ESPN is bracing for competition for NFL television rights when their eight-year, $15.2 billion deal for Monday night games comes due. Their deal runs through 2021 while the NFL\'s contracts with CBS, NBC and Fox extend to 2022.
Amazon, Google and Facebook could be among the bidders.
“I have no idea if they’re going to be interested specifically in ‘Monday Night Football,’ but I do believe that several new media companies are going to be interested in acquiring more NFL rights,” said ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro.
He added: “I still very much like ESPN’s hand, if you look at what we offer in terms of production expertise, in terms of the scale and scope, in terms of what we can do with the game, around the game, ‘SportsCenter,’ all of our original programming, how we can drive value for our league partners I think is really the differentiator.”
Via Associated Press