NFL agrees to six-year extensions with Fox and CBS worth $8 billion
By BARRY WILNER, AP Football Writer
November 9, 2004
NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS got what it wanted. Fox did, too.
So did the NFL.
Now it's ABC/ESPN's turn.
The NFL, eager to get new TV deals in place before the current contract runs out after the 2005 season, agreed Monday to $8 billion in extensions with Fox and CBS to televise Sunday afternoon games for six more years. The deals also would allow the league to show better matchups late in the season in prime time.
``Our goal in the negotiations has been to continue to deliver our games to the widest possible audience,'' commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. ``The agreements underscore a unique commitment to broadcast television that no other sport has.''
The current eight-year contract was worth $17.6 billion, including the Sunday night (on ESPN) and Monday night (on ABC) packages. The extensions will run through 2011 and represent a 25 percent increase in rights fees.
The breakdown, according to an official within the league who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity: Fox will pay $4.3 billion, or $712.5 million per year for the NFC games; CBS will pay $3.7 billion, or $622.5 million a year. In the current deal, Fox is paying $550 million a year and CBS is paying $500 million.
``We're extremely excited to have a new six-year deal with NFL,'' CBS co-president Leslie Moonves said. ``This happened ahead of when we thought it would happen, but we are thrilled with the deal we made.
``We made money on the last deal and will make even more on this deal.''
The league still is in talks for the prime-time packages. The exclusive negotiating period for ABC/ESPN extends for nearly another year. But there's been speculation other networks, even cable entities, might challenge for the Sunday night and Monday night packages.
A unique aspect of the extensions -- and something Tagliabue has sought for several years -- gives the NFL the option to move seven late-season games from Sunday to Monday night to feature more attractive matchups.
The NFL also can develop late-season prime-time satellite or cable packages of eight games, which would be televised on Thursdays and Saturdays. Or the league could take those eight games and show them regionally in prime-time telecasts on Sundays and Mondays.
``We got some protections,'' Fox Sports chairman David Hill said. ``The last several weeks of the season, the NFL has the right to pull a game for Monday Night Football and we're still in conversation on (details).''
DirecTV also extended its deal with the league through 2010 for the Sunday Ticket package. The satellite distributor will pay $3.5 billion for the five-year extension.
CBS continues to televise AFC games, a package it acquired in 1998. CBS handled NFL games from 1956 through the 1970 merger, then took over the NFC until 1993, when Fox outbid CBS for that package. CBS then outbid NBC for the AFC games.
Tagliabue said there will be no changes in the traditional Sunday afternoon kickoff times for regular-season games.
Each network gets two Super Bowls during the contract period. CBS will do the game on Feb. 4, 2007 from Miami, and Fox will handle the game a year later from the Phoenix area. The other Super Bowls for the networks will be assigned later.
The agreements also include a commitment by CBS and Fox to phase in high-definition coverage for all games and introduce new interactive elements to NFL game telecasts.
DirecTV televises via satellite every Sunday afternoon regular-season game to markets that otherwise would be blacked out of those games.
``Our DirecTV partnership complements and supports our broadcast television packages,'' Tagliabue said. ``This new agreement expands our joint commitment to the ongoing development of innovative ways for fans to enjoy the NFL.''
In addition to some interactive services, DirecTV will institute a separate ``Red Zone'' channel devoted to taking viewers from game to game when a team is inside an opponent's 20-yard line and poised to score.
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