Key Points
- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell plans to attend Disney’s publicity showcase in New York next week, sources tell CNBC.
- YouTube and Netflix will both get additional live games as part of their NFL offerings for the 2026-27 season, sources told CNBC.
- The NFL schedule will likely be announced Wednesday or Thursday of next week, a source told CNBC.
A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, bringing you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the world of sports and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Next week, the media world will descend on New York for the annual advertising presentations known as upfronts. The week begins with NBCUniversal’s pitch at Radio City Music Hall, followed by Fox, Amazon, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and YouTube. This year is expected to solidify a trend that became noticeable last year when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell showed up on both YouTube and Netflix — wearing a Santa-inspired parka for the latter. Besides Warner Bros. Discovery, which, barring government intervention, will make its final presentation next week before merging with Paramount Skydance later this year, all major media companies will present their NFL programming. Although the exact day is still in flux, the NFL plans to announce its full 2026 schedule next week, Wednesday or Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The program will include a slight increase in its broadcast coverage from last year, which could please the government, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission have looked into the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which gives the NFL a limited antitrust exemption in exchange for airing its games on broadcast networks. For NBCU, next week’s talk will include the value of “Sunday Night Football,” the most-watched show on American television for the past 15 years. Fox will chronicle how the NFL last year recorded its highest network ratings since 2015, averaging 19.63 million viewers. Amazon will brag about the viewership of “Thursday Night Football” — which has grown 60% since arriving on Prime Video in 2022 — and how last year’s viewership was the largest on record. Disney may be the furthest along in the NFL this year. For the first time, ESPN will broadcast the Super Bowl. For those who don’t have cable — or don’t have digital subscriptions to ESPN — the game will also be simulcast on ABC. Disney has already launched a marketing campaign around the big game, with Super Bowl-related cross-company initiatives across ESPN and the rest of Disney. Goodell will be at the Javits Center for Disney presentation Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter. The people asked not to be named because details of the event are confidential. Spokespeople for the NFL and ESPN declined to comment. There was some good and bad sports news in Disney’s results this week. The good news is that there is evidence that ESPN’s digital subscription service works. Disney said revenue from streaming subscribers “more than offset the secular decline of the linear subscriber universe.” Put simply, Disney received more money from people who subscribed to the ESPN app for $29.99 per month than from people who canceled cable last quarter. The bad news is that Disney expects its third-quarter sports segment operating profit to decline 14% year-over-year due to increased sports programming fees. This likely means that the price of ESPN Unlimited will increase soon. And more somber news: The sports segment’s operating profit fell 5% in the company’s fiscal second quarter, to $652 million. It’s up to ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro to develop a growth plan for a unit that will surely have to pay a lot more to keep “Monday Night Football” if the NFL reopens media rights negotiations sooner than expected. “We have not yet engaged in discussions with the league on anticipated renewal conversations, but we are not dogmatic about the process, and we are always open to having a conversation with the NFL to find new growth opportunities,” Hugh Johnston, Disney’s chief financial officer, said during Disney’s earnings conference call Wednesday. “We plan to do business with the league for years to come and will of course evaluate this deal as we would any other deal, with discipline and a focus on creating value for Disney shareholders.” Finally, Netflix and YouTube will both use the NFL as evidence of their growing influence in sports and live programming during their presentations. The four games that ESPN returned to the league as part of the sale of NFL Network to Disney earlier this year will be split between YouTube and Netflix, according to people familiar with the matter. The league is also expected to add an additional match for one of the world’s biggest streamers, said the sources, who asked not to be named because schedule details are still private. Two of the games likely to be streamed on Netflix will be the Week 1 matchup in Australia between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams and the Thanksgiving Eve game, Puck reported Thursday. Netflix will also return with two games for Christmas Day this year – the final year of a three-year deal. Netflix would like to renew that deal with the NFL, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because details of the negotiations are confidential. However, this may depend on limited inventory. One of the reasons Christmas is meaningful for Netflix is that games are inherently special. If the NFL distributed more Christmas games than just two or three, the day would start to seem less special — and perhaps less desirable for Netflix.