Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery are discussing a combined bid for NFL media rights, according to people briefed on the conversations. The structure would involve CBS and TNT Sports sharing a Sunday afternoon package, with each network airing a subset of games under a single, jointly negotiated contract. The talks are preliminary. The league has not signaled whether it would accept a bifurcated package from two separate distributors.
The maneuver reflects the arithmetic facing both companies. Paramount's CBS holds Sunday afternoon AFC rights through the 2032 season under a deal worth roughly $2.1 billion annually. Warner Bros. Discovery, which merged WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2022, currently holds no NFL rights—it lost NBA rights last year after the league chose Amazon and NBC for its next cycle. Both companies carry debt loads above $40 billion. Both have seen linear ratings erode faster than streaming revenue can replace it. A shared package would lower per-company outlay while preserving NFL adjacency for advertisers.
The league's current Sunday afternoon packages run through 2032 and are held by CBS (AFC) and Fox (NFC). Fox pays roughly $2.25 billion per year. Those deals were signed in 2021, when the league also carved out a Thursday Night Football package for Amazon at $1 billion annually and extended ESPN's Monday Night Football rights at $2.7 billion per year. The next negotiation cycle begins formally in 2029, though informal positioning is already underway. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in November that ESPN would pursue "strategic flexibility" in its next NFL deal, which analysts read as code for fewer games at lower cost.
A joint Paramount-WBD package would need league approval at the ownership level. No prior NFL media contract has been held by two distributors simultaneously. The league has historically preferred clean, single-entity deals that simplify scheduling, advertising, and broadcast standards. It has also shown little appetite for deals that weaken the exclusivity premium each package commands. A bifurcated Sunday window would create scheduling complexity—one network might air the 1pm ET slot while the other takes 4:25pm—and dilute advertiser demand by splitting inventory.
The structure also raises questions about Sunday Ticket, the out-of-market package now held by YouTube TV under a seven-year, $2 billion-per-year deal signed in 2022. If CBS and TNT split a Sunday package, YouTube's exclusive window shrinks. That weakens the product's core value proposition: access to every game not available locally. The league would likely need to renegotiate YouTube's deal or carve out a clean boundary between linear and streaming inventory.
Paramount and WBD are also exploring separate, unrelated bids. Paramount is expected to pursue a smaller package—potentially a Saturday or international window—that fits within its post-Skydance merger budget. WBD's David Zaslav has said publicly the company does not "need" the NFL but would bid if the return justifies the cost. TNT Sports, rebranded from Turner Sports in 2023, is building a portfolio around UEFA Champions League, NASCAR, and MLB. An NFL package would add the anchor advertisers want, but TNT's cable distribution has shrunk 12% since 2021.
The league's media committee, led by Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Falcons owner Arthur Blank, has not met formally on the next cycle. Informal soundings began last year. Executives at CBS, Fox, and ESPN have told the league they expect per-game pricing to flatten or decline as linear viewership continues its structural slide. Amazon, Google, and Apple have all been mentioned as potential bidders for expanded packages, though none has commented publicly.
Watch whether Paramount and WBD formalize their joint bid by the end of Q1 2025, when both companies report earnings and face board-level questions about sports strategy. Also watch whether the league floats a new Saturday package—college football's playoff expansion has opened late-season Saturday windows the NFL could claim without NCAA conflict. That structure would give Paramount or WBD a standalone deal without the complexity of a shared Sunday slot.
The takeaway
Paramount and WBD are testing whether the NFL will accept a split package as linear economics force media companies to share what they once bid alone.
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