
The National Football League’s deal to take a 10% stake in Disney (NYSE:DIS) may have broken the huddle, but deals between entertainment heavyweights and college and sports leagues were already showing signs of acceleration.
Take Fox Sports’ 2025 pickup of IndyCar, including the Indianapolis 500, for $30 million annually, which just generated a 41% viewer increase in its Memorial Day weekend broadcast. Or the Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY) and Ultimate Financial Championship (UFC) mid-August $7.7 billion deal that runs through the next seven years.