Cowboys the most valuable NFL team: Forbes

The National Football League is the most lucrative league in the world, and its highest valued team is the Dallas Cowboys, according to Forbes.

The Cowboys, topping the magazine's annual NFL Team Valuations list for the eighth consecutive year, is worth $3.2 billion. It posted $560 million in revenue and $246 million in operating income, the NFL's highest.

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The average team is worth $1.43 billion, according to the magazine. That's 23 percent more than a year ago and the highest value in the 17 years Forbes has tracked professional football teams.

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"We got a 60 percent increase in the broadcasting deals and the new deals starting this year. Plus on top of that, you've got an expanded Thursday night package with CBS. That's going to be worth $275 million this year," Forbes executive editor Michael Ozanian said in an interview with CNBC's "Street Signs."

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The big media deal everyone is looking out for is Direct TV, he added. The current deal pays an average of $1 billion and that is "likely to increase by at least 40 percent."

The New England Patriots ranked as the second highest valued team, worth $2.6 billion.

—By CNBC's Michelle Fox