Fox Sports is reportedly paying more than $3 billion to broadcast the National Football League’s “Thursday Night Football” for the next five seasons.
Referring to a source that was “not permitted to speak to the media and wished to remain anonymous,” Reuters revealed Fox will be paying about $60 million per game, up from the $45 million per game CBS and NBC paid for broadcast rights this season.
“The agreement, which was announced without financial terms, demonstrates how 21st Century Fox is aiming to be a leader in sports after it closes its deal with Walt Disney Co,” says a Reuters commentary. In December, Disney announced a $52.4 billion agreement to buy the bulk of Fox’s assets, leaving sports and news to the remaining Fox company.
“These opportunities come very infrequently,” said Peter Rice, president of 21st Century Fox on a media call Wednesday. “You either have the rights to the most watched content in media and if you lose that action and don’t take that opportunity, this won’t come up for another five years.”
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.