• by Wayne Friedman , July 3, 2006

With the bigger "Sunday Night Football" NFL package starting up in the fall, NBC has decided that it no longer needs the Arena Football League--the indoor football league that has been a minor leagues of sort for the NFL.

NBC had an option to air the AFL for another four years, but couldn't come to an agreement with the league. AFL games also appeared on OLN, ESPN, and the Fox regional sports channels.

The NBC-AFL deal wasn't based on a licensee TV fee that NBC would typically pay to a sports league. Instead, like its deal with the NHL, NBC's AFL deal was a revenue-sharing arrangement based on advertising sales. Neither side would discuss whether ratings were an issue. "The parties did not come to an agreement," said Neal Pilson, president of sports marketing agency Pilson Communications, a sports marketing firm that is a consultant to the AFL. "But we have other options." The AFL is already in talks with other networks.

The original NBC-AFL deal was struck in 2003, then extended another two seasons. In 2005, NBC averaged a 1.1 rating with the games; this past season the games dipped to a 0.9. The Arena Bowl, its championship game, sank to a 0.7 earlier this month.