Is NFL RedZone becoming an ESPN exclusive?
Is NFL RedZone becoming an ESPN exclusive?
If ESPN purchases NFL media, it’s at least possible that the seven-hour NFL whip-around show will become an ESPN exclusive.
Scott Hanson and the NFL RedZone channel have become an indispensable part of Sunday afternoons for millions of NFL fans. The seven-hour show whips around all games being played on Sunday afternoons, taking fans instantly to games where a big scoring play is about to occur, or a game-changing turnover just happened. NFL RedZone is an NFL Media production, which means it could soon become an ESPN property. If that happens, however, is there a chance that NFL RedZone will become an exclusive ESPN offering?
Key Details:
- ESPN is reportedly zeroing in on a purchase of NFL Media.
- Making RedZone an exclusive ESPN property could help the company promote its new streamer.
- ESPN would be surpassing opportunities for ancillary revenue by making RedZone an exclusive.
The NFL has been looking to offload the NFL Media division for some time, and ESPN has shown plenty of interest in the past. A deal has never been fully consummated, but that could be about to change; recent reports indicate that the two sides are talking again and that ESPN might pay as much as $2 billion — in addition to giving the NFL an ownership stake in the channel — for NFL Media properties.
If the two sides do agree on a deal, NFL RedZone would fall under the control of ESPN. If the company chooses, it could decide to distribute RedZone solely through ESPN platforms, including on its upcoming streaming service, which is being developed under the working title Flagship. That streamer is due to be launched before the 2025 NFL and college football seasons, and Disney CEO Bob Iger has promised it will include a host of features not currently available through ESPN linear channels.
If ESPN did decide to make NFL RedZone an exclusive offering, it could be a powerful lure to bring customers to the forthcoming streamer. RedZone would make Flagship a must-have service for football fans, especially given that it will also include streams of “Monday Night Football,” the “NFL Live” studio show, and more NFL content as well. If the deal to purchase NFL Media goes through, ESPN would also own popular football show “Good Morning, Football” as well as the NFL Films archive. Making RedZone an ESPN exclusive could help Flagship build critical subscriber scale when it launches, especially if it comes out just ahead of the 2025 NFL season as planned.
On the other hand, making RedZone an ESPN exclusive could rob the company of valuable revenue streams from other distributors. RedZone is currently available via DIRECTV STREAM, Fubo, and other live TV services, and can be bundled with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV as well. Cutting off the licensing fees the league collects from distributing the channel through all of those outlets might cost ESPN a pretty penny in the short term.
It could also be that ESPN decides to keep licensing NFL RedZone to other distributors for a few years, before making it an exclusive property. That would allow the company to continue squeezing the last few drops of pay-TV revenue it can from RedZone, then switch it to Flagship and allow it to live on as a centerpiece of its new streamer.
There are lots of options for ESPN if it does finalize a purchase of NFL Media, and it will have choices to make. One of the most consequential could be its decision of what to do with NFL RedZone, and whether or not it will make the channel an ESPN-exclusive offering.
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