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Media & Entertainment Law

: Sports Biz

NFL Network and ESPN in Talks

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In the same week in which Comcast conquered the Big Ten, it appears that it is claiming another trophy, only this one is much bigger by far. In a recognition that the premier professional sports league in the world has been unable to force its way onto cable systems in the US, the NFL Network is currently in talks with ESPN/ABC to form a joint venture to rescue the channel. The cable networks have successfully resisted the NFL's demand for hefty subscriber fees for what amounted to eight live broadcasts a year and, as a result, the NFL has only been able to get wide distribution on DirecTV.

One possible structure for the joint venture with ESPN would be for the NFL Network to merge with ESPN Classic, which has wide distribution, but relatively small viewership and significantly lower subscriber fees than ESPN or NFL Network. The NFL would add its eight live late season games as well as other programming which would naturally fit on the channel and would help boost the subscriber fees that the joint venture would subsequently be able to charge. Of course, that number will be somewhere between the 16 or 17 cents it gets now and the 70 cents the NFL Network was demanding. I should note here that the Big Ten Network, with significantly more live programming, settled with Comcast at 70 cents, after coming down from the $1.10 it had been demanding for more than a year.

This deal may not happen. It's far too logical and the egos involved on both sides are enormous - we're talking about TV execs here, not to mention that the president of the NFL Network used to be the head of ESPN. A little incest in business is usually a good thing but it could be a problem if the departure was not on good terms. I'm not saying that's the case here; I don't know if it was or not. It just adds to the drama of the negotiations.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on June 21, 2008 (boomark / email).