Fox's push against NFL streaming deals reaches the White House as rights costs climb

The next NFL contract decides what fans pay and where they watch. The league wants a far higher rights fee and an end to a 2029 opt-out, so the terms will land on subscription prices and on which platforms carry games. Fox's lobbying has drawn attention from the FCC and the US Department of Justice. Whether either acts is another matter: the Journal's sources call legal action unlikely.

Fox takes the NFL streaming fight to the White House

Murdoch raised the issue at a White House dinner in February. Streamers buying more NFL games could "kill broadcast networks", he argued, according to the Journal report cited by Sports Media Watch.

Fox did not stop at conversation. In March the company filed a public comment with the FCC. It questioned whether the NFL's antitrust exemption should extend to negotiations with "paywalled streamers" that already benefit from a lighter regulatory framework. That exemption dates to the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which lets the league sell its clubs' media rights as one package. The FCC opened its own comment period on sports rights moving to streaming in late February. Last month, the US Department of Justice was reported to have opened an investigation into whether the streaming deals fit inside the exemption. None of it has been officially confirmed or announced.

The money behind the lobbying

The sums explain the pressure. The NFL is seeking a triple-digit percentage increase in rights fees, according to CNBC's Alex Sherman, as cited by Sports Media Watch.

In exchange, the league would drop the opt-out in its contracts, letting the deals run for the full terms agreed in 2021. That package was signed in 2021 and valued at $110 billion through 2033, with an opt-out expected after the 2029 season, The Ankler reported. Fox is not alone in bristling. The Journal report said some or all of the existing rightsholders would want their deals extended beyond the 2021 terms if they agree to negotiate now.

A portfolio too expensive to keep

Skydance now houses at least 36 sports rights deals, the most for any US company. David Ellison assembled the portfolio by merging Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery. The annual bill runs north of $6.6 billion including UFC, per industry estimates cited by The Ankler.

Sources told The Ankler that three properties could be considered for sale. They are Big Ten football at $350 million a year, NASCAR at $100 million and the French Open at $65 million. Together they come to $515 million, under a tenth of the total. The company carries $80 billion in debt. Skydance declined to comment. A person familiar with its thinking cautioned that the ink on the merger is still drying. It is too early to know if anything is really on the block.

Live sports also sustain CBS, the streaming services and more than 50 cable networks. That makes the portfolio hard to cut.

A rival sports executive put it bluntly to The Ankler. "Without the NFL, it's a tougher situation," the executive said, pointing to what happened when Turner lost the NBA.

The middle of the market is squeezed

Sportel in Monaco, now in its 36th edition, is a fixture of the sports business calendar. This year the talk was about who gets left out. Premium rights keep rising while the middle of the market stagnates or contracts, several speakers said, according to SportsPro's account of the conference.

"You cannot depend entirely on your [media] deal to drive your property," said Hillary Mandel, IMG's executive vice president and head of Americas rights. Jeff Roth of Bruin Capital agreed with the "middle squeeze". He said match day, sponsorship and streaming matter more for properties that cannot count on doubling their media rights every seven years.

Attention leaks outside the live window too. Pedro Pina, YouTube's vice president for EMEA, said 80% of World Cup content viewership on YouTube took place between matches, SportsPro reported. Scott Melvin, chief executive of The Overlap, put the tension plainly. "Live is the most important thing. Live drives everything," he said, adding that rights are becoming prohibitively expensive.

What happens next

The Journal's sources said the investigation is "unlikely" to result in the government taking legal action against the leagues. That pushes the argument back to the negotiating table.

The NFL wants a richer deal before its next season begins in 2027, The Ankler reported. Its partners must decide whether to pay now or wait for 2029, when the opt-out would let them walk. Neither the FCC nor the Justice Department has announced a conclusion. The lobbying may shape the terms. It will not settle them.