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As the NFL continues to expand its reach, more media companies are looking for their share of the television rights pie.
But as the media rights deal currently stands, there is already a demographic of fans who see it all as too much. And fans may have to figure out how to access even more platforms, with the league expected to tear up its current paperwork for a more lucrative media rights deal that could involve additional media partners.
Tim Brando, the longtime sports broadcaster who currently works with FOX Sports, believes that there are Americans who do not like where the NFL and sports leagues in general are going with the use of so many platforms.
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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during his state of the NFL news conference ahead of the Super Bowl LX football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots in San Jose, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt York)
“I’m here to tell you that a large portion of America is not ready for it and doesn’t like it,” Brando said on “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich.”
The NFL’s current primetime slots include Netflix, ESPN, Peacock (“Sunday Night Football,” which also airs on NBC) and Amazon Prime Video (“Thursday Night Football”). If other players get involved, consumers will have another platform to keep track of, not to mention the cost of another subscription on top of how they otherwise consume the league’s games each year.
Brando explained to Dakich how he feels from a March Madness standpoint.
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“A lot of people who are not only our age, but people who are a little younger, were searching and trying to find Big East Tournament games and they couldn’t get it,” he explained, noting how there was a demographic that didn’t know where they could access tournament games since they were no longer on FOX. “They were at the Peacock, okay?
Fox college basketball announcer Tim Brando on air before during a college basketball game between St. John’s Red Storm and Providence Friars on March 20, 2024 in Providence, Rhode Island. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
“The regular over-the-air networks like CBS, FOX, NBC over the air and ABC — we’ve spent a lot of money, and you don’t get the revenue streams that you get from an Amazon, from an Apple, from a Netflix, or in cable, you don’t get what ESPN got obviously all those years of overcharging everybody to get the games on ESPN’s network, — if you—air, through its network. costs so much that streaming is now starting to take over.
“Doing that, people in our generation, and I would say, even down into the 50s and early 40s, people are like, ‘Where’s the game? I can’t find the game’.”
The FCC said last month it would seek public comment on the ongoing shift of live sports from broadcast channels to streaming services, which include the other major sports leagues in the country like the NBA, MLB and more. Specifically for the NFL, to catch every ounce of action during the 2025 season, fans would have to pay at least $575, with some spending nearly $800.
Fox Sports player Tim Brando before the game between the Seton Hall Pirates and the Iowa Hawkeyes at the Prudential Center on November 16, 2022 in Newark, NJ. (Porter Binks/Getty Images)
The price could also rise sooner rather than later if the NFL works out a new media rights deal that is likely to be more than its roughly $10 billion a year in revenue.
