NFL ‘blindsided’ by ESPN, Fox streaming venture

The NFL was just as surprised as everyone else that two of its partners, ESPN and Fox, were launching a sports-heavy skinny bundle with WBD.

The venture, announced last week, would see all of the networks under the umbrellas of the three companies and air live sports combine for a streaming bundle.

Puck’s John Ourand reported the NFL was “blindsided” by the announcement, which was announced just hours after ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro had a phone call with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and chief business officer Brian Rolapp to fill them in.

The report added that the NFL looked into obstructing the service.

“Almost immediately, the NFL had its lawyers scouring its contracts with ESPN and Fox to see if the media companies were within their legal rights to launch such a service,” the report said.

“Alas, the initial review suggested that the league could not do anything to keep its games off the new streamer.” 

Compounding the matter, ESPN has been in talks to sell a stake in its network to the NFL and in the process take over management of NFL Network, the Post previously reported.

The NFL was not the only league kept in the dark about the launch of the streaming bundle.

Pat McAfee was interviewing NBA commissioner Adam Silver on ESPN on Wednesday and the host said that he had no idea the announcement was coming.

“Neither did I,” Silver interjected.

“It’s no secret about that. It’s a joint venture among those three companies and I don’t think they’re claiming they told the leagues about it beforehand.”

The NBA’s sole rights partners for the time being are ESPN/ABC and WBD’s TNT.

Nevertheless, the NBA didn’t seem as institutionally upset about the new skinny bundle as the NFL did.

“While we look forward to learning more about this new venture, we’re encouraged by the opportunity to make premier sports content more accessible to fans who are not subscribers to the traditional cable or satellite bundle,” the NBA said in a statement last week.