Credit: Disney/ABCIn August, Disney and ESPN 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’s new streaming service, Disney has made it a necessary purchase for all football fans. Disney will use the 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.
However, and this is a big however, a deal of this size will require FCC and DOJ approval, and that’s where the events of the past week will come in. Donald Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr are angry over Disney’s decision to reinstate late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, which could complicate Disney’s multi-billion-dollar deal with the NFL.
Former White House Press Secretary under George W. Bush, Ari Fleischer, told Front Office Sports that Trump sees this as “policial catnip.”
“Given his interest in the NFL, and his history of using media mergers for leverage, it’s hard to see him not playing around with this,” Fleischer said. “I doubt this will be a straightfoward commercial transaction.”
Upon Kimmel’s return on Tuesday night, Trump posted on his Truth Social, “I think we’re going to test out ABC on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million. This one sounds even more lucrative.”
It does not sound like this situation is going away anytime soon for Disney, and the best way to punish them for putting Kimmel back on the air is to keep them from the deal with the NFL, which would benefit both sides.
Only time will tell exactly how bad Disney’s decision to bring Kimmel back will be for the company and how Trump plans on responding.
What do you think of Trump holding up Disney’s deal with the NFL to punish it for putting Jimmy Kimmel back on the air? Let us know in the comments.