What’s funny to me is that $3B (for a 5 year contract) isn’t that much in the world of sports. Yes, this is big but it’s not out of line with other sports deals.
Fox got 4 years of the NFC (one of two NFL divisions) for $1.6b in 1993, which was considered significant to firmly establishing itself (first year 1987) as a mature network, although that (and picking up John Madden) were to a degree most significant in terms not of viewership capture but entertainment industry signaling that FOX had committed backing.
