NBC Looking to Pay Massive Sum to Keep Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade TV Rights

NBC is hoping to keep the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for as long as possible. The beloved annual Parade has been airing on the network since 1945 and is the only official network for the Parade, but has been broadcast in Spanish on NBC’s sister network Telemundo. CBS was the home of unauthorized broadcasts since 2012, airing live Coast to Coast, unlike the NBC broadcast, which airs live on the East Coast, with a delay in each time zone. This year, though, CBS opted out of coverage as part of larger cancellations of holiday specials.

With more and more people tuning in to the Parade, both on NBC and on Peacock, it’s getting more and more expensive. According to Wall Street Journal, NBC has had the broadcast rights to the Parade since 1953 and is trying more than ever to keep the rights for both television and streaming for at least the next decade. It’s going to cost a pretty penny, though. People familiar with the situation say under the terms being discussed, a new deal would cost an average annual fee of more than $60 million, about $20 million more than the current contract.

The price increase is not so surprising, as streaming services are involved and tend to pull in more people depending on the event. Disney apparently paid about a 20% premium to get the Grammys from CBS, with the awards show airing on ABC and Disney+ beginning in 2027 after 50 years on CBS. Meanwhile, an average commercial for the Parade cost nearly $900,000, according to Guideline.

As for production, that has increased to about $7 million for this year, with higher celebrity appearance fees, which are usually six figures long. Unfortunately, the increase in rights fees and production costs are said to reduce the profits the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade gives NBC, but it’s likely the event is too big for the network to risk losing. So it’s quite possible NBC will fork over as much money as it can to keep it going. Millions of people look forward to the Parade every year and it’s definitely a tradition to many. Losing that would be far too important.

Macy’s hired talent agency WME to handle the deal, with NBCUniversal Media Group Chairman Mark Lazarus directly involved in the negotiations. As of now, there’s no confirmation on whether the deal will go through or not, but it sounds like the network may very well be willing to pay a lot of money to keep the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.