The National Football League (NFL) have struck a mammoth 11-year deal with its media rights partners to keep the sport on the air until the end of the 2033 season.

Legacy rights holders will pay USD$89.5 billion (AUD$115 billion) to continue to cover NFL games, a 108% rise compared to the USD$43.1 billion (AUD$55.5 billion) the four networks, CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN, will have paid by the end of the current deal.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the new partnership is the addition of online streaming service, Amazon Prime, who will show all but six games of “Thursday Night Football” fixtures.

When Amazon Prime’s streaming contribution is added to the television figures, the overall cost for the deal will sit at USD$105 billion (AUD$135 billion) across the 11 years.

The Amazon Prime deal, which will commence in 2022, sits at around USD$1.32 billion (AUD$1.7 billion) per year, a little higher than rumoured USD$1 billion (AUD$1.3 billion) earlier in the month.

Amazon Prime’s coverage will be closely scrutinised, with their recent standalone fixture of the San Francisco 49ers versus the Arizona Cardinals on Boxing Day last year attracting an average minute audience of just 4.8 million viewers, the second least-watched national television window.

The deal should be well worth the dime for those forking out their wallets, with the NFL accounting for 71 of the 100 most-watched broadcasts in 2020, whilst also generating nearly USD$4 billion (AUD$5.1 billion) in advertisement sales revenue for host networks.

The “Monday Night Football” titled matches will be shown on Disney owned ESPN and on their streaming app, ESPN+, with a USD$28.1 billion (AUD$36.2 billion) extension to their deal, reported earlier in the month to be the most any broadcaster has ever paid to televise NFL games.