In a long-percolating agreement, ESPN has acquired the NFL Network and certain other media assets of the NFL in exchange for a 10% equity stake.

The agreement, announced Tuesday on the eve of Disney’s quarterly earnings report and in the runup to the NFL season, will give ESPN important new programming for its forthcoming stand-along streaming service. One of the marquee assets involved in the deal is a set of seven regular season NFL games, which had been exclusive to the league-owned channel.

Disney has been in business with sports leagues before, acquiring Major League Baseball’s tech arm several years ago and using it as the foundation of its direct-to-consumer streaming push. But the notion of the most powerful sports entity of all, at least in the U.S., owning 10% of Disney’s f

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