Disney, NFL Close Deal That Makes League Partial Owner in ESPN

The next time the NFL doesn’t like the way ESPN covers the league, its executives can go right to the boss — by looking in the mirror.

The Disney sports-media giant and the massive professional football league confirmed late Saturday that they had closed a deal that makes the NFL a minority stakeholder in ESPN, which will in exchange gain control over NFL Network and the popular NFL RedZone highlights service. The tie-up is likely to boost the appeal of a ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service and surfaces as the soaring economics of sports have forced traditional media companies to seek new models that will help them keep big-game coverage on their schedules.

“The NFL and ESPN are pleased to announce the official closing of the sale of NFL Network and other NFL Media assets to ESPN. With the closing, we will begin integrating NFL employees into ESPN in the months ahead,” ESPN and the NFL said in a joint statement. “As we look to the future, NFL fans can look forward to expanded NFL programming, greater access to NFL Network, innovative Fantasy experiences and unparalleled coverage of America’s most popular sport.”

The deal with Disney will give the NFL a 10% stake in ESPN, which estimates from the sports advisory firm Octagon value at as much as $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion. The Athletic previously reported the deal had closed.

The pact is the most recent example of sports entities and media companies combining business. Fox recently took a 33% stake in Penske Entertainment, which owns the IndyCar motor racing series as well as Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fox also owns part of the nascent United Football League. ESPN in June took a stake in the Premier Lacrosse League, in addition to striking a new five-year rights deal with the organization. Warner Bros. Discovery is a part owner of the upstart women’s basketball league Unrivaled.

These new types of team-ups make increasing sense in an era when sports rights have become critical for media companies that want to attract broad audiences — something advertisers and distributors still crave, even as consumers migrate to watching video favorites on demand, at times of their own choosing. At the same time, the price tag for keeping sports in the portfolio is soaring exponentially, even as many traditional media companies are grappling with dips in advertising and distribution.

Viewers of ESPN and NFL Network will not notice any major changes immediately. The NFL media’s employees will officially become a part of ESPN in April, according to people familiar with the matter. NFL Network will be integrated into ESPN’s streaming outlet at the start of the next regular season in the fall.

NFL games are, at least so far in the streaming era, the most stable pieces of property a media company can get. The broadcasts are typically the most-watched of the last few years. And yet, the economics of the cable networks showing the games aren’t so robust.

Thanks to the widespread adoption of streaming, the ESPN and ESPN2 cable networks are each projected to see their subscribers drop to 57.9 million and 57.8 million respectively by the end of 2026, according to data from Kagan, a research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, compared with 61.4 million each at the end of 2025. The NFL Network, meanwhile, has seen its subscriber base drop steadily, according to Kagan, to 46.7 million in 2024, compared with 72.3 million in 2023.

The alliance may also serve Disney well in the not-too-distant future. In its last set of rights deals struck for a 11-year period starting with the 2022 season, the NFL won the right to overhaul its contracts and seek better terms after 2029. Owning a piece of ESPN could well keep the league from seeking a re-do of rights for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.”