NFL's momentum toward new TV deals has stalled

Not long ago, it seemed the NFL would work its way through the various existing broadcast partners to collect a new slate of TV deals that would extend the contracts beyond the opt-out after the 2029 season (2030 for ESPN) and would pay the league considerably more money over the next four years.

That has now stalled. To the point at which it's possible, if not likely, that new deals will not be done before the start of the 2026 season.

The league opened the process by returning to the table with CBS, thanks to the change-in-control clause triggered by the sale of Paramount to Skydance. As May looms, there's been no deal with CBS.

"We haven’t seen a ton of progress, at least on the financial side," Guggenheim Securities analyst Mike Morris tells John Ourand of Puck. "[CBS] seemed like it might be the first domino, but we haven’t really heard anything since then."

If the goal remains to get a deal done with CBS and then each of the other current partners before Week 1, it may be unrealistic.

"At this point, I’d be surprised if it gets done before the start of the 2026 season," Morris told Ourand. "It’s not impossible, because what the NFL seems to be pursuing is more of an extension of existing rights under new terms than a wholesale renegotiation — selling back its option to reopen after the 2029-30 season in exchange for higher fees. To the extent that doesn’t change who has which packages, I think that could get done before the season."

Political resistance, fueled at least in part by Fox, has likely contributed to the delay. And it's possible that the league has learned the existing networks simply aren't in position to absorb significantly higher costs immediately and to turn them into a corresponding increase in revenue.

Still, the clock is ticking toward the expiration of the current deals. After 2029, the Sunday afternoon packages, the Sunday night package, and the Thursday night packages will be up for grabs.

The challenge continues to be finding a middle ground that breaks the bank for the NFL without bankrupting the networks that can no longer justify treating NFL games as a loss-leader promotional vehicle for other offerings on their airwaves, given that the audience consuming live, prime-time network programming is a fraction of what it used to be.