ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro, making the rounds after the network’s massive new deal with the NFL, says the league’s equity stake in the network will not give it an inside-track in media rights negotiations.
Pitaro told Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports that the company will “not expect any preferential treatment whatsoever” from the NFL, despite the massive deal that upon approval will give the NFL a ten percent stake in the network. Specifically, Pitaro said that “any future rights negotiations” will be “held at arm’s length, just like they always have been. Nothing changes as a result of this equity transaction.”
For the league’s part, NFL EVP/media distribution Hans Schroeder told McCarthy that the league knows “how to balance that piece of the partnership as well as the arms-length aspect of the partnership. Especially in areas where we have multiple partners.”
The ESPN-NFL Media deal, which will see ESPN acquire the league-branded NFL Network in exchange for the league’s equity stake, raises the question of whether ESPN will have an advantage over the other NFL broadcast partners. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the NFL has acquired an equity stake in CBS by way of its relationship with Skydance, which officially merged with CBS parent Paramount on Thursday. As of now, the NFL does not own a piece of the other broadcasters, FOX (owned by Fox Corporation), NBC (owned by Comcast), Amazon, Google or Netflix.
While it has been assumed that the federal government could use the regulatory process to either settle scores or extract concessions on unrelated culture war issues, it is also true that an acquisition of this type raises legitimate antitrust concerns. It would seem fairly anticompetitive if one (or two) of the NFL broadcast partners suddenly felt like they were no longer at risk of losing the rights because the league is a part-owner.
The NFL’s equity stake in ESPN, which would seem to be a first in sports television history, raises potential conflicts of interest that to this point have only been implicit. In addition to concern about the deal giving ESPN an advantage in rights negotiations, Pitaro also addressed concerns about how it will impact the network’s journalism efforts.
