Some insane deal!

[rassel]

NFL Extends CBS, Fox Broadcast Rights for $8 Bln

by Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The National Football League on Monday said it will extend broadcast rights for television networks CBS and FOX to air Sunday afternoon football games through 2011 in deals worth a combined $8 billion.



The league also extended its agreement with DirecTV Group Inc. for the satellite broadcaster's NFL Sunday Ticket package in a five-year, $3.5 billion deal.


Each broadcast network will televise two Super Bowls during the term of the contracts.


CBS has broadcast American Football Conference games since 1998 and FOX has held the National Football Conference deal since 1994. Both networks' current contracts with the NFL were set to expire in 2005.


A source familiar with negotiations said FOX agreed to pay $4.3 billion, or $712 million per season, and CBS would pay $3.7 billion, or $622.5 million per season, for the six-year contracts.


The new agreements between the NFL and CBS, a division of Viacom Inc., and FOX, owned by News Corp., begin with the 2006 season.


News Corp. President and COO Peter Chernin said in a conference call with reporters that the deal "cements what we believe is the FOX primacy in sports."


Chernin said he believed the network could avoid the kind of losses it suffered in 2002 after it agreed to pay $4.4 billion to broadcast NFC games for eight years, from 1998 through 2005.


"We expect this package to be profitable," Chernin said.


TALKS WENT SMOOTHLY


Both Chernin and Viacom co-President Les Moonves said negotiations went smoothly and came earlier than expected for a contract that was set to expire in over a year.


"It happened quickly, ahead of where we thought it would happen," Moonves said on Monday. "We like to begin these discussions early. ... We began a preliminary dance with the NFL and it became a deal we both liked."


Although the new deals include no changes in the current kickoff times, the NFL has the option to move seven late-season games from Sunday afternoon to Monday night to feature more attractive match-ups in prime time in a concept league officials called "flexible scheduling."


The deals also include commitments from the networks to air some games in high definition television, and to add "enhanced and interactive elements," the release said.


DirecTV preserved the right to offer virtually all regular-season Sunday football games through 2010, and it will not have to share with rivals. Under the old agreement, worth $2 billion, DirecTV might have had to share rights with competitors such as Comcast starting in 2006.


"In many ways, (NFL Sunday Ticket has been) the most important feature to DirecTV since its early days," DirecTV CEO Chase Carey told Reuters on Monday. "It was tremendously important ... to keep it exclusive, especially as we get into a new age of television."


The deal also gives DirecTV the right to provide "remote access" to the programing from wireless and broadband. (Additional reporting by Ken Li in New York)

[bourny3]

wow that is huge money. Crazy television companies.

[Fazal]

Originally posted by rassel

A source familiar with negotiations said FOX agreed to pay $4.3 billion, or $712 million per season, and CBS would pay $3.7 billion, or $622.5 million per season, for the six-year contracts.

The more money they can milk from FOX the better.

[Orpheus]

actually fox is a smart animal, distinct from sheep. It wont be running out of milk .. too bad for you!

[pagol-chagol]

Originally posted by Fazal

The more money they can milk from FOX the better.

Actually fox will make much more money than they spent on it. This has some residual value too. Stations get incredible advertisement just because they are showing football. Actually, fox made its big rise when it overpaid for football the first time, early nineties or late eighties. Football fans in USA are like cricket fans in India.

[Fazal]

Originally posted by pagol-chagol
Football fans in USA are like cricket fans in India.

Yea! But there are more reasonable though:P