Amid NFL ratings dip, Fox clinches 5-year 'Thursday Night Football' deal at $660 million per season

The National Football League and Fox Sports reached an agreement to allow the network to broadcast the league's Thursday night games for the next five years beginning with the 2018 season — at a price tag of $660 million per season.

What are the details?

Despite a year-over-year ratings dip of about 10 percent, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Wednesday that the "NFL reached an agreement with Fox Sports to broadcast the next five seasons of Thursday Night Football beginning with the 2018 season — at $660 million per year."

NFL reached an agreement with FOX Sports to broadcast the next five seasons of Thursday Night Football beginning with the 2018 season - at $660 million per year.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 31, 2018

For the last two years, the rights were shared by CBS and NBC, and together, the networks paid a combined $450 million each of those years.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday:

This agreement is the culmination of over 10 years of strategic growth around Thursday Night Football, a period during which this property has grown from a handful of late-season games on NFL Network to a full season of games and one of the most popular shows on broadcast television with additional distribution via cable and digital channels.

As one of the leaders in sports television and a recognized innovator of NFL game broadcasts for many years, we're excited to be extending our partnership with FOX Sports, one of our most trusted and valued partners, to include Thursday Night Football.

Peter Rice, president of 21st Century Fox, said in a statement: "Football is in our blood at FOX and we understand that nothing beats the NFL when it comes to television that captures people's attention. Our historic relationship with the NFL dates back to the earliest days of FOX, and we couldn't be more excited to expand our deep and enduring partnership to include prime-time games on Thursday night."

A portion of the release on NFL.com reads:

The agreement awards FOX Sports with a five-year deal that includes 11 games between Weeks 4-15 (excluding Thanksgiving night) to be broadcast on FOX, simulcast via NFL Network, and distributed in Spanish on FOX Deportes. In addition, NFL Network will exclusively televise seven games next season, with FOX producing the full slate of 18 games. As home to the No. 1 NFL package for the past 24 seasons, FOX Sports complements its current Sunday NFC package agreement with the addition of Thursday Night Football.