Bulletin: Credit FAQ: New NFL Broadcast Contracts Are Credit Neutral Today, But Raise Long-Term Concerns

The National Football League (NFL) last week awarded its next round of domestic TV broadcast contracts. The winners were the incumbent media companies (Comcast Corp., Fox Corp., ViacomCBS Inc., and The Walt Disney Co.), which retained their key broadcast packages, and Amazon, which was awarded the Thursday broadcast package (previously held by Fox). We believe the two most important aspects of these contracts for our credit analysis are the duration (11 years beginning with the 2023/2024 season and ending after the 2033/2034 season) and the purported price increase. We believe that these new contracts are neutral in the short term to our credit ratings on the incumbent media companies because all four are keeping their key broadcast packages (Fox chose

...March 23, 2021 The National Football League (NFL) last week awarded its next round of domestic TV broadcast contracts. The winners were the incumbent media companies (Comcast Corp., Fox Corp., ViacomCBS Inc., and The Walt Disney Co.), which retained their key broadcast packages, and Amazon, which was awarded the Thursday broadcast package (previously held by Fox). We believe the two most important aspects of these contracts for our credit analysis are the duration (11 years beginning with the 2023/2024 season and ending after the 2033/2034 season) and the purported price increase. We believe that these new contracts are neutral in the short term to our credit ratings on the incumbent media companies because all four are keeping their key broadcast packages (Fox chose to not bid for the less profitable Thursday night package but retained its Sunday afternoon NFC package). The long-term impact, however, is likely negative. The spike in rights fees will likely weaken cash flows and hurt credit...

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