NFL on television
Encyclopedia
The television rights to broadcast National Football League
(NFL) games are the most lucrative and expensive rights of any American sport. It was television that brought professional football into prominence in the modern era after World War II
. Since then, NFL broadcasts have become among the most-watched programs on American television, and the financial fortunes of entire network
s have rested on owning NFL broadcasting rights. This has raised questions about the impartiality of the networks' coverage of games and whether they can criticize the NFL without fear of losing the rights and their income.
Currently, the American terrestrial television
networks CBS
($3.73B), NBC
($3.6B) and Fox
($4.27B) — as well as cable television
's ESPN
($8.8B) — are paying a combined total of $
20.4 billion to broadcast NFL games through the 2013 season. However, the league imposes several strict television policies to ensure that stadiums are filled and sold out, to maximize telecast ratings, and to help leverage content on these networks. League-owned NFL Network
, on cable television, broadcasts eight games per season nationally.
NFL preseason telecasts are more in line with the other major sports leagues' regular-season telecasts, in that preseason games are more locally-produced telecasts, usually by a local affiliate of one of the above terrestrial television networks. Some preseason games will air nationally, however.
The Super Bowl
often ranks among the most watched shows of the year. Four of Nielsen Media Research
's top 10 programs of all time are Super Bowls. Networks have purchased a share of the broadcasting rights to the NFL as a means of raising the entire network's profile.
Under the current television contracts, which began during the 2006 season, regular season games are broadcast on five networks: CBS
, Fox
, NBC
, ESPN
, and the NFL Network
.
The "AFC package" for CBS is summarized as the following:
The "NFC package" for Fox is summarized as the following:
An exception was made during the 2011 NFL season
, with the Denver Broncos
–Minnesota Vikings
game in Week 13 being moved from CBS to Fox, due to Fox only having two games in the early time slot.
These packages consist mostly of Sunday afternoon games, as aforementioned, though each year, CBS and Fox get a game on Thanksgiving
, which is covered in detail later in the article.
In 1970
, when the NFL and AFL merged
, and home blackouts were put into place for AFC games (the AFL had lifted these during its run), this assured that all Sunday afternoon away games would be seen on the same network. The current package allows both CBS and Fox access to every stadium/market
in the league for at least two games per season (unless an interconference game is chosen as a prime time
national game). In 2003
, both of Miami
's home games against NFC teams were televised in prime time, a rare occurrence that prevented Fox from airing a game from Pro Player Stadium that season (this had also happened in 1997, though Fox was scheduled to do the Bears game from there until it was moved to Monday night due to the World Series - ESPN was already planning to cover Detroit at Miami later on; in 2005 the Ravens also had both of what would have been their Fox games aired in primetime instead, with the Packers game on ABC, and the Vikings game on ESPN).
While the other network broadcasting either:
Sunday afternoon games in the Mountain
and Pacific
time zones are always scheduled for 2:05 or 2:15 P.M. Mountain time and 1:05 or 1:15 P.M. Pacific time. No 10 A.M. PT or 11 A.M. MT games are ever scheduled.
Since 1998, early games have the precise, official start time of 1:01 p.m. ET, which allows for one network commercial and the NFL broadcast copyright teaser animation. However, game times are generally advertised simply as 1:00 p.m. starts. In addition, the league revised the late games to start at 4:05 p.m. ET if it was the only game televised by the network that week and to start at 4:15 p.m. ET if it was part of a doubleheader. The additional 15 minutes for doubleheaders allowed the early games extra time to be showed to completion, and avoid continuing past the late game's scheduled kickoff. For single games, only 5 minutes were added to allow the network time for a short introduction (as three hours had passed since the pre-game show
has aired) and one commercial break before kickoff. In those cases there is no need to avoid early-game overlap as there is no early game shown. In addition, it allows those games to end earlier.
.
Due to CBS' annual coverage of the U.S. Open tennis
championships during the second Sunday in September, Fox has carried doubleheader coverage of the opening weekend since 1998. This means that the three AFC West
teams in the Mountain
or Pacific
time zones—the Denver Broncos
, Oakland Raiders
and San Diego Chargers
—cannot play at home during the opening weekend, unless they are hosting an NFC
opponent (which would be aired by Fox) or scheduled in prime time (regardless of opponent). All three teams played either on Fox or in prime time during Week 1 of the 2011 season
, with the Chargers hosting the Minnesota Vikings
on Fox, and the Broncos hosting the Raiders on Monday Night Football
. The Seattle Seahawks
were subject to the same restriction from 1998–2001 as part of the AFC West, but with their move to the NFC West
in 2002
, their games now air primarily on Fox, and so can open at home against an NFC team (to host an AFC
team requires the game be played at night). During the years that CBS carried NFC games, the San Francisco 49ers
, Los Angeles Rams
, and later the Phoenix Cardinals
could not play at home against an NFC team in the afternoon during the same week of the U.S. Open tennis championships (their only options for hosting an NFC team were playing at night).
Since 2006, both networks have aired a doubleheader in week 17.
coverage, and does compete with locally broadcast home games on Fox.
When the home team is being shown on the network with the NFL single game, the doubleheader station can only air one of its games. When this happens, there are only two games shown in the market. However, when the home team is being shown on the network with the NFL doubleheader, all three games can air in the same market.
. After the completion of the college football
season, Saturday night games and a Thanksgiving prime time game are added as well and are broadcast by NFL Network. NBC has broadcast rights to Sunday night games. These are televised under a special "flexible schedule" that allows Sunday afternoon games late in the season to be moved to prime time. NBC also has broadcast rights to the opening night kickoff game
.
Other regular season nationally televised games include those on Thanksgiving
. Afternoon Thanksgiving games mirror the aforementioned AFC and NFC packages. AFC away games are on CBS and NFC away games are on Fox. Since Detroit
and Dallas
— the traditional hosts of Thanksgiving Day games — are both NFC teams, one of the two games must be an intraconference game, and the other an interconference game. This setup provides one game each for Fox and CBS.
Monday Night Football
is currently aired on ESPN; however, in the markets of the participating teams, it is allowed to be picked up by an over the air station, which often is ESPN's sister network ABC
, which was the home of the program from 1970-2005.
