The NFL's Content Blitz Will Now Cost ESPN $2 Billion Per Year

The National Football League and ESPN have reportedly finalized a deal extending their existing media rights agreement -- and ESPN has the sticky end of it, paying 65-70% more than it does now: That's up to $2 billion a year. Which is about the same figure being kicked around as Facebook's annual revenue. Higher cable fees loom.

At the heart of the new deal, other than the NFL's evident hunger for raw, hard cash in large quantities, was ESPN's drive toward "TV Everywhere," which would permit broadcasting over broadband systems and streaming onto mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. ESPN will apparently hang on to the rights to broadcast key moments, including highlights and the NFL Draft. But neither ESPN nor ABC seems to have landed the rights to carry the Super Bowl -- which one could reasonably think might be part of a $2 billion-a-year deal. ESPN is forking over some 70% more per annum because the NFL is increasingly aware of how valuable its content is, particularly in the digital broadcast era where TV content is increasingly diluted across different platforms. But there may be unpleasant side effects to the NFL's price hike: Players may want a slice of the action. And the cost of cable packages that cover ESPN may also rise.