The NFL draft has been televised by ESPN from the moment it became a televised event, in 1980. In 2026, that could be ending.
John Ourand of Puck (via Sports Business Journal) reports that, late last week, ESPN, Fox, and YouTubeTV submitted multi-year bids for the right to televise the draft, starting in 2026.
The NFL expects more bidders, possibly including NBC and Amazon.
ESPN is characterized as the frontrunner to continue to hold the rights it has held for 44 years.
Recently, the draft has been televised by ESPN and sister network ABC, along with a separate NFL Network feed. At one point, the NFL was toying with the idea of trying to transform draft coverage into an election-night event, with every network partner having its own live coverage of the draft, especially on the first night.
