ESPN, the American Football Association makes the Football League, the owner of the giant Disney Sports Company
ESPN and NFL help rewrite the playing book to preserve the sports media sustainable.
In an unconventional maneuver, the league will take a minority stake in the giant Disney Sports port, which will get control of the American Football Association network and the NFL Redzone service, as well as seven supporting football games that are displayed via NFL cable assets. The tie is likely to enhance the attractive direct broadcast service of ESPN to reveal the weeks before the next American Football Association season-a service that is directed to Turbo over time if it includes Redzone and more football.
“They have to get out of the gate of this launch with some of the big explosion, and this is clearly the matter,” says Daniel Cohen, CEO of Interpubeic Group.
The agreement is the latest example of sports entities and media companies that combine business. FOX recently got 33 % of Penske Entertainment, which has the Racing Indycar Motor series as well as Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fox also has part of the Emerging Football League. In June, Espn acquired a class in the Lacrosse Premier League, in addition to concluding a five -year rights deal with the organization. Warner Bros. Discovery is the owner of a part of the women’s basketball league at UPSTART.
The deal with Disney will give the US Football Association a 10 % stake in ESPN, which is estimated at $ 2.2 billion to $ 2.2 billion.
“Today’s announcement paves the way for the leading brand in the field of sports and sports in America to provide a more convincing experience for the fans of the American Football Association, in a way that ESPN and Disney can only,” said Robert A Egger, CEO of Walt Disney in a statement. “Commissioner Godll and the US Football Association built distinct media assets, and these transactions will add consumers, provide viewers with greater comfort and quality, and expand the scope and value of the Disney flow system.”
Such alliances may throw some flags in the field. ESPN can be subject to the new scrutiny of sports organizations ranging from NCAA to UFC, and all of them will undoubtedly analyze their private agreements with the network to determine whether they get more favorable or less terms than the league that is now participating in the property of the media. ESPN may be forced into more difficult situations when journalists seek to report hot issues related to the American Football Association, such as the effects of playing on the brains of athletes; The growing league swings to traditional media companies; Or behavior outside the field by prominent players. In 2003, for example, ESPN and NFL were at odds with each other on “Games makers”, the original ESPN drama series that showed football players adhering to personal problems, injuries, drugs and more. The exhibition got high classifications, but its pressure was canceled from the league.
If other championships are subjected to participating in the new NFL embracing from ESPN, they do not say loudly. The main league of the baseball and the National Hockey League refused to comment on any repercussions on the American Football Association, which is getting a stake in ESPN. However, within the American Professional League, there is a belief that the agreement will make ESPN stronger, according to a person familiar with the matter and “comfortable” with the new alliance. The American Professional League refused to provide the executives to comment.
These new types of groups have an increasing meaning in an era in which sports rights have become very important for media companies that want to attract wide audiences-which are still advertisers and distributors, even when consumers migrate to watch the video favorites upon request, at times of their selection. At the same time, the price of maintaining sports in the wallet increases significantly, even with many traditional media companies with declines in advertising and distribution.
The American Football Association games, at least so far in the broadcast era, the most property parts that the media company can get. Broadcasting operations are usually the most watched in the past few years. Cohen says, adding seven other games and Redzone’s service makes Espn “The Lion in the Jungle”.
However, the economics of cable networks that show games are not very strong. Thanks to the wide -ranging adoption of broadcasting, it is expected that both the ESPN and ESPN2 networks will see its subscribers to 57.9 million and 57.8 million, respectively, by the end of 2026, according to KAGAN data, which is a research unit from the S&P Global Market Intelligence, compared to 61.4 million each at the end of a year 2025. Kagan. To 46.7 million in 2024, compared to 72.3 million in 2023.
The coalition may also serve Disney well in the non -distant future. In his last group of rights deals concluded for 11 years starting from the 2022 season, the US Football Association won the right to reform its contracts and request better conditions after 2029. It is possible that part of the league ESPN have the pursuit of “football on Monday night”. “This guarantees some long -term stability in the relationship between ESPN and NFL after 2029,” says Cohen. For its part, the American Football Association will have a piece of Disney’s future. Bob Egger, the company’s CEO increasingly, has explained a path that strongly depends on reaching digital viewers.
Under the terms of the deal, ESPN will integrate fictional football properties with those of the league. The US Football Association of the American Football Association will continue to operate real estate such as the American Football Association films and the US Football Association’s+ Football Association, in addition to the official websites of the 32 clubs in the league. The US Football Association maintains the Redzone NFL distribution rights.
Disney and the American Football Association may need a time to maneuver in the end area. The organizational review may take a year, as Cohen indicates, and the Association of the American Football Association may have fears related to whether the agreement will affect revenues from the rights to be shared with the players. But if the agreement is completed, Cohen says, it can represent a “increasingly relevant plan for other championships to look at.”