The NFL’s expedited media rights talks could be more involved than merely extending the status quo at a higher price.
NFL EVP/media distribution Hans Schroeder appeared to confirm to CNBC Friday that the league will put at least some rights on the open market as part of its upcoming media rights talks, which are widely expected to begin ahead of schedule as soon as this fall. The league plans to engage not only its primary and partial partners, but also companies that are currently on the outside looking in, Schroeder said.
“It’s not just engaging our existing partners,” Schroeder told CNBC’s Alex Sherman. “We have other people that are both partners in a smaller sense, maybe not a full-season package, or people that still are in the media landscape somewhere that would like to be an NFL live game partner. And we’re going to have those conversations. We want to understand all our options and how to think about the best model for us, for our fans, for our teams going forward. … We’re going to listen and probably have a lot of different people that want to have that want to have a conversation with us.”
It has never been quite clear whether the league planned to use the expedited talks to simply extend its current deals at a higher rate — as was originally reported last year — or use the opportunity to revise existing packages and sell new ones. The most likely scenario would seem to be a mix of both. The NFL has usually used any opportunity to carve out extra inventory to sell on the open market, including in its recent sale of NFL Media assets to ESPN, which freed up four NFL Network windows for the league to potentially shop.
Schroeder also discussed the long-anticipated prospect of the NFL selling a package of international games. Asked if the league planned to sell some or all of its international games to a single media company, he said that it will “have that opportunity,” but added that there will be “flexibility to look at some different options there.” Schroder described the international package as just one of many items on the offseason agenda, but that it could be “something we look at in the next six months.”
In the meantime, the league is shopping rights to its game in Melbourne, Australia, next season, which it announced Thursday will feature the 49ers against the Rams. Schroeder told Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal that there has been “a ton of interest” and seemed to indicate that the game will take place in Week 1, like the Brazil games the past two seasons that were sold to Peacock and YouTube, respectively. Schroeder: “You see what we’ve done the last two years in Brazil — the first year with Peacock, last year with YouTube. I think it’s a great way to expand and enhance Week 1.”
The league also said Thursday that the Cowboys will play in the first Rio de Janeiro game next season, facing an opponent to be named later. Per Karp, that game is likely to take place in the 4:25 PM ET national window in Week 3 of the season, meaning it would almost certainly air on one of the established NFL broadcast partners FOX or CBS.
