Friday, May 1, 2026

Comcast Resolves Dispute with NFL, Restores Football Networks

  • Comcast and the NFL resolved a carriage dispute that saw the NFL Network and RedZone briefly dropped from Xfinity.
  • The company reported a dip in its first quarter earnings due to not broadcasting the Super Bowl or Olympics.
Mar 1, 2023; Indianapolis, IN, USA; NFL Network reporter Sherree Burruss during the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

NBCUniversal owner Comcast restored its two big football networks after briefly dropping them over a carriage dispute with the NFL.

The customer support Twitter feed of Comcast-owned Xfinity said on Monday that NFL Network was back on the network.

Sling and Dish dropped the two stations in 2020, and AT&T U-Verse and DirecTV Now did the same the previous year. While Sling and Dish brought NFL Network and RedZone back three months later, the stations are still unavailable through DirecTV. 

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Super Bowl-Sized Gap

Comcast saw its first-quarter revenue dip from the same period last year without broadcasting its marquee sports events. 

The connectivity and media giant banked $29.7 billion in Q1 revenue, down 4.3% from $31 billion last year.

The difference was entirely attributable to the fact that in 2022, NBCUniversal held rights to both the Super Bowl, which rotated to Fox this year, and the Beijing Winter Olympics. 

Those two events accounted for $1.5 billion in revenue, and their absence drove a 20.7% dip in media revenue to $6.2 billion.

Peacock saw gains and challenges typical of many streaming services: Revenue grew 45.1% year-over-year to $685 million off a 60% climb in paid subscribers to 22 million. However, losses related to the service grew at a similar rate — from $456 million to $704 million.

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