What Is The Average Salary Of Football Commentators? (Detailed Explanation!)

Last Updated on October 5, 2023 by Alex PT

The average salary of football commentators in the United States is $79,073, according to Comparably. The median salary is the same, meaning that half of all football commentators earn more than $79,073 and half earn less. The top 25% of football commentators earn more than $187,200, while the bottom 25% earn less than $30,000.

National Football League

The NFL is a TV sports darling. It’s one of the most watched sports leagues on US television and its talented commentators are compensated by the league as though they were celebrities in their own right. The best-paid announcers currently earn more than $1 million annually, though industry averages aren’t published by sport (the same is true for any industry really). Lead commentators for major TV networks who have spent time as former star players often make tens of millions of dollars each year. Al Michaels, Dan Patrick and Joe Buck all earned $5 million from NBC according to a 2016 report from Be On Air Network. Famous CBS Sports Radio host Jim Rome earned $30 million in the same year.

Top Colleges

ABC, CBS, and ESPN – major television networks – pay large sums for the broadcast rights of sporting events like college football games. Sports commentators make a lot of money for these types of events, with salaries exceeding $1 billion annually. Some well-known sports announcers also work in NFL games and other sports events, which aid in increasing their net worth to a couple million each year.

College-level sportscasting represents the middle tier of pay for sports announcers. Radio stations in the New York City area shelled out nearly $60,000 a year as of 2017, according to the BLS, while those in places like Des Moines paid closer to $18,000.

Lower Division Colleges

College football programs in lower divisions, such as Division II or Division III, are also broadcast on radio and TV broadcasts. Regional broadcasting companies such as TV channels will usually hire their own announcers to cover local college football games. Announcer’s salaries depend on whether they are freelancers for just the season or full-time employees at these broadcasting companies of school departments like sports directors who also take on broadcasting roles. The salaries will depend on the size of the budgets of their respective broadcasting company or local departments. According to PayScale.com, the salary range for sports announcers is from $30,144 to $181,825 as of May 2018.

High School

At a high school football game, the broadcaster is usually a sportscaster who works for a radio station. This can be challenging because the sportscaster has to announce the play-by-play while at the same time dealing with static and other noises. The amount of responsibility a broadcast announcer has largely depends upon factors like how many stations are broadcasting the high school football games and whether or not he will earn a salary for calling them. These jobs range from $20,000 to $50,000 per year in minimum wages and salaries.

Where do commentators sit during a football match?

Media outlets such as NBC, BBC, and Bein Sports employ commentators who are known as sportscasters. There is no specific name for them because they cast different media types in different settings. Sometimes people need more of a visual aid during their broadcasts because it helps them to accentuate their point about whatever game is being played at the time. A good example of that would be a football game where there may be highlights shown on the screen. 

When reporters doing live streams from online media companies commentate, they are often sitting outside in public places near a stadium like during baseball games. They will talk to the camera and provide play-by-play updates about what is happening inside the stadium’s playing area – but it’s not necessary for them to have a “room” or studio with many cameras in order to hold interviews or broadcast other news updates while they wait for something “exciting” within the main match going on.

Apart from the field that the games take place on, there are big rooms in most stadiums where media representatives are stationed. These rooms contain all of the necessary technology (internet and laptops) to provide maximum coverage of the events.

Where do commentators get their stats?

What do football commentators need to prepare for a game? They have to go through a number of stats beforehand namely player matchups, previous results between the two teams, formations that each team will take in a given game, event frequency, and individual specialized techniques required. 

The player data is found easily but when it comes to in-game stats this isn’t so easy because the numbers aren’t always available. That’s when the commentators get live updates from Opta, the US leader in sports data collection and digital content delivery services. With LivePro they get real-time information straight from the pitch or arena being played on – allowing them to fill out their commentaries with up-to-date facts and figures!

A digital text board (or tablets/smartphones) is used by commentators to get live scores/statistics for both teams playing at the game. Three people usually handle this. One keeps track of the information on the home team, one keeps track and double-checks information on the away team and a third colleague cross-checks both sets of data to ensure it’s correct. The data comes from around 2,000 pieces of information that run across six electronic signs – or scoreboards. These scoreboards show up in different forms like LCD or LED screens but all display live coverage as well as statistics and other facts during a match

Conclusion

Now you know everything there is to know about the world that is football commentary. From what they do during a match to where they do it, we’ve put together this article with the hope that you leave more informed than before! While some people do not enjoy listening to them, commentators are integral parts of the beautiful sport of football. They are well paid for their hard work but even then, the hours accumulated for a single event can be quite tiring.

References:

https://www.comparably.com/salaries/salaries-for-soccer-commentator
https://work.chron.com/salary-football-commentators-1951.html