DISNEY, NFL TV DEAL: $9.2 BILLION.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

When the dealing was done, the players had changed but the result was the same: The NFL hit the jackpot.

The final pieces of the NFL's television package fell into place Tuesday evening when Disney struck a blockbuster $9.2 billion, eight-year contract with the NFL, keeping ``Monday Night Football'' for ABC and winning the entire Sunday night cable package for ESPN.

The stunning deal ends NBC's 33 consecutive years of televising pro football and leaves NBC and Turner Broadcasting out of the NFL for at least five years. NBC's final broadcast will be the Super Bowl on Jan. 25.

``The NFL and NBC had a tremendous long-term relationship spanning thousands of hours of great football,'' NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. ``It's very difficult to have that end, as it was very difficult to interrupt a similar relationship with CBS in 1993.

``We also enjoyed a special association with Ted Turner and his talented group of TV professionals.''

After watching the NBA double its money in its television contract in November, NFL owners wanted the same result. And they got it.

Along with the contracts signed by CBS and Fox on Monday, the NFL will take in at least $17.6 billion from the four networks over the next eight years, a $2.2 billion yearly average. The previous deal, which expires next month, paid the league $1.1 million a year for four years.

In all cases, the incumbent network had the right to match any offer for the programming it had been carrying over the term of the current TV contract, which expires at the end of this season.

The real beneficiaries in this bidding war are the football players and their agents. The NFL earmarks 63 percent of league revenues (except for luxury boxes and preferred stadium seating) to the players. The salary cap for players this season was $41 million per team, and that will increase substantially, probably topping $50 million for 1998. During the course of this TV contract, some expect the salary cap to reach $65 million-$70 million.

ABC made the dramatic announcement on ``World News Tonight,'' when a correspondent said: ``ABC gets Monday night, NBC gets nothing.''

CBS and Fox struck their deals Monday, with CBS paying $4 billion for eight years of AFC football and Fox paying $4.4 billion for the NFC.

The Walt Disney Co. will pay $1.15 billion a year for ``Monday Night Football'' and games on Sunday night, 137 percent more than ABC, ESPN and TNT paid for the same games under the last contract, industry sources told the Associated Press.

ABC also gets the rights to three Super Bowls. The league and network are discussing the possibility of moving the start time for ``Monday Night Football'' up one hour to 5 p.m.

CBS already agreed to pay $500 million a year for the AFC and two Super Bowls. Fox will pay $550 for the NFC and three Super Bowls.

The new agreements with ABC and ESPN - owned by Disney - and CBS and Fox provides for rights fees at guaranteed levels through the 2005 season. While the contracts are firm for the first five years, the NFL can reopen the contracts before the 2003 season.

TNT, a division of Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting System, has been showing NFL games on Sunday nights for the first half of the season since 1990.

TNT balked when it was asked to pay $295 million to retain its half of the Sunday-night package, a TV industry source said on the condition he not be identified. TNT had paid $124 million a year in the previous deal.

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Photo

PHOTO Michael H. Jordan, chief executive officer, helped bring the NFL back to CBS, with NBC getting shut out.

Associated Press