The National Football League isn’t done getting financially cozy with media companies that cover it.
Weeks after the NFL and ESPN agreed to a groundshaking deal that saw the football league take a 10% equity stake in the Worldwide Leader, as well as a separate agreement in which they took an equity stake in CBS through a content partnership with Skydance Media, the league has entered into a content licensing arrangement with Front Office Sports.
According to Sara Fischer at Axios, the multi-year deal will see FOS pay the NFL to access its intellectual property, events, and logos. FOS also gets “behind-the-scenes access to NFL tentpole events that it can use in coverage across its website and social channels beginning this fall,” including NFL International Games, the Super Bowl, and the NFL Draft. The deal does not include any live rights.
RedBird Capital Partners, which has a majority stake in FOS, is also a partner with the NFL in EverPass Media, which delivers NFL Sunday Ticket to bars and commercial venues.
Along with being a sports business-focused media outlet, FOS has robust events and content arms and recently launched a clothing collection.
“We can now go to advertisers and say, ‘Hey, we are an official content partner in the NFL,’ and that’s just going to make it much easier for our sales team in market,” FOS founder and CEO Adam White told Axios. “The reason why we did this deal is all about making sure that we can provide our audience with more access to better content, and then we can provide our advertisers with the ability to leverage NFL marks and IP in ways that we haven’t been able to in the past.”
The deal with FOS is also just the latest that the NFL has made with sports-focused media companies that cover the league. Recent content arrangements include The Gist, Bleacher Report, Overtime, and Betches Media.
While each partnership offers its own unique rights, arrangements, and agreements, they all raise questions about the editorial independence of NFL partners when it comes to covering the league. ESPN has certainly been feeling the brunt of those concerns, and readers will likely be keeping a close eye on how Front Office Sports covers the league from a reporting standpoint moving forward.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.