Report: NFL looking for big increase in next round of TV deals

For the NFL, the ultimate four-letter word is "more."

When it comes to the negotiations on a new round of TV deals, the NFL is reportedly looking for a lot more.

Alex Sherman of CNBC reports that the league wants a 100-percent bump. The media companies currently in business with the league are reportedly hoping to land in the range of 25 percent.

That's a huge gap. Heck, it's a cathode-ray canyon.

Prior reports have indicated that CBS, the first invitee to the table thanks to the change-in-control provision activated by the recent sale of its parent company, is expected to bump its current rate from $2.1 billion annually to $3 billion. That's obviously not 100 percent. (It's technically 42.8 percent.)

The current deals with CBS, Fox, ABC, YouTube TV (for Sunday Ticket), and Amazon run through 2033, with the NFL having the ability to shorten the deals through 2029. ESPN's contract (thanks to the current Super Bowl cycle) runs through 2034, with the league able to cut it off after the 2030 season. The league is using the out clauses to get more now on new deals that presumably would last through at least the 2033 season as to most of them, 2034 as to ESPN.

The networks and streamers can say no. The current thinking in some circles is that CBS will do its deal, and that the others will then have to decide whether to follow suit. Some could flat-out decline, saying something like, "See you in 2029."

The overriding question is whether the NFL would sell current rights to other partners before the end of the 2029 season (or, for ESPN, 2030). That would create a lame-duck situation that could get awkward, especially if an outgoing broadcast partner decides to stop spending significant collateral sums to fully promote the NFL's product.

Then there's the question of where the packages will go — especially with the NFL under various forms of pressure to not freeze out the three-letter, FCC-regulated broadcast networks. The league's antitrust exemption arguably applies only to deals done with the traditional networks. If the NFL sees a net loss in network deals and a net gain in streaming packages, that could be a problem.

The challenge for both sides, if the league has indeed made huge demands from existing partners, becomes finding a compromise that would give the NFL more while also defusing the current antitrust bomb.

While Mark Cuban's "pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered" prediction may have been off the mark, insatiable swine could end up losing their antitrust exemptions. Regardless, the NFL may be willing to roll the dice on that potential outcome.