show “Monday Night Football” on ESPN or ABC until after 2030. That pact has become more complex after a recent transaction that made the league a minority owner of ESPN in exchange for control of the NFL Network and other media assets controlled by the sports organization.
Fox’s Murdoch said the company’s relationship with the NFL remained “incredibly positive,” and praised a recent transaction that gives Fox rights to show NFL games via its Mexican properties. Murdoch said Fox and the NFL will take up rights talks much closer to the of their current contract. If Murdoch is nervous about his ability to keep ties to the NFL despite what is likely to be a hefty cost increase, he wasn’t putting it on display. Fox, he said, sees “a clear path forward” after 2029.