The NFL Makes $6 Billion Annually Just From National Television Contracts

With five different broadcast partners all paying more than $1.0 billion annually to broadcast games, the NFL is now taking in more than $6.0 billion each year in national television broadcast rights revenue alone.

This figure does not include revenue generated from games broadcast on the NFL's own NFL Network. In addition, the NFL's deal with DirecTV is expected to increase from $1.0 billion per year now to $1.4 billion per year starting next year.

While the NFL dwarfs the other leagues in terms of national television revenue, the other leagues make up for it by selling television rights locally. For example, the Los Angeles Dodgers new television deal alone is worth approximately $300 million per year and several other teams own their own regional sports networks.