After years of lead-up, it appears ESPN is finally on the doorstep of taking over NFL Media.
ESPN and the NFL are now “the closest they have ever been” to striking a deal that would grant ESPN control of the league’s media apparatus, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported Wednesday. The news is no surprise, as Sports Business Journal reported earlier this week that NFL owners had been notified to be ready for a potential vote on the agreement for as soon as next week.
Per Marchand, a deal is not yet done, and even upon completion is expected to require regulatory approval. Even if there are no hiccups in the regulatory process — far from a guarantee in the current enviroment — winning approval would take the better part of a year. As goes without saying, any approval not come in time for the upcoming NFL season or the launch of ESPN’s new direct-to-subscriber service.
The exact details of a deal are not yet known, from the price tag (which Marchand said will “be enormous”) to exactly what ESPN will acquire. It is widely expected that the deal will include the popular NFL RedZone whiparound program and NFL Network. It is worth noting that both Marchand and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk listed NFL Network’s live game inventory as a separate asset in and of itself.
While Marchand wrote that ESPN will likely “enhance” NFL Network, it is also the case that the league-owned outlet is a niche cable channel in an era of declining distribution. Any deal that would include NFL Network, but not its package of live games, would be difficult to imagine — especially since the network’s lineup otherwise consists of the NFL-specific studio programming that already populates much of ESPN’s lineup. It is frankly easier to imagine ESPN picking up the games and NFL Network being left to wither on the vine, if that is at all possible.
The NFL has been trying to sell a stake in its media business for four years, but thus far found no takers. At one point, Amazon was considered a favorite to acquire a near majority stake. ESPN and the NFL were first reported to be close to a deal more than two years ago.
It should be noted that when news first broke that the NFL and ESPN were in talks on a potential agreement, the league was expected to acquire a stake in ESPN. That aspect of the discussion has not been brought up in recent reports.
