Hollywood, once the confident monarch of global entertainment, now looks more like a weary gladiator in the Colosseum, surrounded by new beasts at every turn. Streaming services bite at its ankles, audiences scatter like confetti, and production costs balloon with the grace of an untied balloon at a children’s party. Artificial Intelligence threatens both jobs and artistry, while labor strikes rattle the arena walls. Yet none of these ordeals prepared Hollywood zealots for the unlikeliest foe: professional football.

The National Football League’s golden contracts are reshaping screens, and Hollywood may discover that it has been thoroughly upstaged.

In the latest episode of The Town with Matthew Belloni, the journalist emphasized that the 2021 National Football League broadcast agreements marked a turning point in Hollywood’s decline. Worth a staggering 110 billion dollars over eleven years, the contracts forced media conglomerates to funnel vast sums into live sports rather than scripted entertainment. Belloni stressed that the escalating costs undermine profitability and ultimately leave minimal resources for the creative productions that sustain Hollywood’s cultural influence.

The consequences are stark. With linear television tethered to football, streaming divisions are left carrying the burden of unsustainable expenses. The NFL remains a juggernaut of audience loyalty, yet its gravitational pull distorts the entertainment economy. As sports absorb unprecedented investment, Hollywood’s ability to generate compelling film and television projects shrinks, eroding both its financial base and its creative vitality. After knowing this, no one would wonder why Taylor Swift might be making power moves in the NFL.

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NFL broadcast agreements now demand $9 billion yearly from networks and $1 billion from Amazon, fueling industry-wide sticker shock.

The value of National Football League broadcasting rights has skyrocketed because football is one of the last remaining cultural events that can command simultaneous, mass attention. In a landscape where audiences scatter across streaming services, the league reliably delivers tens of millions of viewers each week. Advertisers see unrivaled value in these loyal, live audiences, paying premium rates for exposure that films and scripted series can no longer guarantee. This makes networks willing to overpay.

At the same time, streaming competition has intensified the bidding war. Amazon, YouTube, and Netflix are pouring billions into live football as subscriber bait, knowing that sports keep audiences engaged far longer than scripted content. By pairing exclusives like Thursday Night Football or holiday games with traditional network contracts, the league has maximized its reach and its worth. The result is a programming monopoly where the National Football League alone guarantees attention, and charges accordingly.

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Do you agree that the NFL is bad news for Hollywood? Let us in your thoughts in the comments down below!