El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV Inc. reached a five-year, $3.5 billion agreement with the National Football League to extend and expand the company’s exclusive rights to carry “NFL Sunday Ticket.” Under the pact, DirecTV will continue to have exclusive multichannel television rights to air “NFL Sunday Ticket” games through the 2010 season.

Said Chase Carey, president and CEO of The DirecTV Group [DTV], “As an exclusive programming package, ‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ has helped define us as a leader in multichannel television. With the enhancements that we will make to ‘NFL Sunday Ticket,’ we will recreate the NFL viewing experience–an experience that only DirecTV, not cable or other competitors, will be able to offer sports fans.”

Those enhancements will include interactive services and expanded programming for ‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ subscribers.

For more information on this deal, read the Nov. 15 issue of Satellite News. For more information on subscribing to Access Intelligence’s satellite industry publications, visit us on the Web at https://www.satellitetoday.com. To sign up for a free trial subscription to Satellite News, go to http://www.telecomweb.com/cgi/catalog/trial?SN.