As Skydance keeps growing, the CBS-NFL deal still hasn't been renegotiated

Given the recent merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, it’s perhaps easier to list the major media outlets that Skydance doesn’t own than the ones it does.

Regardless, Skydance holds the CBS contract with the NFL, and that deal will likely expire after the 2029 season (absent an extension).

Appearing Thursday on CNBC, Skydance Chair & CEO David Ellison said that his company anticipates “being in business with the NFL for the foreseeable future,” via Sports Business Journal. Ellison used the same phrase back in March.

That’s an inherently vague term, especially at a time when there’s general concern that the clock on humanity is ticking toward Threat Level Midnight, thanks to Super Intelligence.

Ellison also said Paramount has a “great relationship with the NFL,” citing a “record-setting season” in 2025.

The only record the NFL will want to set in 2030 (or sooner) is the amount of money received for the right to televise its games. Early this year, it seemed inevitable that, before the start of the 2026 season, CBS would agree to increase its current rate from $2.1 billion per year to $3 billion. That hasn’t happened.

Last week, Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital (which owns a large piece of SkyDance) said he expects CBS and the NFL to have a new deal “in a few years when the contract comes up.”

“We have a tremendous respect for them,” Cardinale said, regarding the NFL. “They’re absolutely critical to our future and there will be a negotiation.”

It was believed that negotiations were coming, if they hadn’t already begun. Skydance’s purchase of Paramount/CBS triggered a change-in-control clause that gave the NFL the right to redo the existing deal or pull the plug by August 2027.

So why hasn’t it happened? It could be as simple as this: Once the NFL met significant resistance from Fox (and perhaps others) regarding the prospect of paying more now for contract rights that are settled through 2029, CBS didn’t want to be the only broadcast partner paying more.

Either way, it’s not as if the NFL will forget that it wanted more now and didn’t get it. The next wave of contracts quite possibly will include as of 2030 and beyond every extra dollar that wasn’t secured through new deals to cover 2026, 2027, 2028, and 2029.