The NFL is making a power play in the TV rights department and it appears to be bad news for Hollywood.
The league currently gets about $10 billion per year in TV rights money from the networks and the streamers. However, that number is set to increase in a big way soon. The NFL is expected to go from getting about $10 billion in TV revenue to more than $15 billion.
But if the NFL is getting more money from TV networks and streaming platforms, does that mean others - like Hollywood - will be getting less?
It sounds that way.
© Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
According to Matthew Belloni of Puck, Hollywood could end up being the loser of the NFL's major power play.
“We expect media companies will be forced to offset higher NFL costs through a reallocation of content budgets mitigating the EBITDA impact," he reported.
That means media companies will be spending less on TV shows, movies, etc. to spend big on the NFL.
The NFL continues to be the most trustworthy thing in entertainment
If you want big-time live viewers, buy the rights to an NFL game.
"No one is holding a gun to the heads of the network executives. They can say no. The thinking is they won’t. Even if it means saying no more often to the funding of non-sports projects," PFT wrote.
"The NFL’s effort to jack up the price paid for pro football content traces to the new NBA deals. With NBC now paying $2.5 billion per year to the NBA and only $2 billion to the NFL, the NFL has decided something is very wrong with that picture. The recent sale of Paramount to Skydance opened the door for the NFL to reopen the current CBS deal, and the expected bump from $2.1 billion per year to $3 billion per year will be followed by an effort to get the other networks to pay more, too."
The NFL is king, that's clear.
