ESPN Lands Troy Aikman & Joe Buck For $165 Million

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Hey Friends,

ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro has raided rival Fox’s broadcast booth.

The network signed Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to multi-year deals this week, where the duo will host Monday Night Football and contribute content to ESPN+, officially ending their record-tying 20-year run with Fox.

According to the New York Post, Aikman has signed a five-year, $90 million deal with ESPN, while Buck has inked a five-year contract worth $75 million. That’s a $165 million commitment over five years. And with Peyton & Eli Manning’s Monday Night Football Simulcast Package still running through 2024, ESPN will now spend more than $50 million annually on their MNF broadcast team.

But this also means Tony Romo is no longer the highest-paid announcer in football.

Average Annual Contract Value

• Troy Aikman: $18 million (ESPN)

• Tony Romo: $17.5 million (CBS)

• Joe Buck: $15 million (ESPN)

“When you have the opportunity to bring in the iconic, longest-running NFL broadcasting duo, you take it, especially at a time when we are on the cusp of a new era in our expanding relationship with the NFL,” said ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro.

This deal now leaves a massive hole in the broadcast booth for Fox.

Troy Aikman and Joe Buck were set to tie Pat Summerall and John Madden’s record for the longest NFL booth pairing this year at 21 seasons. They will still tie the record, but they’ll do it as ESPN, despite spending 20 of the 21 years together at Fox.

Also, Joe Buck has been at Fox for over 30 years. And between NFL & MLB commitments, he has maintained one of the most active calendars in sports.

For example, there was a three-week stretch in October 2020 where Joe Buck worked 17 games in 18 days, calling 13 MLB games in Arlington, Texas, while also flying to Tampa, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Charlotte for NFL commitments in between.

I know, I know. Boo-hoo, Joe Buck has to fly across the country in a private plane and attend incredible sporting events. But you get my point; Fox now has to replace that.

The reaction from those around the NFL has also been pretty interesting to watch.

NBC’s Peter King pointed out that CBS and ESPN are paying Tony Romo and Troy Aikman more than star wide receivers like Cooper Kupp, Stefon Diggs, Keenan Allen, and Mike Evans will make in 2022, and he “doesn’t know why.”

He also received this comment from one of his readers:

My guess is that Peter King and his audience are not the only people that feel this way. How much of a difference does a good broadcast team *really* make if the game is going to be good regardless? I think that’s probably a fair question to ask. And outside of the Manning Cast last year, I’m not sure I have ever heard of someone turning on a game solely because of the broadcast team.

But I think that’s the wrong way to look at it. Amazon is paying $1.3 billion per year for exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football. Fox is spending more than $2 billion per year for their packages, and ESPN is paying more than $2.5 billion each season for the right to broadcast Monday Night Football.

The NFL’s new broadcast agreements are worth more than $100 billion, making it the richest U.S. sports media deal in history.

And suppose you have already committed to spending over $20 billion on media rights over the next decade. In that case, I think it makes a lot of sense to spend an extra couple hundred million dollars to ensure that it’s the best possible viewer experience.

These networks have advertising partners that pay them billions of dollars. So the broadcast quality is essential, and these announcers directly reflect both the network and its advertisers. And for context, with a 30-second commercial for Monday Night Football going for more than $500k on average, ESPN will earn the $50 million for their broadcasting payroll back in just 1-2 games.

Avg. Price For 30-second NFL Ads

• Regular Season: $400k

• Playoffs: $1 million-plus

• Super Bowl: $6.5 million

The part that is even more fascinating to me is how this impacts players & coaches going forward. Sean McVay will return to coach the Super Bowl champion LA Rams this year, but rumors swirled for months that might consider leaving for a $20 million/year broadcast job. And we have also seen players like Cam Heyward, Greg Olsen, and others start to refine their broadcasting skills while still playing.

Will more top-tier NFL players be enticed by the opportunity to earn an eight-figure contract from a network rather than continuing to play and potentially damaging their long-term health? My guess is yes, but only time will tell how many.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Talk to you on Monday.

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The Joe Pomp Show: A new episode with Dana White & Rich Kleiman is live!

I recently moderated a panel with Dana White and Rich Kleiman for the Mint Collective conference in Las Vegas. We discuss how Dana built the UFC, why Rich is so bullish on collectibles, the shift from pay-tv to streaming, and they even tell some epic stories about the biggest challenges they’ve overcome in business.

This was a fantastic conversation with two industry leaders — enjoy!