In a transaction with an estimated fair value of $3 billion, ESPN has acquired the NFL Network and “certain other media assets” from NFL Enterprises, among them the NFL RedZone channel’s pay TV distribution and NFL Fantasy. In exchange, the NFL is receiving a 10 percent minority share in ESPN. (ESPN’s value, then, would be $30bn.)
After July 2034, depending on the assets’ performance, ESPN’s ultimate parent, Disney, “may have the right” to reacquire the NFL’s interest in ESPN in exchange for a ten-year note at 70 percent of the then fair market value of the NFL’s interest in ESPN.
Alternatively, the NFL may have the right to acquire up to a 4 percent additional equity interest in ESPN at a purchase price equal to 70 percent of the then fair market value of ESPN.
Disney details the foregoing in its latest 10-Q, for the quarter ended Dec. 27, 2025. In addition, the parties have disclosed as much in a statement to The Athletic, which reads in part as follows: “With the closing, we will begin integrating NFL employees into ESPN in the months ahead. 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.”
According to The Athletic, ESPN will now be airing more NFL games than ever before – 28 per season, the NFL Network’s seven included. Four of the games traditionally aired during the venerable Monday Night Football broadcast will be moving to the NFL Network. Moreover,
ESPN will have linear rights (cable and satellite television, as opposed to streaming) to NFL RedZone, which airs seven hours of live NFL coverage every Sunday. There is no change for this year’s Super Bowl, still scheduled for broadcast on NBC on Feb. 8.
In addition, ESPN will be folding the NFL’s fantasy football league into its own, establishing a big, official home for the fan pastime. ESPN and the NFL have until now been competitors on this gridiron, although one outstrips the other.
ESPN’s app is the biggest in the US by app share, at 48 percent, while the NFL’s ranks outside the top five. (By revenue, though, DraftKings and FanDuel dominate.)
According to Mordor Intelligence, the market for fantasy sports in North America was worth about $13.1 billion in 2025, with American football accounting for about 58 percent. According to Alea IT Solutions, the global market was worth $35 billion or more by the end of 2025, with the US dominating by revenue and India by user totals.
Post-transaction, ESPN remains majority-owned (72%) by the American television network ABC, itself an indirect subsidiary of Disney. The media conglomerate Hearst (publisher of, among others, the Houston Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle, Cosmopolitan and Esquire), is the next largest shareholder (18%).
