Who wants the NFL? Fox won’t be pushed around
Who wants the NFL? Fox won’t be pushed around
The network has employed an interesting strategy as new negotiations with the leauge loom.
When the NFL beckons, media partners listen. The league has decided to offer its current TV partners a deal: it will allow them to effectively buy out the 2029 opt-out clause built into their contracts in exchange for higher rights fees now.
There is no doubt that Fox will remain an NFL broadcast partner once the dust settles, but what will its package look like? We’ll profile where things stand with Fox and the NFL currently, and where they’re headed with talks likely to begin soon.
Profiling the competitors: What you need to know about the NFL and Fox
Does Fox have a package of NFL games already?
Fox has one of the NFL’s two main Sunday afternoon packages, with regional and national broadcasts included. It pays $2.2 billion per season for this selection of games, which is normally focused on teams from the NFC.
Once the playoffs come around, Fox has the rights to air games in every round. It shares Wild Card and Divisional matchups with other NFL broadcast partners, but has the exclusive rights to the NFC Championship game. It is also a part of the Super Bowl, along with ESPN (and therefore ABC), CBS, and NBC, and airs the Big Game once every three to four years.
Do NFL games on Fox stream anywhere?
The Fox broadcast network is available on one of several live TV streaming services, including DIRECTV, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV (in select areas), and YouTube TV.
Customers can also stream the NFL on Fox with a subscription to Fox One, a direct-to-consumer service that offers content from Fox, FS1, Fox News, and other channels in the Fox family for $20 per month. This service can also be bundled with ESPN Unlimited for a total price of $40 per month.
Where do things stand between Fox and the NFL?
There is zero chance that the NFL and Fox negotiations would lead to a breakup, but the broadcaster is making things interesting. In late March, Fox News commissioned a poll that overwhelmingly showed respondents believed live sports should stay on free broadcast channels.
During the same weekend, Fox News welcomed FCC chairman Brendan Carr to discuss the possibility that, should the NFL sell too many games to streaming services, its antitrust exemption could be revoked. It was a not-so-subtle message from Fox to the NFL that if the league tries to take games out of Fox’s Sunday afternoon package to sell to streaming services, there could be trouble.
The NFL has already signaled that it wants to offer a Thanksgiving Eve game this year, and that game would likely have to come out of one of its existing Sunday packages. But Fox is getting ahead of the game by signalling to the league that it would be better off trying to take that game from someone else.
Will Fox get any more NFL games in its new deal?
Fox can be expected to shell out an additional $1 billion or so per season to keep its NFL rights, as CBS will likely have to do as well. It seems unlikely that it will increase the number of games in its package dramatically; it already owns one of the largest NFL bundles available, and until there’s more game inventory to be had (for instance, if the league added an 18th game), Fox probably won’t expand the number of contests on its slate each year.
Perhaps the network will end up trading a game back to the league for one of the international games the NFL has to license currently? That’s something to keep an eye on, and The Streamable will keep you informed on any movement in NFL negotiations as it occurs!
Fox One
Launched August 21, 2025, Fox One is a direct-to-consumer streaming service from Fox Corporation. Billed as a “major digital initiative,” Fox One brings together the full range of Fox’s leading news, sports, and entertainment brands, offering live and on-demand access in one unified platform.