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As the NFL calls its TV partners back to the huddle, its Big Tech that might end up calling the play

New Looper Insights survey of top media-tech execs suggests Amazon, Google, Netflix and other big tech companies might control the latest ‘feeding frenzy’ for sports rights, not the leagues

The NFL reportedly wants to renegotiate its contracts with its TV partners before the start of the 2026 season, using Paramount’s highly leveraged buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery as a reset marker for its current $110 billion collection of deals.

The league signed 11-year agreements back in March 2021 with Disney, NBCUniversal, Fox, Paramount and Amazon. With the NBA carving out its own $76 billion longterm agreement with many of the same media and tech companies in 2024, it was assumed the NFL would trigger 2029 opt-out provisions written into all of its deals. And the general belief among NFL TV partners was that re-negotiations for contracts extending through 2033-34 would begin in the latter part of this year.

But according to the dean of sports-media business reporting, Puck’s John Ourand, the NFL is ready to talk now, well ahead of the coming 2026 football season, motivated not so much by the NBA’s deal, but rather David Ellison and Paramount’s $7.7 billion agreement with UFC. According to Ourand, Ellison’s UFC deal just might have set off the next “feeding frenzy” for live-sports TV rights, with current Major League Baseball and NHL deals set to expire in 2028, as well.

As for the NFL, it reportedly plans to start with Paramount’s CBS, which saw its package of two weekly Sunday AFC games grow its average TV audience by 11% last season to 21.25 million viewers per game. CBS’s weekly 4:30 p.m. ET game was the most watched on any network last season, on average.

Approaching the negotiations, the NFL would appear to have lopsided leverage in its favor. And just under 40% of top sports media execs recently surveyed by Looper Insights for its 2026 “Who Will Control Sports Streaming” report said it’s the leagues that wield the most power in sports media. But here’s what’s surprising: