MW NFL heads into Super Bowl after season of record ratings, paving way for TV-rights bonanza
By Lukas I. Alpert
The league is one of the few constants in a fractured television landscape - giving it leverage for renegotiating its current deal, which many view as undervalued
The NFL hopes that Sunday's Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots will top last year's record TV ratings, after a season in which the league notched its highest ratings in 36 years.
In a world of rapidly changing TV viewing habits, there remains one constant: the NFL.
The National Football League is riding into Super Bowl LX on NBC and Peacock on Sunday after notching its highest TV ratings in 36 years, continuing to defy gravity amid an increasingly fractured television landscape.
"The power the NFL holds across the media landscape becomes more evident with each passing year given a stability of viewership that is unmatched by other programming," said Robert Fishman, a media analyst for MoffettNathanson, in a note to clients.
Even as NFL games are being split up more and more among various TV and streaming platforms, the audience has remained consistently strong, putting the league in a highly advantageous bargaining position ahead of expected renegotiations for broadcasting rights.
The league's current TV-rights deal - which has games appearing on all the major networks and their own streaming platforms, as well as on Amazon Prime (AMZN), Netflix $(NFLX)$ and YouTube $(GOOGL)$ $(GOOG)$, stretches to 2033 but contains opt-outs for the NFL beginning after the 2029 season.
That deal was reached in 2021, and since then, TV viewing habits have quickly transformed - with streamers becoming increasingly involved in live sports broadcasts.
"We've all seen the media landscape is changing dramatically," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a news conference earlier this week ahead of the Super Bowl. "New platforms that didn't exist five years ago exist now - 10 years ago, for sure. That's where our fans are, in many cases, and particularly the younger demographics."
The shift has opened the doors for the major streaming platforms to get more deeply involved in sports broadcasting rights, which have largely remained a bastion of traditional network television. Goodell said that 88% of all the league's games this past year were available on traditional network TV.
Many analysts believe the NFL will push to begin renegotiations as soon as this offseason. They point to recent broadcast megadeals for the NBA and the Ultimate Fighting Championship as suggesting the NFL's existing $110 billion contract is undervalued. Some believe the NFL could command 50% more annually under the terms of a new deal.
Given the importance of NFL games to the networks and streaming platforms, many believe they will have no choice but to renegotiate.
This season, the NFL saw average ratings of 18.7 million viewers per game, according to Nielsen's data - a nearly 10% spike from the 2024-25 season and the highest seen since 1989. Some of that growth can be attributed to new methodology used by Nielsen, but the league's strength as a viewership draw is undeniable.
The growth was also evident regardless of platform. Thursday Night Football games shown on Amazon Prime drew an average of 15.3 million viewers per game this season, up 16% from the year before. Games on NBC's $(CMCSA)$ Sunday Night Football topped everyone with an average of 23.5 million viewers, up 9% on the year.
Super Bowl LIX last year set an all-time record for the league with 127.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen. How this year's big game will compare remains to be seen - but it is sure to bring in big numbers.
-Lukas I. Alpert
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February 06, 2026 14:35 ET (19:35 GMT)
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