Report: ESPN Is Close to Massive NFL Deal

After years of talks, a deal for ESPN to acquire the NFL's media wing could be close. Sources recently told Sports Business Journal that team owners have been given an "informal heads-up" about a possible team owners' meeting next month on the sale of NFL Media to the Disney-owned company. The Athletic reports that the deal is "inside the 5-yard line," with ESPN aiming to grow its user base as it prepares to launch a direct-to-consumer app it calls the "Next Era." ESPN said earlier this year that the product, which will allow people to subscribe to ESPN without signing up for cable, will launch early this fall for $29.99 a month.

The deal is expected to include the NFL's RedZone channel and the NFL Network, including the seven regular-season games that appear on the network. The Athletic notes that ESPN's 1987 deal for eight regular-season games "changed the trajectory of what became arguably the most powerful sports media company of all time." At the time, ESPN reached 41 million homes. It was in more than 100 million by 2011, but that number has dipped to around 65 million, and the company is hoping greater integration with the NFL will be almost as transformative as the 1987 deal.

The Athletic predicts that the price tag for NFL Media will be "enormous." ESPN, which paid $51 million per season in the three-year 1987 deal, currently pays $2.7 billion per season for 25 games. Mike Florio at NBC Sports notes that the price tag will likely reflect the fact that the deal would give Disney and ESPN a "leg up" in upcoming media-rights deals. "It becomes a lot harder to freeze out ESPN/ABC if the company separately runs NFL Media—and if the transaction includes making the NFL an equity partner in ESPN," he writes.