Copyright The Hollywood Reporter
With the NFL, every deal is a big one. As the dominant content provider in live television, when the league strikes a new agreement or makes a change to its programming, it will be felt across the media ecosystem. Many of those big changes happen at the league’s owners meetings, held multiple times per year at various locations across the U.S., where the 32 owners meet to sign off on major agreements or changes. This week, those owners gathered at the Intercontinental Barclay Hotel in midtown Manhattan, and there was plenty of media news to discuss. For starters, the owners officially signed off on the multi-billion dollar deal that will see the league take a stake in ESPN, with the Disney-owned media giant securing NFL Network and rights to the RedZone brand. That said, Hans Schroeder, the NFL executive vp responsible for its media rights deals, told reporters that the deal still has to through the regulatory process. “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,” Schroeder said. “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. But certainly, when it does close, I think we’re really excited. This is an opportunity for football fans to get more football in more places, more types of content.” “If you take the content engine that ESPN is and put that with NFL Network, you think about the opportunity to put NFL Network into the new ESPN Unlimited product and expand distribution … We think that the marriage of the NFL Network and ESPN, the content engine and all the platforms they have is just going to be a real win for football fans,” he added. The league also inked a new deal with Amazon Prime Video to bring the Nov. 28 Black Friday football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears to a worldwide audience in more than 240 countries, a significant expansion of that game’s reach. “We are thrilled to expand our relationship with the NFL and present Black Friday Football to the millions of fans we serve around the world,” said Jay Marine, head of Prime Video U.S., global sports. “Black Friday is becoming one of the best sports holidays of the year, and this can’t-miss game between the Super Bowl Champion Eagles and the surging Bears, in one of the most-charged stadium atmospheres in sports, stands at the center of a huge day for all of us at Amazon. We cannot wait to provide fans with best-in-class coverage and a full day of action, holiday deals and surprises.” But the league also announced a deal with Electronic Arts (which is in the process of going private) to continue its Madden NFL video game franchise through 2030. That said, the partnership is also expanding, with Renie Anderson, executive vp and chief revenue officer at the NFL telling reporters that EA will more heavily market the games in overseas markets, and may also develop a more casual game to compliment Madden. “Our relationship with EA will go unchanged [with the take-private,” Anderson said. “So deeper focus on football and integration, which we’re excited about, we’re going to work together to really create a football ecosystem for fans as they think about gaming. You know, Madden is a really complex game, and so working on a casual game to introduce fans here domestically as well as internationally, which also really focuses on that global growth that we have, and working as partners to help us grow the game of football.” “EA Sports and the NFL have built one of the most iconic partnerships in all of sports and entertainment, and we see so much opportunity ahead to deliver for football fans everywhere,” said Cam Weber, president of EA Sports, in a statement. “With more than 2 billion games of Madden NFL played each year, the global community of football fans connecting through play has never been bigger. Together with the NFL, we will continue to shape the interactive future of football – expanding Madden NFL, growing College Football, and creating new breakthrough experiences for the next generation of fans.” And the league also signed off on major changes to its Pro Bowl, which will vacate the Sunday the week before the Super Bowl and move to the Tuesday before the Super Bowl, while also becoming a part of the Super Bowl week festivities. The Pro Bowl flag football game next year will be held in San Francisco’s Moscone Center, where the NFL’s fan activities are planned, with ESPN developing live coverage plans. “We’ve decided that we’re going to use the platform we have, obviously, with the Olympics coming up and players having the ability to participate, is to move the Pro Bowl into our biggest week with our biggest players, and that’s a Super Bowl week,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters. Notably, NFL executive vo Peter O’Reilly noted that ESPN will also televise some high school girls flag football in its coverage window as part of expanded coverage of the event, which will include live coverage that Tuesday, as well as preview programming on Sunday. “They’re going to bring a lot of innovation to how this year will come to life on TV,” O’Reilly said. Peyton and Eli Manning, who served as coaches for the last Pro Bowl flag football game, will not reprise those roles next time, though they will remain involved. “We are not announcing today, but we will have two new coaches for those AFC and NFC teams,” he said. “The Mannings will remain involved in this and very passionate about this event and continue to promote it.” Of course, the NFL’s ubiquitoes nature means that it sometimes finds itself in a harsh spotlight. The choice to have Bad Bunny headline next year’s Super Bowl drew backlash from the Trump administration and some prominent conservative commentators, but Goodell told reporters that the league is committed to his performance. “He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world. That’s what we try to achieve. It’s an important stage for us. It’s an important element to the entertainment value, and it’s carefully thought through,” Goodell said of the choice to feature Bad Bunny as the centerpiece of the halftime show. “I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback and criticism. It’s pretty hard to do.”
