Russell Wilson Forms Youth Flag Football League in Seattle

The NFL is asking each of its national broadcast partners—NBC, CBS, FOX, and Disney—to pay a 100% rights fee increase to continue televising games once their current broadcast deals expire.

Disney, the parent company of ESPN and ABC, pays $1.9 billion per year to broadcast Monday Night Football on ESPN and has rejected the request, according to CNBC. Disney pays roughly $1 billion more annually for its NFL package compared to deals signed by NBC, CBS and FOX.

Disney’s current contract ends at the end of next season while the NFL’s deals with CBS, FOX, and NBC all expire after the 2022 season. The NFL plans to include streaming rights as part of each new package signed with a national network. The league also wants to add an 18th week of regular-season games as soon as next season, meaning there would be an extra game for each network. 

“We’re looking at the long-term trends of sports viewership,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said during an earnings call on Feb. 11. “We’ve had a long relationship with the NFL. If there’s a deal that will be accretive to shareholder value, we will certainly entertain that and look at that. But our first filter will be to say whether it makes sense for shareholder value going forward.”