Fantasy Football Creates Big Money for NFL

The emergence of fantasy football has created a demand for fans to watch games like never before. Fans are no longer happy with just watching their local team play, they want to see more. This demand for more football to be shown has created a big pay day for the NFL.

Out of market games have become what fans now want to see whether in their home or at their favorite bar on Sunday. The NFL currently has a deal with satellite provider DirecTV. According to Bill Carter of The New York Times, DirecTV pays the NFL $700 million a year to have what they call the NFL Sunday Ticket. The NFL Sunday Ticket is a package that a fan buys exclusively from DirecTV where every game going on that week is broad casted. Donn Johnson, a professor of economics at Quinnipiac University, says the NFL has done a great job through their deal with DirecTV, “Fans throughout the country can see their teams play, no matter where they live. It is a great deal for DirecTV because they can say they are the only ones who carry the NFL Sunday Ticket and it is a great deal for the NFL because they keep the quantity down by not distributing it to all the cable outlets, keeping the demand high”.

National prime time games now have a bigger audience with the emergence of fantasy football. In most cases the outcome of your fantasy game week to week hinders on the performance of your players on Sunday and Monday night. Sunday night football now airs on NBC. According to John Consoli of Adweek, NBC in its current contact plays the NFL $600 million per season to air Sunday Night Football.

Starting with the 2007 season ESPN has the rights for Monday Night Football. Accoding to John Consoli of Adweek, ESPN pays the NFL a whopping $1.1 billion to air Monday Night Football over its current deal. On Monday nights fans are given the opportunity to watch teams that they do not get to watch play that often if they do not have the Sunday Ticket. On Monday nights the fantasy games are decided with the last of your or your opponents players playing.

In total the NFL gets $3.735 billion a year for their broadcast right deals with DirecTV, NBC, ESPN, CBS and Fox. The TV rights to the NFL are the most lucrative and expensive rights not only of any American sport, but of any American entertainment property. Professor Johnson says, “The NFL has the best deal because football is the best sport to watch on television and the NFL has done a great job marketing throughout the years and not over expanding like other leagues have done. Football is an American product with American stars”. It is fueled by fantasy football and viewers wanting to see their players and not just their favorite teams,  “There is no doubt that fantasy football has had an impact on the NFL’s deal with DirecTV. Fans can bounce back and forth between multiple games and the fantasy player must love that”. This is why DirecTV has many football fans buying satellite dishes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/sports/football/09nfl.html

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