NFL revenue up in 2017 despite lower TV ratings

Even though television ratings for NFL games were down last year, the league's revenue was up.

Each of the league's 32 teams took in $255 million in national revenues in 2017, according to a report by ESPN's Darren Rovell. That adds up to $8.16 billion for the entire league, and is a 4.9 percent increase over 2016.

Financial figures were revealed Monday by the Green Bay Packers, a team that is a public company.

National revenue comes from a variety of sources, including the league's TV deals with NBC, CBS, FOX, ESPN and DirecTV, as well as licensing and merchandise revenues. The television contracts make up most of that total revenue.

That money is divided evenly among the 32 teams.

The increase is attributed to an escalator in the league's TV contracts as well as the Thursday Night Football package becoming more valuable.

National revenue is expected to increase again in 2018, because FOX is paying more for Thursday night games this year than NBC and CBS paid to share the package in 2017.

The declining TV ratings could have an effect on revenue at some point, because networks would no longer be willing to pay as much for the broadcast rights.

However, that is unlikely to happen before the current television deals expire in 2022.

In addition to the national revenue, teams also make money on local revenue. The Packers, for example, had $199 million in local revenue in 2017, an increase of 0.8 percent over 2016.

Packers president Mark Murphy told Rovell that the negative aspects of the 2017 NFL season, including the national anthem controversy, did not impact profit.