Credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr (Donald Trump) / Inside the MagicA few days ago, The Athletic reported that Disney and ESPN have struck a deal with the National Football League to buy the league’s media properties and give the NFL a stake in ESPN. With ESPN expected to announce its streaming-only service as early as later this month, this move solidifies ESPN’s place as a necessary purchase for all football fans, giving Disney a new streaming service to keep the company’s cable division afloat despite the pending death of linear channels.
ESPN will take over the NFL’s Red Zone, the NFL Network, and the NFL’s online fantasy football services. ESPN will also get an additional seven regular-season NFL games, including six stand-alone international games.
The deal is massive for Disney/ESPN and the NFL. It makes the NFL ESPN’s permanent partner and gives the Disney subsidiary a leg up when the league’s television contract comes up in 2028, if the NFL chooses to opt out of its current contract early.
This deal appears to be a win-win for ESPN/Disney and the NFL; however, there is a wildcard in these negotiations: President Donald Trump.
A deal this size will require governmental oversight and approval; this is where Trump comes in. He is a frequent Disney critic and has also recently taken some shots at the NFL.
Recently, Trump’s FCC only allowed the Paramount/Skydance merger after Paramount settled its lawsuit with the president over a Kamala Harris 60 Minutes interview. Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement, and the merger was allowed to go through. In what Paramount says is an unrelated move, the company fired late-night host Stephen Colbert a few days later.
Trump and Disney have a significantly longer, tense relationship than Trump and Paramount. Despite settling its own lawsuit with Trump before the inauguration, Trump’s FCC still opened an investigation into Disney’s DEI practices, and Trump’s Department of Justice began looking into Disney’s acquisition of FuboTV.
Trump has recently taken some shots at the NFL. He posted on social media that the Washington Commanders would need to change the team name back to the “Redskins” before building its $3.8 billion stadium in the city.
This deal between ESPN and the NFL has been in negotiations for nearly four years, and now it has reached the finish line. With ESPN expected to announce its streaming-only platform as early as this month, it needs this deal with the NFL to compete and bring in the massive audiences that NFL games guarantee.
For now, Disney and the NFL will have to wait to see what they will have to do to get the okay from the Trump Administration, and given the acrimonious past between Trump and Disney, it will be a lot.
What do you think of the NFL moving its media library to ESPN? Let us know in the comments.