PHOENIX — The NFL is looking to complete in the next six weeks the resale of media rights for five 2026 games, recently regained in the league’s complex equity deal with ESPN parent company Disney.
Just as the league’s overall 2026 regular-season schedule will contain several new wrinkles, including a Wednesday start to the season, the NFL-Disney deal helps open up a series of new facets to the forthcoming broadcast plan. Among the changes in development:
- There will no longer be Monday Night Football doubleheaders involving ESPN or sister network ABC. “When we did the deal five years ago, we thought adding two games on Monday night would be a great thing for fans. It was more free football that was outside of a Sunday afternoon,” NFL EVP of media distribution Hans Schroeder said. “And I think we collectively struggled and realized fans felt like they were conflicted to choose between those games.”
- There will be another Christmas tripleheader, with Netflix carrying two of the games, and this time, Fox will have the third. The sequence of those three is not settled, but given the global presence that is fundamental to the Netflix pact, it’s likely it will show the initial two holiday games, leaving Fox in primetime for U.S. audiences.
- Playing a game on Thanksgiving Eve is a “super interesting” possibility, Schroeder said, despite the schedule complexities on teams. “We are actively looking at that window,” he said. “Thanksgiving is about football, family, and friends, increasingly, and we believe we’re a big part of that.” Last year’s Thanksgiving holiday included a regular-season viewership record, and an additional NFL game broadcast the night before is likely to deliver another robust audience.
For those elements not yet completed, particularly the resale of five games previously held by Disney, the effective deadline to do so is the planned NFL schedule release in mid-May. Not only does that certify each team’s upcoming schedule, but it also has broadcast network assignments for those games—subject to flex scheduling rules.
In addition, that mid-May period is marked by a series of network upfront presentations to advertisers, with news around upcoming NFL content typically playing a major role in those events.
“Those [resale] deals need to wrap up in time for the schedule release,” Schroeder said. “The challenge is managing through some really interesting proposals, and we’re seeing the creativity of the market. … We want to work through all the ideas to get the best opportunity.”
Opt-Out Talk
The NFL’s upcoming opt-outs in its core domestic media rights are something set to generate billions of incremental revenue and are dominating current discussion around the media, financial, and sports businesses.
Schroeder said those provisions also give the league the ability to pivot amid a media industry undergoing significant disruption.
“There’s a lot of change still happening [in the media business],” he said. “What those [opt-outs] do ultimately at their core is give us flexibility.”
Clapback to Carr
Schroeder also pushed back against Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, who recently went on an extended media tour to decry what he sees as excessive media fragmentation by the NFL.
While Carr said the increased move by the league to streamers represents a “tipping point” that might be met with government intervention, Schroeder reaffirmed the league’s stance to broadcast TV. Nearly 90% of all league games are shown on broadcast TV, and that figure is 100% for the home markets of the participating teams in each game.
“I’m not sure there’s a single content owner, league, or otherwise that’s done more to support broadcast television than what we do,” Schroeder said. “Every game is on broadcast in the home markets, and it’s 88% overall as the primary platform. So we’re very committed to broadcast. We always have been, and continue to be. It’s a tremendous way to reach fans, and our focus is on reach.”
