Credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr (Donald Trump) / Inside the MagicNFL owners have approved a multi-billion-dollar deal allowing Disney and ESPN to take over the NFL’s media companies. However, the deal cannot be finalized until it passes one major hurdle: The Trump Administration.
The deal between Disney and ESPN with the National Football League to buy the league’s media properties and give the NFL a 10 percent stake in ESPN. With ESPN having announced its streaming-only service this summer, 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 cable.
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.
This deal gave ESPN a new streaming platform for all four major sports. ESPN had broken off negotiations with Major League Baseball, and its deal was set to expire after this season; however, ESPN and MLB have resumed negotiations for the Disney-owned network to keep the league’s rights.
Having the big four of sports on your streaming service is key, but having the NFL is crucial. Now, with the NFL having a part ownership of ESPN, its relationship with Disney is sure to continue well into the future, guaranteeing ESPN’s success.
In 2024, the NFL owned 72 of the top 100 most-watched streaming and cable television programs. The only reason the NFL had only six of the top 10 was that it was an election year, and debate coverage overtook the league. If it weren’t for politics, the NFL would have had the top 17 most-watched programs last year.
A deal this large must get FCC and possibly DOJ approval. That would mean FCC Chairman Brendan Carr would have to sign off on the deal, and he is currently not inclined to support any undertaking by The Walt Disney Company.
It was Carr’s comments that helped spark the affiliate backlash to Jimmy Kimmel’s comments, forcing Disney to remove him from the ABC airwaves for three nights. The affiliate stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting and Nextstar did not immediately air Kimmel’s show upon his return to ABC.
Now, Disney and the NFL will need Carr’s and Trump’s blessings for the deal to proceed, neither of which appears likely at the moment, especially given the right-wing backlash to the Kimmel comments and the NFL selecting Bad Bunny as its halftime act this year.
The NFL’s EVP/Media Distribution, Hans Schroeder, told The Sports Business Journal, “There’s a number of steps in a transaction like this, and a number of those steps we don’t control. So we’re going to do all that we can. We’re going to cooperate, we’re going to partner, and in the meantime, we’re going to continue to run our business and work with all our partners as we always would.”
Now, Disney, the NFL, and their lawyers will have to petition the FCC to bless this deal and hope that it will go through. It’s only billions of dollars and the future of ESPN on the line.
Do you think the Trump Administration will support Disney’s deal with the NFL? Let us know in the comments.