Impact of DOJ’s NFL Investigation on Networks and Fans

As the NFL gears up to negotiate new contracts worth billions of dollars for broadcasting its games, there’s a new player in the game— the Department of Justice. They have opened an investigation to see if the way the NFL sells its broadcast rights is harming consumers.

A lot of folks, from lawmakers to fans, have been worried about the NFL, and other sports leagues too, putting more and more games on streaming services you have to pay for. This could end up costing viewers more money. The NFL currently has deals with big networks like ESPN/ABC, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, Prime Video, and Netflix to show their games. You gotta subscribe to watch “Monday Night Football” on ESPN (except when it’s also on ABC), “Thursday Night Football,” the Black Friday game on Prime Video, and Christmas games on Netflix. Some international games show up on NFL Network, which is run by ESPN. Also, some post-season games need a subscription to watch. The NFL has also given games to ESPN+, YouTube, and Peacock before. All games are free on local stations in the teams’ hometowns.

The NFL folks think that the Murdoch family, the owners of Fox Corporation, is the reason the DOJ is looking into them. Fox pays over $2 billion for their Sunday afternoon games, but the NFL is probably going to change things up after the 2029 season. The CEO of Fox Corp., Lachlan Murdoch, said they could handle any extra costs if the deals get renegotiated. But there seems to be a bit of drama behind the scenes, with some thinking Fox is the one stirring the pot with Congress and other big players.

The NFL makes more than $10 billion a year from their deals that go until 2033 (2034 for ESPN). As they start talking about changing up who gets what games, they’re likely gonna ask for more money from the media companies. The NFL’s all about making sure fans can watch games easily, and they’re super popular, with 83 out of the top 100 most-watched TV events last year being NFL games. But, things could change if they start moving games from Sunday afternoons, where they’re typically shown on CBS and Fox. Fox is also the only company without a subscription streaming service, while Prime Video and YouTube have been branching out and showing games on theirs.

Although Fox and others have raised concerns about increasing streaming costs, saying it could result in higher prices for viewers, the NFL stands by its media distribution model as being fan-friendly. They point out that most of the games are available for free on regular TV.

It sounds like there’s a lot of moving parts, and we’ll have to wait and see how things shake out as the NFL continues these discussions and negotiations.