With NFL games continuing to out-draw everything else on American television, the NFL is eager to get even more lucrative deals with its TV partners.
The NFL can opt out of its TV contracts with NBC, CBS, Fox and Amazon Prime Video after the 2029 season, and with ESPN after the 2030 season, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell thinks he has leverage with the TV partners to start asking for more money now. New deals could provide the NFL with higher rights fees, and the network partners with the certainty that their partnerships with the NFL will last beyond 2029.
“I think our partners would want to sit down and talk to us at any time, and we continue to dialogue with them. I like that opportunity,” Goodell told CNBC. “Obviously it’s not going to happen this year. But it could happen as early as next year. That could happen.”
Goodell doesn’t sound like he wants to wait until after the 2029 season to renegotiate.
“The reason why we felt so strongly about the option is the landscape is changing. It could be a long-term deal with the benefit of having that stability and security of it. But I think the reality of it is it changes so quickly that you want to have the ability to move. I think those options are going to give us a lot of flexibility to potentially go earlier,” said Goodell.
As long as the NFL provides the most popular programming, all of the major players in the TV business are going to want a piece of it. And Goodell knows that with that being the case, he’s in a great negotiating position.
