NFL viewing is a new ball game

By David Mullen

As America’s favorite sport has become the TV industry’s most valuable commodity, fans are finding that watching NFL games from the comfort of their La-Z-Boy is becoming as difficult as trying to stop the Philadelphia Eagles’ celebrated “Tush Push.” 

Much like the World Champion Eagles’ dependance on their branded quarterback sneak, TV networks and fledgling streaming services — in football terms — are relying on NFL broadcasts to keep their drive moving. The networks realize that sports programming in general and the NFL specifically, even with exorbitant licensing fees, is the only sure-fire way to keep linear networks alive and allow streaming services to gain traction.

Based on data provided by the rating service Nielsen, 86 of the top 100 telecasts in 2024 were sports in terms of live-plus-same-day viewing. Only the presidential debates, award shows, a few live events and the post Super Bowl premier of the CBS show “Tracker” broke into the Top 100 most viewed programs.

According to online arts, entertainment and media resource The Wrap, sports programming is “the $29 billion juggernaut driving entertainment” and the NFL is at the wheel. Never has one sport had such impact on an entire industry during the last 40 years as the NFL has with broadcast television. 

It is not hyperbolic to say that an entire broadcast network exists because of the NFL, and that is not the content specific NFL Network. It is Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox), that launched in 1986 to compete with “The Big Three” networks of NBC, CBS and ABC.

Fox, as part of Australian Rupert Murdock’s growing empire, had a monumental battle to try to compete in the U.S. TV market. Fox began as a quirky little network, having acquired some local stations to build an affiliate network and providing content the stuffy Big Three would never touch. 

Parent 20th Century Fox had been involved in television production, developing programs like “Perry Mason,” “Batman” and “M*A*S*H” for the Big Three. In the mid-1980s, Murdoch paid $255 million for a 50 percent interest in 20th Century Fox and $2.55 billion for affiliates in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Washington D.C and Dallas, acquiring KRLD-TV (now KDFW-TV, better known as Fox4), that would be rebranded as Fox.

DuPont, Paramount and other companies had tried to launch networks and, for a variety of reasons, all failed. Fox kept introducing TV for the nonconformist, with shows like “The Late Show” hosted by Joan Rivers, sitcoms like “Married … with Children,” reality TV shows like “Cops” and sketch comedy shows like “The Tracey Ullman Show,” where “The Simpsons” were first seen. Later came “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “In Living Color,” “The X-Files,” “Melrose Place” and other shows that were making noise but not great impact in the TV landscape. Trying to be accepted by The Big Three, Fox was still trending fourth. 

As they searched for credibility, there was little reason to take Fox seriously. Eighty-five percent of their stations were on UHF. They had a younger demographic audience but hadn’t established a true identity. And then came the NFL.

In wrestling the NFL broadcasting rights from CBS in 1993 — a move championed within NFL circles by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones — Fox bought instant credibility with a $1.58 billion bid for four years of NFC games, whose teams played in the largest TV markets. The bid included rights to Super Bowl XXXI. Incumbent CBS had foolishly bid more than $300 million less, thinking decades of loyalty to the NFL was worth something.

To Fox’ credit, they set an NFL broadcast standard, securing veteran production staffers and well-known NFL sports personalities like Pat Summerall, John Madden and Terry Bradshaw. Today, Fox pays Tom Brady $35 million annually to appear as lead analyst in less than 25 games.   

As Fox proved, the NFL is willing to listen to all comers bringing mountains of cash. Once, NFL games were only on free TV outlets CBS and NBC. In 1970, ABC joined the party by introducing “Monday Night Football” when the network convinced the NFL that Monday broadcasts could be another moneymaker. 

Today, NFL rights fees are greater than the GNP of small nations. And ultimately, consumers must pay. What was once free to watch has now become a line item of the monthly budget. NFL fans are being put through the ringer as the NFL demands billions for their games and spreads the game across a smorgasbord of outlets.  

In week one of the 2025 NFL season, in order to get the full NFL experience, consumers needed access to the subscriber-based NFL Sunday Ticket, networks NBC, CBS and ABC and streamers ESPN, Peacock, YouTube TV and Paramount +. Amazon Prime Video and Netflix are also part of the 2025 TV schedule.

One estimate is that football fans wanting to watch NFL games must spend more than $100 per month for NFL+ or NFL Sunday Ticket, Amazon Prime, ESPN Unlimited, Peacock, Netflix and for access to linear networks. Standard & Poor’s projects that sports rights, predominantly fueled by the NFL, will rise to $37 billion by 2030, up 153 percent from 2015.

TV linear networks and streaming services need the NFL. Does the TV viewer and sports fan tire of searching and spending for games to a point where they no longer need the NFL? Right now, like the Tush Push, the cost of NFL broadcasting rights and fees passed on to consumers seem unstoppable.