NFL plans on extending broadcast deal with networks through 2021 according to report

NFL football is a big business, which might just be an understatement. CBS, NBC and Fox all benefit by broadcasting the games on Sunday, particularly NBC, which only tops the prime time ratings Sunday nights due to Sunday Night Football. These deals with the networks also pull in billions for the league, which, according to a new report, is ready to make a deal with the networks to continue showing the games through 2021. The pacts would reportedly be worth $3.2 billion a year.

Sources close to the talks told The Wall Street Journal that the new deal is a 60 percent jump from the current contracts. A deal with ESPN and DirecTV and networks will pay a combined $6 billion a year to broadcast NFL games.

Deadline reports that ESPN’s earlier deal, which also extends ESPN’s coverage of Monday Night Football through 2021, is worth $15.2 billion, meaning that the network pays the NFL $1.9 billion a season. This deal wound up having an effect on the new deal.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the NFL and media executives have been working on the deal for months, hoping to finish it before the holidays. Network executives were also desperate to ensure that they would keep NFL coverage. "No one on the broadcast end wants to be without the NFL...They go without it at their own peril, and all of that gets factored in when deciding to bid so high," Lee Berke, owner and sports media analyst at LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media Inc., told the Journal.

The current deals for the networks break down to NBC paying $600 million a year to continue Sunday Night Football, while CBS pays $623 million a year to cover the AFC games. Fox pays the most, with $713 million for NFC coverage. Meanwhile, DirecTV pays $1 billion a year to offer its subscribers Sunday Ticket, which provides all Sunday afternoon games.

The NFL has yet to comment on the Journal’s report.