By Aaron Kuriloff
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co.’s NBC unit will broadcast Sunday night National Football League games through 2013 under a contract extension.
The two-year deal also continues the league’s flexible scheduling, which creates marquee match-ups for the Sunday night games during the regular season’s final seven weeks, the network said in a news release. NFL owners approved the extension at a meeting in Chicago.
Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed in the news release. NBC agreed to pay about $600 million for broadcast rights to Sunday night games in April 2005, ending a nine-year absence from football.
NBC said in February that its broadcast of the Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals was the most-watched program in television history, attracting an average of 98.7 million viewers. NBC also said it sold a record $206 million worth of advertisements during the game.
The NFL in May extended broadcast-rights agreements with CBS Corp. and News Corp.’s Fox unit for two years through the 2013-14 season, also without disclosing financial terms.
In 2004, CBS paid about $622 million a year for the rights to broadcast Sunday afternoon games in the American Football Conference, while Fox paid about $712 million a year for the rights to air National Football Conference games. In 2005, Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN agreed to pay $1.1 billion annually for eight years for the rights to Monday night NFL games.
NBC will air 16 regular-season Sunday night games, each season’s Thursday night kickoff game, and two Saturday games during the playoffs’ first round.
The 2009 season starts on Sept 10 with the Steelers playing the Tennessee Titans.
To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New York at akuriloff@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 19, 2009 16:51 EDT


NFL, NBC Extend Contract for Sunday Night Football (Update1) - Bloomberg.com