Certain Sunday afternoon "late" games can also be considered nationally televised. A marquee matchup at 4 p.m. is sometimes carried in every (or nearly every) market and thus available to a national audience (except in markets originating a game on the other network).
Games on NFL Network are also broadcast on local networks in the two teams' local markets but not elsewhere. This led to controversy in 2007
, when the New England Patriots
were scheduled to play the New York Giants
at Giants Stadium
in their regular season finale on the NFL Network, in what was to be a chance to complete the first 16–0 regular season in NFL history. After the Senate Judiciary Committee threatened the NFL's antitrust exemption if it did not make the game available nationwide, the NFL relented and made the game the first in league history to be simulcast on three networks. The game aired on the NFL Network, as planned; on NBC, which would normally have the rights to prime time games; and, since the away team was an AFC team, on CBS. (The game also aired on ABC affiliate WCVB in Boston, as are all Patriots games broadcast on cable, causing this game to be available on 3 Over-the-Air stations in the Boston TV Market). This however, did not lead to the NFL offering this package to other channels, the games remain on the NFL Network as of 2011.
offers NFL Sunday Ticket
, a subscription-based package that allows all Sunday afternoon regional games to be watched. The only exception is that Sunday Ticket is subject to the same blackout rules as broadcast networks. This package is exclusive to DirecTV in the US. In Canada, NFL Sunday Ticket is available on a per-provider distribution deal on both cable and satellite, because Canadian law generally prevents one provider from offering a package on an exclusive basis.
Several factors determine which games are carried in each market. Each of the 32 NFL teams is assigned a "primary market." Most teams also have a selected number of secondary markets. Secondary markets can be of any size, and are typically defined by an area where any part of the market falls within 75 miles of an NFL stadium. Small markets that have no clubs tend to strongly associate with geographically-nearby or particularly relevant teams, but may fall outside of the 75 mile area are not necessarily considered secondary markets by the NFL. Generally, games are aired in the primary and secondary markets as follows:
Due to the "Heidi Game
", a primary media market must show its local team's game in its entirety and secondary markets usually follow suit for away games. Also, secondary markets (for home games) or any others where one team's popularity stands out may request a constant feed of that game, and in that case will not be switched.
If the local team is scheduled for the late game of a doubleheader, it has importance over any early game. If 4:15 p.m. arrives, and the early game is ongoing, the primary affiliate (all games) and secondary affiliates (road games) are required to cut off the early game and switch to the start of the local team's game. Additional affiliates, including secondary affiliates for home games, may also request to cut off an early game for a nearby team's late start. This is common in Texas where many affiliates which are not considered secondary markets by the NFL still switch out of early games in order to get to the start of a 4:15 Dallas Cowboys
game.
When a local team plays the early game of a doubleheader, that game holds importance over any late game. If the local team's early game runs beyond 4:15 p.m., the primary and secondary markets stay on until completion, and the late game is joined in-progress.
. To alleviate the conflicts, the 49ers and/or Raiders will typically be scheduled for at least one prime time game, regardless of their records during the previous season.
The often complicated television package is a significant factor in why the schedule for a particular season takes several weeks to develop.
due to unusual scheduling logistics. These exceptions marked the first times since 1984
that the Giants and Jets played games simultaneously.
and Raiders shared the Los Angeles
market from 1982 to 1994. Like San Francisco, this often meant the Rams or Raiders would be scheduled for a 10 a.m. PT start for away games.
The Washington Redskins
and Baltimore Ravens
are served by separate media markets, and so they can play at the same time. If one team is at home and the other is on the road, both games have aired in each market on a few occasions. However, this policy is not consistently applied in either city.
First, bonus coverage offered after any early time slot games cannot be shown past the start of the late time slot (either 4:10 ET for the doubleheader network or 4:15 ET for the non-doubleheader network). This prevents people from continuing to watch the bonus coverage instead of seeing the beginning of the late doubleheader network's game (which is usually either their local team or the network's featured game). Again, the networks may show highlights of the game, and usually will at the earliest opportunity. The network broadcasting the single game will sometimes show each play as soon as it ends as part of its post-game show. A station originally getting the game featured during bonus coverage will stay with it unless they are leaving to show a local team.
Second, bonus coverage cannot be shown after a late game on the single-game network because it will run in opposition to the ending of the late doubleheader network's game(s) and NBC's pre-game show. However, the single-game network usually schedules most of its top games in the early 1:00 ET time slot (except for west coast teams' home games, and possibly either a Giants or Jets game), so this does not tend to be a major issue.
If the doubleheader network's games all finish before 7:30 ET, it is supposed to conclude the post-game show within 10 minutes to protect NBC's pre-game show. If any games finish after 7:30, the post-game program can run until 8:00 ET. However, this restriction seems to apply to game footage only; on several occasions Fox has run its post-game offering to 8:00, despite all games ending before 7:30, by airing only panel discussions and interviews in the latter portion of the show. On the other hand, CBS rarely airs any post-game show after its doubleheaders or 4:05 single-games. This is because 60 Minutes
is one of its signature shows, and CBS makes every effort to start it as close to 7:00—its traditional airtime—as possible.
have two primary markets, Green Bay
and Milwaukee, a remnant of when they played some home games in Milwaukee each season, see below). This station does not need to have affiliate connections with a national broadcaster of NFL games. Stations who are the affiliates of My Network TV or The CW have out bid more established local broadcasters in some markets. However, the home team's market must be completely served by the station and can that broadcast can only air if the game is sold out within 72 hours of kick-off (see below).
On November 8, 1987, the very first NFL game ever aired on ESPN was played between the New England Patriots
and New York Giants
. Technically, the game was only simulcast in the Boston market, with a separate broadcast produced for the New York market by ESPN sister property WABC-TV
- at the time, WABC's union contract prohibited non-union workers (like those of ESPN) from working on live events broadcast on the station. This marked the only time since the AFL-NFL merger that a regular season game was locally produced for TV. The WABC broadcast featured WABC's own Corey McPherrin
doing play-by-play, and Frank Gifford
and Lynn Swann
from Monday Night Football doing color commentary.
