New TV Deal Gives NFL the Night Shift

The NFL announced television deals Monday worth $11.5 billion.

The league agreed to extend its contracts with Fox and CBS for six more years -- 2006 through 2011 -- for a combined $8 million, a 25% increase over what those networks now pay.

And the league gave DirecTV a new, exclusive five-year, $3.5-million contract to continue carrying the Sunday Ticket pay package through the 2010 season. The money represents a 75% increase over the current five-year, $2-million contract.

The deals with Fox and CBS will give the NFL late-season flexibility in two areas:

* The league can take four late-season games from each network for a new eight-game cable or satellite package, probably on Thursday and Saturday nights.

* The league can also take as many as seven late-season Sunday games from Fox and CBS to provide more attractive matchups on “Monday Night Football,” with a two- or three-week notice. Details of this provision will be worked out later, network officials said.

Yet to be negotiated are the Sunday and Monday night packages. ESPN and ABC currently hold those rights, and the Disney-owned networks’ exclusive negotiating period extends for nearly another year.

NBC is said to be interested in the Monday night package, and figures to also bid on the new Thursday/Saturday cable package.

George Bodenheimer, the president of ABC and ESPN, said, “As we’ve been saying, our intent is to retain the Sunday and Monday night packages, and we will continue our ongoing conversations toward that end.”

The timing of Monday’s announcement came as a surprise. Negotiations weren’t expected to be concluded until after the NFL season.

A sticking point figured to be the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with its players’ association. The current agreement expires after the 2007 season.

But the additional revenue from the new television deal should have a positive effect on collective bargaining negotiations, league and network officials say.

“It provides a basis for a continuing sound collective bargaining agreement,” NFL spokesman Seth Palansky said.

An industry source said the contracts with Fox and CBS had built-in safeguards against work stoppages.

As for the timing of Monday’s announcements, Denver Bronco owner Pat Bowlen, chairman of the broadcasting committee, said, “There was a feeling among the broadcast partners and the league that we should address the issue of extension earlier than normal.”

Bowlen also said the deals with Fox and CBS would hasten negotiations with Disney’s ABC-ESPN entry.

“I think they’ve been distracted with other [top management] things in their company,” Bowlen said. “They’ll probably want to sit down, now that those other two deals are done.”

Fox, which is paying an average of $550 million a year for rights to the NFC package, will pay $712.5 million a year under the new deal.

CBS’ annual rights fee for the AFC package will go from $500 million to $622.5 million.

The additional television revenue no doubt means higher salary caps for the 30 NFL teams.

Each team receives $73.3 million a year under the current national television contracts, and the salary cap is in the $80-million range.

The new deal gives Fox and CBS two Super Bowls apiece over the six years of the contract. CBS gets the Super Bowl on Feb. 4, 2007, and Fox, which has this season’s Super Bowl, will get the one played in 2008.

The television revenue earned by other sports leagues and organizations pales in comparison to what the NFL gets.

Baseball gets $558 million a year from a six-year, $3.35-billion television contract with Fox and ESPN that expires after the 2006 season.

The NBA gets $567 million a year from ABC-ESPN and TNT as part of a six-year, $3.4-billion contract.

NASCAR gets $400 million a year from NBC-TNT and Fox, and the NHL would be getting $67 million this season from ESPN -- if there were a season.

Although Fox claimed losses of $387 million in 2002 on its current eight-year contract, Fox and CBS officials said Monday that they figure to make a profit on their new deals.

Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer for News Corp., Fox’s parent company, blamed the earlier losses on the “double whammy of the Internet bubble bursting and advertising being down.

“The NFL is the strongest sports franchise on television and has helped build and sustain Fox as a broadcast network in a variety of ways since 1994,” Chernin said.

“Having what is clearly the highest-rated sports series on television is very exciting to us.”

Chernin praised the NFL for “clear and straightforward negotiations,” adding, “The NFL didn’t want its broadcast partners losing money.”

CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said, “We made money on the last deal, and we’ll make even more money on this deal.

“We looked at prime time, and liked this package a lot better. It works for us. Our prime-time schedule, needless to say, is kicking butt.”

As part of the agreements, CBS and Fox committed to phase in high-definition telecasts for all games at some point during the new contract.

Neal Pilson, a former CBS Sports president and now a sports television consultant, said it was important for both Fox and CBS to retain their NFL packages.

“I think the league and the networks all achieved their objectives,” Pilson said.

The NFL, Pilson said, did even better in this deal than industry experts expected.

“Most pundits were expecting an increase of around 10%,” he said. “For the NFL to get a 25% increase shows just how strong the league is.”

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NFL and Television

The escalation of television rights fees for the NFL since 1987:

2006-2011 DEAL: 6 YEARS, $8 BILLION*

*--* Network Annual Value Total Value Fox $712.5 million $4.3 billion CBS $622.5 million $3.7 billion

*--*

* Sunday and Monday packages have yet to be negotiated

1998-2005 DEAL: 8 YEARS, $17.6 BILLION

*--* Network Annual Value Total Value ABC $550 million $4.4 billion Fox $550 million $4.4 billion CBS $500 million $4 billion ESPN $600 million $4.8 billion

*--*

1994-97 DEAL: 4 YEARS, $4.39 BILLION

*--* Network Annual Value Total Value ABC $230 million $920 million Fox $395 million $1.58 billion NBC $217 million $868 million ESPN $131 million $524 million TNT $124 million $496 million

*--*

1990-93 DEAL: 4 YEARS, $3 BILLION

*--* Network Annual Value Total Value ABC $225 million $900 million CBS $265 million $1.06 billion NBC** $188 million $752 million ESPN $111.15 million $445 million TNT $111.15 million $445 million

*--*

** NBC paid additional $40 million for rights to 1994 Super Bowl

1987-89 DEAL: 3 YEARS, $1.56 BILLION

*--* Network Annual Value Total Value ABC $147 million $441 million CBS $150 million $450 million NBC $120 million $360 million ESPN $51 million $153 million TNT $51 million $153 million

*--*

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Rights of Passage

The NFL reached extension agreements with Fox and CBS Monday that provide a rights increase with those networks of about 25%, beginning with the 2006 season. Here’s how the league currently stacks up against other sports:

* NFL: 8 years (1998-2005) with Fox, CBS, ESPN, ABC: $17.6 billion ($2.2 billion per season).

* NBA: 6 years (2002-03 to 2007-08) with ABC, TNT: $3.4 billion ($567 million per season).

* Baseball: 6 years (2001-2006) with Fox, ESPN: $3.35 billion ($558 million per season).

* NASCAR: 8 years with Fox (2001-2008), 6 with NBC-TNT (2001-2006): $2.8 billion ($400 million per season).

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Times staff writer Sam Farmer and Associated Press contributed to this report.