The NFL weighs an early restart with its media rights talks in 2026, Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC.
The existing package of the League, signed in 2021, extends over 11 years and is estimated at 111 billion dollars. It includes an Opt-out of the NFL after the 2029-30 season for all partners except Disney, whose agreement takes place a year more.
Any acceleration would require the membership of its current partners – Disney / ESPN, NBCUNIVERSAL, PARAMOUNT / CBS, AMAZON and FOX – but could unlock billions of additional income.
Goodell said the league has integrated flexibility into contracts to respond to a quickly changing market.
“The reason why we felt so strongly on the option is that the landscape is changing,” said Goodell. “This could be a long -term agreement with the advantage of having this stability and this security. But I think that reality is that it changes so quickly that you want to have the ability to move. I think these options will give us a lot of flexibility to go potentially earlier”, “
“… Obviously, this will not happen this year. But it could happen next year.”
NFL games continue to dominate linear television. According to Nielsen Data, 72 of the 100 best television of last year were NFL competitions (93 the previous year). This lever effect, combined with recent rights jumps for the NBA and the NHL, has the league evaluated if there is a need to capitalize on more income.
All calendar 2026 faces obstacles. The transaction awaiting ESPN to sell a 10% participation in the NFL could complicate negotiations until it is resolved. In addition, the league discussed the addition of an 18th regular season week – a decision that would require the approval of the NFLPA and could shape the scale and the structure of future packages. The NFL also wants the height of the head to incorporate emerging distributors; YouTube won a week 1 game this season, and Netflix made his debut with clashes on Christmas day last year and will add two others this year.
Beyond network alignments, previous renewals would send training effects throughout the football economy. A richer agreement should push the higher salary ceiling in the coming years and support continuous growth in franchise assessment.
– field level media