, the NFL has used a "flexible scheduling" system for the last seven weeks of the regular season when there is a Sunday night game. This is because by week 11, there are a number of teams that have been eliminated or nearly eliminated from playoff contention. Flex-scheduling ensures that all Sunday night games have playoff significance. As an example, the Vikings played the Panthers in December 2009. The latter team was out of playoff contention, but Minnesota needed a win to acquire the #1 NFC seed. This system also allows teams that enjoy unexpected success to acquire a prime time spot that was not on their original schedule. Thanksgiving games and all games airing on cable channels (Monday, Thursday, and Saturday games) are fixed in place and cannot be changed, as are games during Christmas weekend whenever Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, as it will in 2011 (most games are played on Christmas Eve Saturday instead).
Under the system, most Sunday games in the affected weeks in the Eastern
and Central time zones will tentatively have the start time of 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT). Those played in the Mountain
or Pacific
time zones will have the tentative start time of 4:05/4:15 p.m. ET (1:05/1:15 p.m. PT). Also, there will be one game provisionally scheduled for the 8:15 p.m. ET slot. On the Tuesday twelve days before the games (possibly sooner), the league will move one game to the prime time slot (or keep its original choice), and possibly move one or more 1:00 p.m. slotted games to the 4:00 p.m. slot. During the last week of the season, the league could re-schedule games as late as six days before the contests so that as many of the television networks as possible will be able to broadcast a game that has major playoff implications.
Fox and CBS each may protect a total of five Sunday afternoon games, not more than one per week, during weeks 11-16 and NBC selcts which game they want to air. FOX and CBS cannot protect games in week 17. In years when Christmas falls on Sunday (like 2011) the NFL schedules most games for Saturday December 24 and then schedules a Sunday night game for NBC on Christmas night. Thus, flexible scheduling can not occur in week 16 so the flex period changes to weeks 10-15, and week 17. Week 17 game on Sunday night is decided exclusively by the NFL without the ability of CBS or FOX to protect games, nor NBC to pick what game they want. There are no restrictions on which game the NFL can select. Starting in 2010 when the NFL schedules divisional matchups in week 17 it is possible an intradivisional game that appeared on national TV previously could be selected again. The NFL will only select such a game when there is no other option.
Individual teams may make no more than four appearances on NBC during the season. Only three teams may make as many as six prime time appearances (Sunday night, Monday night, and Thursday night combined). The remaining teams may make a maximum of five prime time appearances. In addition, there are no restrictions amongst intra-division games being "flexed."
between the Baltimore Colts
and New York Giants
was unavailable to New York fans despite the sellout. (Many fans rented hotel rooms in Connecticut to watch the game on Hartford TV, a practice that continued for Giants games through 1972.) Similarly, all Super Bowl games prior to 1973
were unavailable in the host city's market.
Although that policy was successfully defended in court numerous times, Congress passed legislation requiring the NFL to impose the 72-hour deadline (see above). The league will sometimes change this deadline to 48 hours if there are only a few thousand tickets left unsold; much more rarely, they will occasionally extend this to 24 hours in special cases.
Alternatively, some NFL teams have arrangements with local television stations or businesses to purchase unsold tickets. Teams themselves are allowed to purchase remaining non-premium tickets at 34 cents on the dollar (the portion subject to revenue sharing
) to prevent a blackout. Tickets in premium club sections
have been excluded from the blackout rule in past years, as have unused tickets allocated to the visiting team. The Jacksonville Jaguars
have even gone further and closed off a number of sections at their home EverBank Field to reduce the number of tickets they would need to sell. EverBank Field is one of the largest in the NFL, as it was built to also accommodate the annual Florida-Georgia game and Gator Bowl
and was expanded for Super Bowl XXXIX
even though it draws from one of the smallest markets in the league. The NFL requires that closing off sections be done uniformly for every home game, including playoff games, in a given season. This prevents teams from trying to sell out the entire stadium only when they expect to be able to do so.
broadcast signal of an affiliate station
, under normal conditions, penetrates into the 75-mile radius. These affiliates are determined before the season, and do not change as the season progresses. Some remote primary media markets, such as Denver and Phoenix, may cover that entire radius, so that the blackout would not affect any other affiliates. However, in some instances a very tiny portion of a distant city's market area can be within the 75-mile radius of a different city, thus leading to blackouts well beyond the targeted area. The most notable example is the Syracuse
market's blackout of Buffalo Bills
games because a small section of the town of Italy
of Yates County containing a handful of people lies within the 75-mile radius of Ralph Wilson Stadium
while the entirety of the remainder of the Syracuse market lies outside of it. At the time Yates County was part of Syracuse DMA but it was switched to Rochester DMA because of exurb expansion with more and more immediate Rochester area employees were living in Yates county and traveling to the Rochester are for events.
The NFL does allow in some cases for secondary markets to go beyond the 75 mile radius in part to help draw fans to attend the game. Some of these exceptions are in Charlotte where many of its secondary markets lie outside the 75 mile radius (Raleigh). Others include San Diego and San Francisco, primarily due to Los Angeles having not had an NFL team since 1994.
An exception to the 75-mile rule is the Green Bay Packers' market area. It stretches out to both the Green Bay
and Milwaukee television markets. (The team's radio flagship station is in Milwaukee, and selected Packer home games were played in Milwaukee until 1994.) Unofficially, and to a smaller extent, it also reaches the Escanaba
/Marquette, Michigan
market (which is actually a Detroit Lions stronghold) due to the presence of translator and satellite stations as well as extended cable coverage of Green Bay stations north into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. However, blackouts have never been required; the Packers' home stadium, Lambeau Field
, boasts a five-decade long streak of sellouts and 80,000 names on its season ticket waiting list (with very low turnover each year, thus making it difficult to get tickets; it is common practice in Wisconsin for a name to be put on the list when a person is born, as well as to purchase tickets for road games). The Denver Broncos
, Pittsburgh Steelers
, and Washington Redskins
also have sellout streaks that predate the current blackout rules, and so have not had any of their home games blacked out since 1972 either (each of these teams also have long waiting lists for season tickets).
Similarly, no Super Bowl has ever been unavailable in the market of origin since the new blackout rules came into effect. Every Super Bowl except the first was a sellout, and, with the game's high-profile status, a blackout is highly unlikely for the foreseeable future.
