Live sports coverage is a market that really brings in huge money for television networks. Having live sports coverage can help revive a network and pull in a huge new demographic of viewers that will be exposed to their large catalog of other shows. On the other hand, a network will never be selling the rights to live sports coverage for a cheap price, so those looking to invest better be ready to parts ways with large amounts of money. Here are the ten most expensive sports TV network deals.
10. Comcast acquiring the NHL -$200 Million per year
ESPN used to own the rights to the NHL but dropped out of the deal after the lockout happened. NBC arrived and picked up the NHL’s rights and slowly built its popularity back up across the nation. It started out getting shown through the Versus channel, but just this year’s games and playoffs were on NBC itself and other channels as well.
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9. Turner acquiring the NBA – $445 Million per year
Turner Broadcasting owns the rights to the NBA which is spread across their channel TNT. These two have been in partnership for a long long time; however, as both companies keep growing, the contract is always increasing in price. 2008 is when the last contract was renewed for a big price of $445 million per year, but this gives Turner Broadcasting the rights to show NBA games, the conference finals, and the events on all-star weekend.
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8. Disney acquiring the NBA – $485 Million per year
Disney established a deal with the NBA that gives them the rights to show certain scheduled games on TV as well as the NBA finals and the all-star game. The deal happened back in 2007 and works through ABC and ESPN. The company is just outbidding TNT and Turner Broadcasting for the rights to other prime time NBA related events.
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7. Fox acquiring the MLB – $500 Million per year
This one is fresh off the press from 2014; Fox established a contract with the MLB for the rights of all MLB coverage. The deal runs for a total of eight years long and in the end will cost Fox $4 billion to hold the rights for that period of time. The deal allows Fox to show the World Series, two League Division Series’, and the all-star game.
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6. CBS/Turner Broadcasting acquire the NCAA – $740 Million per year.
The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament has a wide variety of viewers and is ever growing in popularity. CBS currently has a deal with the NCAA for a total of $10.8 billion to have the rights until 2024. CBS is a part of the Turner Broadcasting umbrella that also includes TNT, TBS, and TruTV, all channels that games could be live on, allowing for maximum exposure. The deal benefits both companies a lot because there are so many teams in the NCAA tournament which are a ton of individual markets that they can instantly attract by showing live games.
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5. Comcast acquiring the NFL – $950 Million per year
The NFL is arguably the biggest television sports rights that a company could wish to have. It’s got the biggest market and the most traction out of any other sport in the U.S. right now. Back in 2006, NBC was only paying (only haha) $650 million to own the rights, but when that contract was up, Comcast jumped in. As a little bonus, Comcast at least gets 30 seconds of advertising during Sunday Night Football, the most watched program in the fall season.
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4. CBS acquiring the NFL’s AFC – $1 Billion per year
CBS has been in and out with deals for NFL coverage. They used to own the rights to the NFC but eventually lost them to Fox, so they have switched over to owning the rights for the AFC games. This is definitely a step down because the NFC has more big city teams, but as I mentioned before, the NFL has some of the biggest rights a company could hope to own, so CBS is just lucky to get back in on the deal over anything else.
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3. Fox acquiring the NFL’s NFC – $1.1 Billion per year
Fox owns the right to all of the NFC east games until the year 2021. The NFL has been a huge part of the Fox network and something they always count on to pull in large viewer amounts. The deal originally started out at $395 million, but the market is very competitive, so Fox upped the contract amount to $1.1 billion to make sure they had the NFC secured for a long time.
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2. SkySports acquires the Premiere League – $1.22 Billion per year
SkySports is a well-known English channel that holds the rights to the Premiere League soccer games. Soccer has been picking up some support here in the United States and now we even get to see the Premiere League games as well on NBC, however, this is the football of the United Kingdom so it is very valuable to own these rights. SkySports’ deal with the Premiere League allows them to show 122 matches during the course of the season and be the primary owners of the viewing rights. While networks such as ESPN tried to get in on the deal, they were not able to and missed out completely.
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1. ESPN acquiring Monday Night Football – $1.9 Billion per year
The Disney Network owns both ABC and ESPN so all they really did was make the decision to move the games from one network to another. The Monday night games were always aired on ABC but just this year switched to ESPN for $1.9 billion. The Monday Night Football games have a huge draw of viewers and bring in a ton of money via advertising for the networks, so while this seems like an outrageous price to pay, the company is easily going to make their money back.
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