Randy Freer, chief operating officer and co-president of the Fox Sports division of US network Fox, has said that the broadcaster would be interested in bidding for Thursday night NFL American football rights.
The NFL Network, the pay-television broadcaster owned by the league, currently has the rights, but the Reuters news agency said that the NFL is eventually expected to make these rights available for other broadcasters.
Fox Sports 1, the new national pay-television channel, will launch tomorrow (Saturday) without any NFL rights.
“We will certainly take a look at it, if a package of Thursday night games becomes available,” Freer said. “The question is, the NFL always comes at a pretty hefty price tag. Can you make it work in a way that creates any economics for anyone other than the NFL?”
Fox Sports said on Thursday that “every major distributor (is) on board” for Fox Sports 1’s launch after carriage agreements were reached with the Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and Dish pay-television operators. However, Reuters said that the platforms do not have long-term deals to carry the channel.
Fox Sports 1 is replacing motorsport pay-television channel Speed.