If a local club is playing on the road on the doubleheader network, the other network can air its single game in the same timeslot opposite the local club's game. However, most affiliates opt against it because such an action usually ensures low ratings. The "no opposing game" policy is a key reason why single game fixtures on the east coast are occasionally scheduled for the late time slot.
This rule does not apply in Week 1 when the US Open Tennis Championships are on CBS at 4:30 p.m. CBS affiliates may broadcast games opposite a team that has a home game on Fox at the same time in Week 1.
Each TV market, including one hosting a game that is not sold out, is assured of at least one televised game in the early and late time slots, one game on each network, but no network doubleheader in the home market of a game that is not sold out.
The New York and San Francisco Bay Area media markets typically get fewer doubleheaders than other markets as each has two teams, and one of them is at home virtually every week. The main exception is when one of the teams is idle, has its home game televised on the doubleheader network, or is chosen for a prime time game. This policy affects only the club's primary market, not others with signals that penetrate inside the 75-mile radius. It also does not affect viewers of NFL Sunday Ticket
in the primary market; all other games remain available.
Critics claim that these blackout policies are largely ineffective in creating sold out, filled stadiums. They contend that there are other factors that prevent sellouts, such as high ticket prices and low enthusiasm for a losing team. Furthermore, blackouts hurt the league; without the television exposure, it becomes more difficult for those teams with low attendance and few sellouts to increase their popularity and following as the exposure decreases.
Conversely, the NFL has sold out well over 90 percent of games in recent seasons. Additionally, many teams sell out their entire regular season schedule before it begins (usually through season-ticket sales), and so there is no threat of a blackout in those markets.
In 2005, for the first time in its history, the NFL lifted the blackout policies for a team: the New Orleans Saints
. Due to damage
by Hurricane Katrina
, the Saints split their home games between Giants Stadium
in East Rutherford, New Jersey
, Tiger Stadium at Louisiana State University
in Baton Rouge
, and the Alamodome
in San Antonio. Baton Rouge is a secondary Saints market and is subject to blackouts when games at the Superdome carried by over-the-air networks do not sell out, since CBS affiliate WAFB
and Fox affiliate WGMB
penetrate within 75 miles of the Superdome, even though the city limits of Baton Rouge are more than 75 miles from the Superdome (the Baton Rouge DMA is not blacked out when Saints games televised by ESPN or the NFL Network do not sell out).
San Antonio is an unofficial secondary market for the Dallas Cowboys (in that the Cowboys games are routinely televised in that area, but the area is not within the 75 mile blackout radius), and two of three 2005 Saints games played at the Alamodome were not broadcast anywhere in Texas, as the start times for the Cowboys and Saints games conflicted on those dates. The only game of the San Antonio dates not to sell out, in week 4 against Buffalo, was televised locally by CBS (on KENS-TV
) as the Cowboys had a late game that day at Oakland. (San Antonio Fox affiliate KABB
, therefore, never broadcast a Saints home game in San Antonio, as the Cowboys and Saints are in the NFC, and the Cowboys have a larger following in Texas.)
The blackout policies extend even to the Pro Bowl
; if that game is not sold out, it is unavailable in the home media market. From 1980 through 2009, and also in 2011, the game was played in Honolulu, making the applicable market the entire state of Hawaii. The 2010 game was played in the Miami area.
Due to decreasing ticket sales, the league significantly softened its blackout policy in 2009. Though the traditional rules still apply, the league is using some of its new media features to provide access to untelecasted games. For instance, the league will not subject its "RedZone" channel to any blackouts. In addition, complete live games will be made available for free online on the Monday (except Monday Night Football), Tuesday, and Wednesday following the game if the game is blacked out, using the league's Game Rewind package.
As of the 2010 season, the Texans, and Ravens have never had a blacked out game.
† – Games were always blacked out locally before 1973; the dates for the Packers, Redskins, Broncos, and Steelers refer to the last non-sellout.
‡ – The Browns didn't sell out their last two home games for the 1995 season
as a direct result of the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
, this was despite one of the games being against their in-state rivals, the Bengals. The Cleveland Browns have sold out every game since their re-introduction into the NFL in 1999.
Their decision on whether to show home games typically depends on whether the NFL-designated local team is perceived to be the most popular in the market. For example, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
is a secondary market to the Baltimore Ravens
. Therefore the CBS station in Harrisburg, WHP-TV
, must show all Ravens away games.
However, since there are many Pittsburgh Steelers
fans in the region, when the Ravens are home at the same time the Steelers are playing, that station shows the latter. Harrisburg is thus considered a battleground territory for the Steelers–Ravens rivalry.
The same applies for the Orlando, Florida
metropolitan area, as its local CBS affiliate WKMG
broadcasts both Miami Dolphins
and Jacksonville Jaguars
games. In some cases, the NFL has the two teams play at different times to accommodate the entire state of Florida (but only when CBS has the doubleheader, or if one of the teams is on Fox). WKMG lobbied to carry a Dolphins game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
in 2005, but the NFL refused - as Orlando is officially a Jaguars secondary market, the station had to carry the Jaguars game at Pittsburgh.
There are rare instances where a market will have two teams claiming their territory.
For instance, Youngstown, Ohio
lies roughly halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, is within the 75-mile radius for both cities and is considered a battleground territory in the Browns–Steelers rivalry. Therefore, local CBS
affiliate WKBN-TV
must show whichever team is playing an away game. If one game is on CBS while the other is on Fox
, both games will air. (WKBN also owns low-powered
Fox
affiliate WYFX-LP
and simulcasts WYFX on its second digital subchannel
in HDTV
along with the main WKBN channel.)
If both the Cleveland Browns
and the Pittsburgh Steelers are scheduled to play at the same time on CBS or Fox and the location of the game does not matter, WKBN/WYFX will air the Browns game. The fan base is evenly split between those two teams, with the San Francisco 49ers
also having a small following due to team owners John
and Denise DeBartolo York
being based out of the Youngstown suburb of Canfield, Ohio
.
Similar issues concerning the same market teams happens on the Wheeling, West Virginia
CBS affiliate WTRF, who runs CBS on its main subchannel, with a FOX affiliate on its first subchannel ("FOX Ohio Valley"). At times, WTRF will run a FOX broadcast game on the subchannel opposite a Browns or Steelers home game that aired on the CBS channel regardless, and vice versa. It's interesting to note that Wheeling is right near the 75-mile radius border of the Pittsburgh market to where they would be regulated.
Many markets serve as "unofficial" secondary markets for the league's various teams due to rooting interest in those markets. As they are not designated by the NFL as official secondary markets, they technically are not required to air any games, but will do so to please the fanbases. For example, in Texas, virtually all CBS and Fox stations carry the Houston Texans
and Dallas Cowboys
, respectively when those teams are on different networks. However, KTVT
in Dallas never airs Texans games unless it has no other option. KRIV
in Houston always airs Cowboys games if it is not prohibited from doing so by NFL rules.
As another example, Seattle Seahawks
games are usually aired across the entire Pacific Northwest
as they are the only team in the area.
The New England Patriots
, especially since Tom Brady
became quarterback, also have almost all of New England as unofficial secondary markets (Providence is an official secondary market). Not only do all or almost all CBS or Fox (depending on the game carrier) affiliate in New England carry Patriots games, but also their preseason network covers the entire region. Hartford is close to New York, and sometimes has aired a New York Jets
game instead. However, this rarely occurs.
An oddity of "temporary" secondary markets has occurred in Wisconsin due to a rooting interest in one particular player. After the 2007 season, quarterback Brett Favre
departed the Green Bay Packers for the New York Jets. Thus, CBS affiliates WFRV in Green Bay and WDJT-TV
in Milwaukee were able to ask for as many Jets games as CBS and the NFL could offer to their viewers. In 2009, when Favre moved to an NFC North division rival, the Minnesota Vikings
, Fox affiliates WLUK-TV
Green Bay and WITI Milwaukee requested as many Vikings games on their stations as possible. This is also occurring in 2011 in Seattle where the market when able to will broadcast Tennessee Titans games because former Seahawks QB Matt Hasselback starts for the Titans and locally born and raised and former University of Washington QB Jake Locker was drafted in the first round of the 2011 NFL draft by the Titans. Given these two fan favorites the local CBS affiliate has requested being able to air as many of these games as possible.
In all other markets, the networks are the sole arbiters of the telecast matches. However, they usually make their decisions after consulting with all of their local affiliates. On rarer occasions, some affiliates are offered a choice of a few games for a given time-slot, if there is no game that stands out as appropriate. In those cases, some stations have allowed the viewers to vote online for their preferred game.
For example, during Week 3 of the 2010 season, viewers of Fox affiliate KMSS
in Shreveport, Louisiana took part in an online vote where fans could choose between the Dallas Cowboys
-Houston Texans
game and the Atlanta Falcons
-New Orleans Saints
game. The station is situated in the Ark-La-Tex
region, where both the Saints and Cowboys have significant fan bases, due to the Shreveport market being situated on the northern border between Louisiana and Texas, including Texarkana
, and the southwest corner of Arkansas. The poll concluded with viewers choosing the Falcons v. Saints game, even though Shreveport is closer to Dallas than New Orleans.
Pre-scheduled commercial breaks:
Other instances used for commercial breaks (eight total required per half):
Two commercial breaks during the typical 12-minute halftime period are considered separate.
Networks are more apt to front-load their commercials in the first and third quarters, to prevent an overrun in the second and fourth quarters respectively. If a team calls a timeout and the network decides to use it for a commercial break, a representative from the broadcast crew stationed on the sidelines wearing orange sleeves makes a crossing motion with his hands to alert the officials. The referee declares it a "two-minute timeout."
Once a broadcast has fulfilled the 8 "random" breaks, game stoppages are no longer needed for commercials. The orange sleeve will hold his hands down in a twirl motion to alert the officials. If a team calls a timeout, the referee will declare it a "30-second timeout." Once any timeout in a half is declared a 30-second timeout, all remaining timeouts will be of the same duration.
Since the 10 total commercial breaks for the second half are to be finished prior to the end of regulation, commercial breaks are rarely needed in overtime situations. In many cases, overtime periods are conducted without any commercials. By definition, a game that has entered overtime is tied, and so the game is still undecided, thus increasing the appeal of the given game. This also allows the extended broadcast to finish in a timely manner. In cases of long overtime periods, networks have been known to have a commercial break during a lengthy injury time out. During postseason play, the very rare instances of double overtime will feature a commercial between periods.
was the first major television network
to cover an NFL game, when on October 22, 1939, it broadcast a match between the Philadelphia Eagles
and the Brooklyn Dodgers
; the network was still only in its infancy, with only two affiliates, the modern day WRGB
(now a CBS affiliate) in Schenectady and WNBC
in New York City.
Regular broadcasts of games began after World War II and the first NFL championship to be televised was the 1948 match between the Eagles and Cardinals.
In 1950, the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins
became the first NFL teams to have all of their games—home and away—televised. In the same year, other teams made deals to have selected games telecast. The DuMont Network
then paid a rights fee of $
75,000 to broadcast the 1951 NFL Championship Game across the entire nation.
From 1953 to 1955, DuMont also televised Saturday night NFL games
. It was the first time that NFL fixtures were broadcast live
, coast-to-coast, in prime time
, for the entire season. The broadcasts ended after the 1955 season, when the DuMont Network folded. DuMont was a less than ideal partner for NFL broadcasts: with only eighteen affiliates in 1954, it was dwarfed by the amount of coverage the "Big Four
" (later the East Division of the Canadian Football League
) had with its contract on NBC, which had 120 affiliates at the time.
By 1955, NBC became the televised home of the NFL Championship Game, paying $100,000 to the league. The 1958 NFL Championship Game played at Yankee Stadium between the Baltimore Colts
and the New York Giants
went into sudden death overtime. This game, since dubbed the "Greatest Game Ever Played," was watched widely throughout the country and is credited with increasing the popularity of professional football in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
CBS
began to televise selected NFL regular season games in 1956.
By 1959, big-market teams such as the Bears and Giants had all their games televised, but small-market ones like the Packers and 49ers still did not. Upon becoming NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle worked to ensure that every team got all its games on TV.
(AFL) began in 1960, it signed a 5-year television contract with ABC
. This became the first ever cooperative television plan for professional football
, through which the proceeds of the contract were divided equally among member clubs. ABC and the AFL also introduced moving, on-field cameras (as opposed to the fixed midfield cameras of CBS and the NFL), and were the first to have players "miked" during broadcast games. As the AFL also had players' names stitched on their jerseys, it was easier for both TV viewers and people at the games to tell who was who.
