The National Football League has agreed to transfer a package of its top media properties—including the RedZone channel, NFL Network and rights to seven additional regular-season games—to The Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN in exchange for an equity stake that could reach 10%, people familiar with the matter said. The complex arrangement, first reported by The Athletic, is valued in the billions of dollars and represents the most significant expansion of the NFL-ESPN relationship since the network began carrying games in 1987. By swapping broadcast assets for ownership, the NFL divests from day-to-day television production while gaining direct exposure to ESPN’s growth prospects. For Disney, the assets bolster ESPN’s live-football lineup and give the network full control of RedZone, a popular scoring-highlight service that has become a staple for fans and sports-betting operators. The deal lands as Disney prepares to debut a full-fledged direct-to-consumer version of ESPN later this month at $29.99 a month. Integrating RedZone and NFL Network into that streaming bundle could enhance the product’s appeal and help counter cord-cutting, which has reduced ESPN’s U.S. cable footprint to about 65 million homes. An official announcement is expected next week, coinciding with Disney’s quarterly earnings call. The transaction will still require regulatory approval, a process that industry lawyers say could run nine months to a year, meaning the new ownership structure may not be in place until the 2026 season.