As the NFL embarks on an effort to renegotiate its various full-season TV packages, the league continues to shop a five-game package of games to be televised during the 2026 season.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, YouTube, Netflix, and Fox are in play for the five-game mini-slate.
As we understand it, the NFL has presented a menu consisting of more than five potential games, with the bidders having the ability to pick the five specific games they want.
The options are believed to include the Week 1 game in Australia, a Thanksgiving eve game (which is not official but apparently inevitable), a second Black Friday game, and a Christmas Eve game, among others.
Fox’s interest surely arises from the fact that the company is owned by Australia native Rupert Murdoch. Complicating those negotiations, as a practical matter, will be the current attack by the federal government on the NFL from an antitrust standpoint — especially since Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has joined in the P.R. effort regarding the league’s antitrust exemption.
That said, the NFL may benefit politically from keeping the five games of the mini-package on broadcast TV (or, in the alternative, as a free stream on YouTube). At a time when the league’s ongoing pivot to streaming has sparked intense scrutiny, the news of five standalone games landing behind a paywall could be problematic.
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