As of the 1961 season, CBS held the rights to all but one of the NFL's teams; the Cleveland Browns
had a separate contract with Sports Network Incorporated (SNI) to carry their games over a regional network. However, the Browns and SNI were forced to break their deal when the NFL and CBS devised their own revenue sharing plan after CBS agreed to telecast all regular season games for an annual fee of $4.65 million. CBS' fee later increased to $14.1 million per year in 1964, and $18.8 million per year in 1966.
With NBC paying the AFL $36 million in 1965 to televise its games, and the intensified battle over college prospects, both leagues negotiated a merger agreement on June 8, 1966. Although they would not officially merge into one combined league until 1970, one of the conditions of the agreement was that the winners of each league's championship game would meet in a contest to determine the "world champion of football."
The first ever AFL-NFL World Championship Game
was played on January 15, 1967 between the NFL champion Packers and the AFL champion Chiefs. As CBS held the rights to nationally televise NFL games and NBC had the rights to broadcast AFL matches, it was decided that both would cover that first game. The next three AFL-NFL World Championship Games, later renamed the Super Bowl
, were then divided by the two networks: CBS broadcast Super Bowls II
and IV
while NBC covered III
.
(AFC) and the National Football Conference
(NFC). It was then decided that CBS would televise all NFC teams (including playoff games) while NBC were responsible for all AFC teams. For interconference games, CBS would broadcast them if the visiting team
was from the NFC, and NBC if the visitors were from the AFC. The two networks had a rotation policy for the Super Bowl.
ABC also agreed to televise one regular season game per week on Monday night. ABC aired its first edition of Monday Night Football
on September 21, 1970
. MNF pushed the limits of football coverage with its halftime highlights segment, occasional banter from Howard Cosell
and Dennis Miller
, and celebrity guests such as John Lennon
, Arnold Schwarzenegger
and President Clinton
. During its 36-year run on ABC, Monday Night Football consistently ranked among the most popular prime time broadcasts each week during the season.
As the league's broadcasters, ABC, CBS, and NBC had their own talent. Announcers such as Cosell, Frank Gifford
, and Al Michaels
(from ABC); Pat Summerall
and John Madden
(from CBS); and Curt Gowdy
, Dick Enberg
, Marv Albert
, Jim Simpson, Kyle Rote
and Jim Lampley
(from NBC), all had their own unique analysis of the game. Individual networks had distinctive innovations in their coverage. For example, CBS' The NFL Today
was the first pre-game show to have a female co-host (Phyllis George
). On December 20, 1980
NBC made history by broadcasting a game between the New York Jets
and Miami Dolphins
with no announcers. NBC has also tried one-announcer football when Dick Enberg called the New York Jets'
visit to Cleveland Browns
on December 12, 1981
without his regular colleague Merlin Olsen
in accompaniment. NBC instead pre-recorded interviews with players and coaches from both teams which filled in the parts where Olsen would have spoken. On December 27, 1987
, NBC introduced the first female play-by-play football announcer in Gayle Sierens
, who partnered with Dave Rowe
in a game between the Seattle Seahawks
and Kansas City Chiefs
which in its own way, set the mold for female sportscasters of today. It is still the only time a female has called play-by-play on an NFL game.
In 1978
, the NFL increased its revenue from both ticket sales and TV by expanding the regular season from 14 games to 16. Furthermore, the playoff format was expanded from 8 teams to 10 teams, enabling the league to give another post-season game each to CBS and NBC. This was partially due to the league's 1976 expansion to 28 teams.
Meanwhile, the Super Bowl became a yearly ratings blockbuster, allowing the broadcasting network to generate millions of dollars in advertising revenue. Four of the ten highest rating television broadcasts of all-time (in the U.S.) are Super Bowls. When the league signed a new 5-year TV contract with the three networks in 1982, it allowed ABC to enter into the Super Bowl rotation; Super Bowl XIX
was ABC's debut. Since then, the network that televises each Super Bowl is determined by the contracts that the league negotiates with all of its broadcasters. Each network broadcaster generally gets one Super Bowl before any received a second. This process repeats before any network airs a third event, although the TV contracts usually expire by that time.
ESPN
became the first cable network to broadcast regular season NFL games. Chris Berman helped redefine the pre- and post-game shows when he launched NFL Countdown and NFL Prime Time, and they have since become the top-rated pre- and post-game shows on television. The cable network's contract to show ESPN Sunday Night Football
was one of the turning points in their growth, transforming them from a small cable network to a marketing empire.
When ESPN first started televising NFL games in 1987, it only broadcast Sunday night games during the second half of the season. Meanwhile, ABC, CBS, and NBC maintained their rights to Monday Night Football, the NFC, and the AFC, respectively.
By 1990, Turner
's TNT
network started to broadcast Sunday night games for the first half of the season. The combined 1990 contracts with ABC, CBS, ESPN, NBC, and TNT totaled $3.6 billion ($900 million per year), the largest in TV history. One major factor in the increased rights fee was that the league changed the regular season so that all teams would play their 16-game schedule over a 17-week period. ABC was also given the rights to televise the two Saturday games on the opening weekend of the postseason. This was made possible after the league expanded its playoff format to include more teams.
TBS had also broadcast the infamous 1982 "strike" games. The NFLPA called for a players' strike three weeks into that season which reduced it to nine games. In October, two "all-star" exhibition games were held with generic NFC and AFC teams in Los Angeles and Washington DC and aired on TBS. Ratings and attendance at both games was minimal.
In 1994, the league signed an exclusivity agreement with the direct broadcast satellite
(DBS) service DirecTV
to launch NFL Sunday Ticket
, a satellite television
subscription service that offers every regular season NFL game.
. Fox offered a then-record $1.58 billion to the NFL over four years, significantly more than the $290 million offered by CBS. Fox was only seven years old and had no sports division, but it began building its own coverage by hiring many former CBS personalities such as Summerall and Madden.
