Government regulators have approved ESPN’s billion-dollar blockbuster acquisition of top NFL Media assets, and the two sides closed the agreement late Saturday, the NFL and ESPN told The Athletic in a statement.
As part of the agreement, the NFL will take a 10 percent ownership stake in the Disney-owned network, which is valued in the billions. ESPN will own and operate NFL Network, become the official home of fantasy football by merging the NFL’s product with its own, and have the linear rights to the RedZone Channel.
The NFL and ESPN will do away with the “Monday Night Football” doubleheaders, shifting four of its overall games to NFL Network.
ESPN will broadcast 28 games per season, the network’s most ever, including NFL Network’s seven. NFL Network retained three games it already had. ESPN previously had 25 games.
The NFL took back four games that it is expected to sell, potentially to one of the streamers.
Starting in the fall, anyone with ESPN Unlimited will have full access to NFL Network at the same current $29.99 per month price or through their cable or multichannel video programming distributor.
“The NFL and ESPN are pleased to announce the official closing of the sale of NFL Network and other NFL Media assets to ESPN,” the NFL and ESPN said in a joint statement to The Athletic. “With the closing, we will begin integrating NFL employees into ESPN in the months ahead. As we look to the future, NFL fans can look forward to expanded NFL programming, greater access to NFL Network, innovative Fantasy experiences and unparalleled coverage of America’s most popular sport.”
Sources briefed on the plans said that NFL employees will officially become a part of ESPN in April, meaning that viewers will not notice anything different until then, at the earliest. NFL Network will be integrated into ESPN direct to consumer at the start of the next regular season in the fall.
The complicated deal was part of multiple separate agreements that were negotiated over several years and were announced in August, pending government approval. The official go-ahead will allow ESPN to go full bore into the new arrangement as it gears up for the network’s first Super Bowl in February 2027.
The NFL will continue to operate NFL+, NFL.com and other assets. The NFL will still produce RedZone and sell the digital rights to the service. ESPN made the agreement in large part to boost its direct-to-consumer platform that it began selling last fall for $29.99 per month. ESPN is still available through cable services and other bundle packages.
The NFL Network was created in 2003 by the league, while RedZone was introduced six years later.
The NFL is in the midst of 11-year deals with its network and streaming partners that are worth more than $110 billion. The league has an opt-out in its contracts with NBC, Fox, CBS, Amazon Prime Video and ESPN at the end of the decade. However, there is a growing expectation that the league wants to renegotiate those deals, starting this year.
The traditional broadcast and cable partners have new competitors from not only Prime Video, which is entering its fifth season as the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football,” but also from Netflix and YouTube, which have aired games over the past two years.
While the deal doesn’t guarantee that ESPN has an inside position in future game rights negotiations, it may help the network that the NFL has a 10 percent interest in its future.