Rupert Murdoch’s FOX being cast as the “little guy” in an NFL rights fight sounds almost absurd at first. This is the same network that changed the football broadcasting map in 1993, when it stunned the industry by outbidding CBS for the NFC package and used the NFL to turn FOX from an outsider into a serious force in American television. For three decades, FOX has carved its identity as a reliable games broadcaster.  But here’s another truth you probably already know…

The ground under that business has shifted. FOX may still be a powerful broadcaster, but it is no longer bidding in a world made up only of CBS, NBC, ESPN, and other traditional TV players. The new competition includes Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube, companies that can treat NFL rights as part of a much larger streaming, advertising, subscription, and tech ecosystem. If more premium NFL inventory moves behind streaming platforms, traditional broadcast TV becomes less central, and FOX risks losing not just games, but leverage, audience habit, and long-term value. Seen through that lens, investigative journalist Pablo Torre’s point on Pablo Torre Finds Out lands differently:

“What Rupert Murdoch is doing here is he is signifying something very fascinating, which is that he is the little guy! Fox is the little guy among all these bidders now.”

That line works because it captures the strange position FOX now finds itself in. 

FOX’s market value sits under $25 billion, while Amazon and Google operate on a completely different financial scale. That gap matters because the NFL is selling the one product in American television that can still guarantee mass live audiences, and the companies chasing it are no longer looking at football through the same business model.

For FOX, the NFL is central to the network’s survival as a major sports broadcaster. For Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube, NFL rights can serve a wider purpose. They can help sell subscriptions, expand advertising inventory, strengthen user habits, and make their platforms harder to leave. That gives the streamers more room to spend aggressively, even if the direct return from games alone does not immediately justify the price. FOX does not have that same cushion, which is why the fight has become less about prestige and more about protection.

Former ESPN president John Skipper pointed to that exact pressure while discussing the league’s next move. According to him, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is in the process of pushing prices to a level where only the richest platforms may be able to comfortably stay in the race.

“Roger is in the process of increasing the prices, potentially, to where nobody can afford to buy NFL packages except Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, etc. CBS has already got the most problem, but they’ve already been to them and they’re in a position where they can’t give up the NFL. So they’re going to pay and set the market at some 35-50% increase over the recently negotiated deals,” Skipper said.

That is the part that makes this moment especially dangerous for traditional networks. CBS, FOX, NBC, and ESPN are buying the programming that keeps their larger television businesses relevant. NFL games drive ratings, advertising, affiliate fees, and negotiating power with distributors. Walking away from the league is almost unthinkable, but staying in the game could become far more expensive than it already is.

The NFL knows this. Its current 11-year, $110 billion media deals with Amazon, CBS, ESPN, FOX, and NBC run through the 2033 season, but the league has opt-out windows beginning in 2029 for most partners and a year later for ESPN. That clause gives the league leverage years before the contracts actually expire. If the NFL believes its rights are undervalued in the current market, it can use the threat of reopening those deals to push its partners toward early extensions at a higher price.

That is already beginning to show up in talks with Paramount, the parent company of CBS. Reports have said the NFL is seeking roughly a 50 percent increase from CBS, which currently pays about $2.1 billion a year for its Sunday afternoon AFC package, playoff games, and a place in the Super Bowl rotation. If that number rises to around $3 billion annually, it would set a new benchmark for the rest of the league’s partners. FOX, which holds a similar Sunday afternoon package built around NFC games, would almost certainly be next in line for a similar conversation.

This is where Murdoch’s “little guy” positioning becomes more than a soundbite. If CBS agrees to a steep increase, FOX may have to follow just to protect its own NFL package. But unlike Amazon, Google, or Netflix, FOX cannot absorb those costs as part of a larger tech ecosystem. Its sports business depends heavily on keeping premium NFL inventory on broadcast television, where the network can still command scale, relevance, and advertising value.

That helps explain why the fight has moved beyond boardrooms and into Washington. Torre argued that Murdoch’s reported outreach to Donald Trump was not only about consumers, even if that has been the public-facing argument. It was also about applying pressure on the NFL before the league could fully reshape the market around streamers.