Fox's NFL rights ownership made the network a major player in American television by attracting many new viewers (and affiliates) and a platform to advertise its other shows. In the meantime, CBS lost several affiliates (mainly owned by New World Communications
in NFC markets) to Fox, and ratings for its other offerings languished. To this day, CBS admits it has never recovered from the loss of affiliates, primarily in Atlanta
, Detroit
, and Milwaukee
, where it was dropped to lower-powered UHF affiliates unable to be received in some areas.
Due to satellite television, the NFL Sunday Ticket in local markets, and rules of the time, satellite subscribers were required to use antennas to pick up local affiliates. CBS was devastated by the loss of over-the-air availability of these stations in the outer reaches of some markets. Since 1994 the situations in Milwaukee and Atlanta have improved due to committed station ownerships and acquisition of high-profile syndicated programming, along with the digital transition equalizing the field into being received via UHF-only, while CBS's Detroit station continues to struggle for relevancy and exists mainly as an automated pass-through for CBS programming, along with shows from the network's syndication arm, CBS Television Distribution
.
ABC, NBC, TNT and ESPN renewed their contracts in the meanwhile. TNT was able to get a stipulation that the Atlanta Falcons
, based in Turner's home of Atlanta, be featured on TNT once a year, regardless of the previous season's record.
NBC, meanwhile, had indicated a desire to bid for Monday Night Football rights in 1998, but gave up when the financial stakes increased sharply. Thus, after six decades, NBC, the network that had shaped television broadcasts of football, lost its rights, thus marking the beginning of a slow decline for its sports division, culminating in the unproductive 2004–05 prime time season, when NBC carried no major sporting championships during prime time (NBC had already lost Major League Baseball broadcasting rights in 2000
and National Basketball Association rights in 2002
).
NBC's attempts to replace the NFL with other professional football, including the XFL
in 2001 and the Arena Football League coverage from 2003 to 2006, proved to be very unsuccessful. Like CBS before it, NBC would later decide that not having NFL rights did too much damage to its overall ratings to justify foregoing the high rights fees required.
The other networks also signed eight-year deals in 1998. Fox extended its NFC deal by agreeing to a $4.4 billion contract ($550 million per season). ABC retained its longtime rights to Monday Night Football by also paying $4.4 billion over eight years. ESPN agreed to a $4.8 billion ($600 million a season) deal to become the sole cable broadcaster of NFL games, marking an end to the league's association with TNT. As with previous TV contracts, the coverage of the Super Bowl was divided between the broadcast networks.
. The 2002
San Francisco 49ers
and the New York Giants
game was held on September 5 and televised on ESPN. The 2003
edition featured the Washington Redskins
hosting the New York Jets
on September 4, 2003, and the game was televised by ABC. Since 2006, NBC has televised the Kickoff game (see below).
Starting in 2004, the NFL began awarding the opening game to the defending Super Bowl champions as the official start of their title defense. The unfurling of the team's Super Bowl championship banner in their stadium has become a centerpiece of the opening ceremonies.
Nevertheless, the current broadcast contract, which began in 2006, resulted in a sizable increase in total rights fees. Both Fox and CBS renewed their Sunday afternoon broadcast packages through 2011, in both cases with modest increases. Furthermore, the league and DirecTV signed a five year extension to their exclusivity deal on NFL Sunday Ticket.
Despite relatively high, if declining, TV ratings, ABC decided to end its relationship with the NFL after losing significant money on Monday Night Football. In addition to the fees, part of this decision may have been the result of a resurgent ABC prime time entertainment schedule during the 2004–05 season, particularly on Sunday evening with Desperate Housewives
; thus ABC would be unable to satisfy the league's reported preference for a Sunday night game on broadcast television as opposed to Monday.
Because of that, Monday Night Football moved to ESPN, the cable network paying $1.1 billion per year from 2006 to 2014 for the rights. Unlike the broadcast networks, however, ESPN can generate revenue from subscription sales, in addition to traditional commercial breaks (ESPN's subscriber fees are the highest of any American cable network, more than four times that of second-place TNT). The cable network's coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with SportsCenter Special Edition: Monday Night Kickoff
. The 2009 edition saw the game itself start at 8:30 p.m., with Mike Tirico
, Ron Jaworski
, and Jon Gruden
in the broadcast booths.
Meanwhile, NBC, after losing the AFC package to CBS in 1997, was able to reclaim some broadcast rights with a deal worth an average of $650 million per year to air the Sunday night package from 2006 to 2014 (not much more than what ESPN used to pay for the same rights). This new deal includes the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2012. NBC's coverage also includes three preseason games (including the annual Hall of Fame Game
), the first two Wild Card playoff games of each post-season, and the annual Thursday opening Kickoff Game, similar to ABC's broadcast rights package. The major difference is that the NFL allows NBC flexibility in selecting games in the latter part of the season. ABC did not have the right to be flexible with their Monday Night Football schedule and picked matchups based on a team's record in the previous season (as NBC does), which often led to teams with losing records playing each other on Monday night later in the season. The moves were intended to break NBC out of its ratings slump; however, as of 2010, this has not happened, and although NBC Sunday Night Football is the network's top rated program and in the top 30 for viewing audience, it has not lifted the rest of the schedule, which remains firmly in fourth place and losing large sums of money, so much so that the network had to cut an hour of prime time programming from its weeknight schedule in favor of a somewhat lower budget talk show
, which lasted five months.
Coverage of NBC Sunday Night Football
starts at 8:15 p.m. ET with Al Michaels
serving as the play-by-play announcer, Cris Collinsworth
as color commentator
, and Andrea Kremer
as the sole sideline reporter. Each telecast begins with a pre-game show airing at 7 p.m. ET entitled Football Night in America
, hosted by Bob Costas
.
In addition, for the first three years of the contract, the network that carried the Super Bowl also broadcast the Pro Bowl
on the Saturday night following the championship game. In 2007, CBS broadcast both games, followed by Fox in 2008, and NBC in 2009. In 2010, the Pro Bowl was played the weekend before the Super Bowl, broadcast by ESPN. The 2010 deal was meant as a one-time situation to protect the Winter Olympics in Vancouver
that started the next week (as well as the NBA All-Star Game
and the Daytona 500
), but the NFL played the 2011 game (and will play the 2012 game) in Honolulu the week before the Super Bowl.
