Why Disney Pays a Fortune for Football
In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, The Walt Disney Company spent money it didn’t have.
At the time, Disney was bleeding money everywhere and tried to cut expenses whenever possible.
Photo:Disneycoupon.jpg
Despite this fact, the company made a rare exception when one lucrative possibility arose.
Disney spent $3 billion to acquire SEC football rights for ten years.
Photo: vecteezy.com
The deal wouldn’t even start until 2024, yet Disney jumped at the chance to lock down the SEC.
Lately, we’ve witnessed the financial impact of what has proven to be a brilliant financial decision.
Here’s why Disney pays a fortune for football.
The Ends Justify the Means
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
When Disney made the SEC deal in 2020, it cut off CBS at the pass.
As of the start of the 2024 agreement, Disney no longer shared the SEC with CBS.
Photo: Washington Post
Disney is currently paying $300 million annually for the privilege of its SEC football rights.
Is the company getting its money’s worth? Well, the answer is yes, but don’t take it from me.
Getty
I’ve had this article pulled up on my iPad for two months now. It’s The Athletic saying the same thing.
According to the report, SEC football absolutely wrecks the competition, including the Big Ten.
During the 2025 college football season, nine of the top ten broadcasts were SEC games.
The opening kickoff between Texas and Ohio State is the “exception” because it aired on Fox.
SEC
So, the SEC made a clean sweep of the top ten, thereby justifying Disney’s exclusivity.
ABC broadcast seven games that garnered at least ten million viewers, with two more in the 9.7 million range.
ABC
The appetite of fans for high-quality college football games is limitless, and it shows in the data.
In fact, I can update these statistics to the postseason as well.
Playoff Fever: Catch It!
Nielsen
Nielsen’s The Gauge, its monthly streaming report for January 2026, just came out the other day.
According to these charts, cable television viewing increased nine percent last month.
What happened last month? Yes, it was college football playoff season.
Now, you may think that I’m ascribing too much of that increase to college football.
Nielsen
I’ll counter that by directing you to the top of The Gauge for January. The article starts with:
“Cable Surges 9% on Strength of College Football Playoffs and News, while NFL Delivers Top 15 Broadcast Telecasts.”
Photo: Sporting News
That brings us to sunny point number two. Disney also owns plenty of NFL licensing rights.
So, many of those late-season games aired on ABC and ESPN, as did some of the playoff matchups.
Photo: Recorder.com
Disney pays a fortune for its football content because fans have an insatiable appetite for it.
Nielsen reinforces this notion by stating:
Wall Street Journal
“Cable sports viewing surged 49% over December, propelled by ESPN’s coverage of the College Football Playoffs, which included the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games. ESPN alone saw an 82% monthly viewing uptick.”
That’s…quite a sentence. ESPN increased so much that it impacted ALL cable sports ratings!
Deadline
An 82 percent monthly increase just doesn’t happen often, but it speaks to Disney’s cleverness.
By locking down regular-season SEC football and the college football playoffs, Disney has cornered the market.
NFL
The proof is in the data that this particular sport is what is keeping linear television afloat.
In fact, I’ll punctuate the argument with this data point: “NFL games accounted for the top 15 broadcast telecasts.”
Credit: Disney
If you were watching anything on network or cable television in January 2026, odds are good it was football.
That’s why Disney just acquired the NFL Network and thereby assured it stays in the NFL’s good graces.
Nielsen Streaming Ratings
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In 2020, I stopped writing about the movie business and box office for the most part.
I’d done so for 25 years and felt I’d pretty much said all I had to say on the topics.
(Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
However, my old life sometimes splashes into my current one and typically at the strangest times.
This week provides a textbook example, as we examine the Nielsen Streaming Ratings.
Photo: Bluey.tv
The current data covers the timeframe of January 19th-25th, 2026. Here are the Disney programs on the list:
- Bluey – 887 million viewer minutes
- Grey’s Anatomy – 844 million viewer minutes
- Teen Titans Go! – 753 million viewer minutes
- Family Guy – 708 million viewer minutes
- Law & Order – 669 million viewer minutes
- Veronica Mars – 456 million viewer minutes
- Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story – 230 million viewer minutes
- Zootopia – 183 million viewer minutes
Photo: Disney
We’ve seen most of these before, and I’ll add that the presence of Suitcase Killer is alarming.
Disney already found success with the Hulu series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Suitcase Killer
Now, we’ve got what I call murder podcast documentaries performing well, too.
Viewer habits are incentivizing Disney to make and acquire more of this content rather than scripted programs.
The reality stuff costs a fraction of the price, and now some of it is charting.
Me Being a Huge Stan
Photo: simplemost.com
Thankfully, this trash is counterbalanced by the unexpected arrival of…Veronica Mars.
Yeah, I didn’t see that one coming, but I had to smile. First, it’s listed under Originals.
Photo: ROBERT VOETS / WARNER BROS. TELEVISION / COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION
Friends, Veronica Mars debuted in 2004, and I know because I wrote about its brilliant pilot episode.
So, it’s about as “original” as Toy Story 5. Still, I’m delighted to see it here.
Pixar
I not only contributed to the Kickstarter for the Veronica Mars movie, but I still own the t-shirt I got from it!
I’m guessing that Nielsen is listing this in Originals because it’s the divisive Hulu season.
That’s the one that randomly killed off one of the show’s most popular characters.
I won’t spoil who in case you haven’t watched it…because YOU SHOULD WATCH VERONICA MARS!
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Feature Photo: Disney/SEC