“That’s why Rupert Murdoch is going to the White House,” Torre said. “The external messaging around this secret meeting has been, ‘this is because we are fighting for the consumers.’ Of course what he’s doing is trying to scare the NFL into having something like the status quo remain possible, preferable even, as they consider we’re going to blow up all these deals because of the streamers.”

The consumer argument is not entirely hollow. More games on streaming does mean fans may need more subscriptions to watch the same league they once followed mostly through broadcast television. Lawmakers have also become more sensitive to the idea of major live sports moving away from over-the-air access. But for FOX, the stakes are clearly corporate as well. Keeping NFL games on broadcast protects the company’s most valuable sports asset and slows down a future in which the league can play traditional networks against tech giants with far deeper pockets.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Murdoch personally raised these concerns with Trump during a White House dinner in February, warning that a continued shift of NFL games to platforms like Amazon and Netflix could damage broadcast networks. Soon after, the Federal Communications Commission opened an inquiry into sports rights moving from broadcast television to streaming. Senator Mike Lee also urged the Justice Department to examine the NFL’s business practices, and the DOJ is now looking into the league’s media deals.

That timeline does not prove Murdoch single-handedly triggered the federal scrutiny. But it does make the politics around the NFL’s media future harder to ignore. FOX is not just negotiating with the league through money anymore. It is also leaning into a broader argument about public access, competition, and whether America’s most-watched sports product should keep drifting toward paid streaming platforms.

The NFL, however, has its own case. It can point to the numbers and argue that no programming in the country delivers like football. In 2025, NFL games accounted for 83 of the top 100 programs on television, up from 72 the previous year. That dominance gives the league confidence that its rights are worth more, especially after the NBA secured a massive new media package despite drawing smaller audiences than the NFL.

From the league’s perspective, the logic is simple: if live sports are becoming more valuable in a fragmented media world, then the NFL should be the most expensive property in that market. Commissioner Roger Goodell has already described the league’s opt-out clauses as “incredibly valuable,” and NFL media executives have made clear that the league wants flexibility as viewing habits continue to change. The NFL does not have to abandon broadcast television to increase its leverage. It only has to make every partner believe that someone else may be willing to pay more.

The network still has history, reach, and a long relationship with the NFL. Lachlan Murdoch has publicly described the league as FOX’s largest partnership and framed future talks as a chance to deepen that relationship. But the economics around that relationship are changing fast. The NFL has more bidders, more leverage, and more ways to package its games than it did when FOX first used football to transform itself in the 1990s.

Apart from the bidding war, the FOX owner reportedly played a significant role in the Department of Justice’s antitrust investigation into the NFL’s broadcast deals in April 2026.

Murdoch’s intervention with Donald Trump triggered a DOJ probe into NFL media rights: Report

The NFL took a drastic step in 2025  by reopening talks for media rights to secure extensions with its current broadcast partners well ahead of the contractual opt-out windows, previously set for 2029 and 2030. And amidst growing interest from streaming platforms, a sudden antitrust investigation into the league began in April 2026.

The DOJ will investigate whether the NFL’s decision was a way to kill competition while verifying whether these ‘exclusive’ deals are just a legal way to fleece the public. While the league strengthens its defense against this investigation, the Wall Street Journal has claimed that Rupert Murdoch reportedly masterminded this probe over dinner with President Donald Trump back in February.

“Murdoch and his top lieutenants warned Trump that if streamers gained rights to more games, it would kill broadcast networks (like Fox),” the report revealed.

Shortly after the meeting, the Federal Communications Commission started investigating the migration of sports to streaming services. Senator Mike Lee requested a federal investigation into the league’s business operations because of an increase in its expenditure on streaming NFL and other sports.

As the NFL’s media rights landscape shifts dramatically, Murdoch’s unlikely role as the “little guy” underscores just how much streaming giants have upended traditional broadcasting. With a DOJ investigation now in play and billions of dollars on the line, the fight for NFL rights is far from over, and FOX’s place at the table is no longer guaranteed.