After negotiating various new agreements, Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and DirecTV will altogether pay close to $6 billion a year to broadcast NFL games to a football-addicted America.

The New York Times:

Fox’s average rights fee will jump to about $1.1 billion a year from $725 million in 2013, CBS’s payments will increase to nearly $1 billion from $625 million and NBC’s fees will increase to $950 million from $612 million. Add to that ESPN’s recent agreement. Three months ago it approved a 73 percent increase to $1.9 billion annually for eight years.

Taken together, the four networks — plus DirecTV, which pays $1 billion a year for its Sunday Ticket satellite package — will pay the N.F.L. more annually than any sports league has ever been paid. Of course, the previous record-holder was the N.F.L.

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