Vince McMahon has released the schedule for the revival of his XFL pro football league, announcing deals with Fox, ABC, Fox Sports 1, and ESPN.
The league will sponsor a 16-game season over eight weeks along with a two-week championship series featuring six games, The Big Lead reported.
BREAKING: broadcast TV telecasts to be big component for @xfl2020 multiyear deals with @espn and @FOXSports (24 of 43 games on ABC or Fox). No rights fee paid. ESPN and Fox hold streaming rights https://t.co/UEbdcpoL1v pic.twitter.com/USdLtXTmHT
— Sports Business Journal (@sbjsbd) May 6, 2019
The league is apparently a cheap deal for the networks. McMahon charged them nothing for the right to broadcast the games and will allow the nets to keep all the advertising fees to recover the production costs of the telecasts.
The XFL debut will mark McMahon’s second attempt to get his alternative football league off the ground after the first foray into the field failed in 2001 after a single season.
McMahon’s second debut is also the second attempt at an alternative to the NFL this year after the AAF folded and failed to sustain itself after its 2018 launch.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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