Sky Snaps Up Monday Night NFL Coverage
The National Football League (NFL) has announced an expanded UK broadcast rights deal with Sky Sports that will include live UK rights to ‘Monday Night Football’ games from next season.
The five-year deal has been confirmed ahead of the first of this year’s regular season matches at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, when Oakland Raiders will face Miami Dolphins.
From next season, Sky Sports will now broadcast 80 live games per season in total through until 2019, plus playoff matches and the Super Bowl.
The rights package also includes every game from the NFL’s international series, which have been played at Wembley since 1997, and coverage from NFL’s popular RedZone score updates service.
Shoulder programming, such as NFL Total Access, will continue to be part of the Sky Sports schedule.
Sky has broadcast the NFL to the UK since 1995, although at times during that period the BBC and Channel 4 have also broadcast a combination of live coverage and highlights.
Channel 4 currently has live rights to ‘Sunday Night Football’ and shares live rights to the London games and the Super Bowl with Sky.
Alistair Kirkwood, who heads up the NFL’s UK operation, said of the deal: ‘Sky Sports has been a fantastic partner for 20 years and we are delighted to have agreed a deal that will extend that partnership to a quarter of a century.’
‘Sky’s coverage of the NFL and their support for the sport in this country has been an important element of our growth and we look forward to seeing their coverage expand and develop over the next five years.’
