The National Football League and ESPN announced a deal that would give the league a 10% stake in ESPN in exchange for ESPN control of the NFL Network and other media rights.

Under the nonbinding agreement, ESPN will own the digital and linear broadcast rights to the NFL Network, the league said in a release.

The NFL’s fantasy football operation will be folded into ESPN fantasy football and ESPN will broadcast three more games per season via the NFL Network.

Some NFL games that ESPN is already set to broadcast will instead be shown on the NFL Network under the terms of the deal.

ESPN will also have the rights to the broad “RedZone” brand and will sell the NFL RedZone channel, which shows touchdowns and other highlights from every game in a given week’s NFL Sunday afternoon slate, to TV operators as part of sports broadcasting packages.

Ownership of the RedZone brand could allow ESPN to create versions based around highlights from other sports.

Scott Hanson, host of the NFL version of RedZone, said on X that he will be staying on as host. The league will continue to produce NFL RedZone and will retain the rights to distribute the channel digitally.

Other league programming, including productions by NFL films, will also be licensed to ESPN for use on the NFL Network.

To give the NFL its stake, Disney will go from owning 80% of ESPN to 72%, while Hearst will go from owning 10% of ESPN to 8%, according to The Associated Press.

The NFL said it is retaining ownership and operation of “NFL Films and key fan-facing platforms such as NFL+, NFL.com, the NFL Podcast Network, the NFL FAST Channel and the official sites for the league’s 32 clubs.”

The two parties have not yet reached a final agreement, which will need approval from the NFL’s 32 owners as well as regulators, according to the AP.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.