The NFL season may be over, but live football will return to NFL Network as soon as April.
NFL Network is set to sign a one-year deal to televise games from the new Arena Football 1 league beginning this April, reports Sports Business Journal. NFL Network will air live, Friday night telecasts throughout the season, as well as the league’s championship game.
The deal, which will have an option for a second season, will be officially announced later this month.
NFL VP of programming Charles Coplin told Sports Business Journal that the deal “made sense to us,” and was not “indicative of a larger or broader relationship” between the NFL and the AF1.
The AF1 replaces the old AFL, which folded after the 2008 season. In recent years, the AFL had television deals with ESPN/ABC (2007-08), NBC (2003-06) and OLN/Versus (2006).
The AF1 is expected to be rebranded as the AFL by the start of its inaugural season.
(Sports Business Journal)