The NFL Network
was created by the league in 2003 and given a separate package of broadcast games. The eight-game package
consists of prime time games which in 2006 and 2007 began airing from Thanksgiving
to the end of the regular season. Five games aired on Thursday nights and three on Saturday nights, the latter beginning Week 15 of the season. Starting in the 2008 season the ratio and dates of the games changed: now there are seven Thursday night games beginning in the first week of November and continuing to Week 16. There is only one Saturday night game, airing during Week 15 or 16 (usually 16, but when Saturday is Christmas Eve, it airs in week 15). The NFL could theoretically decide to sell this package to another network should NFL Network broadcasts not generate enough revenue. NFL Network will also carry several preseason games. The introduction of the NFL Network games also marked the end to late-season Saturday afternoon regular season games on the networks that aired Sunday afternoon games: CBS, Fox and NBC.
As a result of the 2006 contracts with television networks and the increased concentration of media ownership
in recent years, the NFL now holds broadcast contracts with the companies that control all of the nationwide American broadcast networks and the vast majority of the major cable networks. This has resulted in a monopoly
on the ability to broadcast professional football games on television; the United Football League lost its agreement with Versus
when its parent company purchased NBC and has not been able to secure television contracts since the purchase. The Canadian Football League
and Arena Football League
have resorted to airing its games on NFL Network, despite its ownership by a competing league.
ESPN renewed its contract with the NFL in 2011, which extends broadcast rights to the NFL through 2022 the end of the 2021 NFL season. ESPN increased the purchase price for the eighteen-game package, which will include the Pro Bowl beginning in 2015. Cable television operators condemned the new contract, noting that ESPN has the highest retransmission consent
fees of any national cable television channel, nearly five times higher than the nearest competitor (TNT), and raises fees on an annual basis.
have hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day
since 1934 (with the exception of 1939–1944 due to the "Franksgiving
" confusion and World War II
), and they have been nationally televised since 1962. In 1966, the NFL introduced an annual game hosted by the Dallas Cowboys
, which has been played every year except in 1975 and 1977 when the St. Louis Cardinals
hosted a match instead. However, St. Louis football fans, used to the traditional "Turkey Day Game" between Kirkwood High School
and Webster Groves High School
as the only local match on Thanksgiving, did not respond well to an NFL fixture on the same day, and thus Dallas resumed hosting the game in 1978.
When the AFL began holding annual Thanksgiving Day games, the league chose a different model, circulating the game among several cities. During the 1967–69 seasons, two Thanksgiving AFL games were televised each year.
After the 1970 merger, the NFL decided to keep only the traditional Detroit and Dallas games. Due to the broadcast contracts in place since 1970, three NFC teams play on Thanksgiving, as opposed to only one AFC outfit. During even years, the Lions play their Thanksgiving game against an AFC team, and thus are televised by the network holding the AFC package (NBC and later CBS); the Cowboys host an NFC team and are shown by the network with the NFC package (CBS and later Fox). During odd years, Dallas hosts an AFC team and Detroit plays an NFC opponent (usually another NFC North team, and often the Green Bay Packers, who draw high TV ratings). Every decade or so, this even-odd rotation is reversed, Detroit hosting an NFC team in even years and an AFC team in odd years, Dallas hosting an AFC team in even years and an NFC team in odd years.
When the league created its new TV package for the NFL Network
in 2006, a third Thanksgiving game was added, a prime time game hosted by one of the remaining 30 NFL teams each year. While the first game featured two AFC teams, conference affiliation has varied since.
only if it falls on a day normally used for games (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday). If Christmas falls on a Sunday, as it will in 2011, most of the games are played on the preceding day, Saturday, December 24, (with no games that night) with one or two games are scheduled for Christmas Night to be broadcast nationally. Through the 2006 season
, there have been 14 such Christmas contests.
The first NFL games played on December 25 came during the 1971 season
. The first two games of the Divisional Playoff Round that year were held on Christmas Day. The first game that day was between Dallas Cowboys
and the Minnesota Vikings
. The second of the two contests played that day, the Miami Dolphins versus the Kansas City Chiefs
, ended up being the longest game in NFL history. The league received numerous complaints due to the length of this game, reportedly because it caused havoc with Christmas dinners around the nation. As a result, the NFL decided to not schedule any Christmas Day matches for the next 17 seasons.
In 1976 and 1977, the last two years before the advent of the 16-game schedule and expanded playoffs, the NFL came up with different approaches to avoid Christmas play. In 1976, when Christmas fell on a Saturday, the league moved the start of the regular season up one week to Sunday, September 12. The divisional playoffs were held on the weekend of December 18 and 19, leaving the conference championship games on Sunday, December 26. Super Bowl XI
was played on January 9, 1977, the earliest it has ever been held. In 1977, with Christmas on Sunday, the NFL split the divisional playoffs, and for the only time since the AFL-NFL merger, each conference held both divisional playoff games the same day (AFC Saturday, December 24 and NFC Monday, December 26), ostensibly not to give one team a two-day rest advantage over the other for the conference championship games. Since two of the venues were in the Western United States, it was not possible to have regional coverage in both time slots on either day.
The NFL continued to avoid Christmas even after it started to increase the regular season and the playoffs. The league expanded to a 16-game regular season and a 10-team playoff tournament in 1978, but it was not until 1982 that the regular season ended after Christmas, due to the players' strike. In 1989, the NFL tried another Christmas Day game, with the Cincinnati Bengals
hosted by the Minnesota Vikings
, but it was a 9:00 p.m. ET Monday Night Football
contest, thereby not conflicting with family dinners. In the years since, the NFL has played an occasional late-afternoon or night game on the holiday but there has not been a Christmas Day game starting earlier than 5:00 p.m. ET since 1971.
There have also been several games played on Christmas Eve
over the years, including a Oakland Raiders
-Baltimore Colts
playoff contest in 1977 which culminated in a play known as "Ghost to the Post
". These games have typically been played during the afternoon out of deference to the holiday.
if it is not a Sunday, deferring to the numerous New Year's Day college football
bowl games traditionally held on that day. However, when New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the traditional bowl games are moved to Monday, January 2 (which becomes a federal holiday), allowing NFL games to be played on the 1st. The AFL played its first league championship game on January 1, 1961. Thereafter, pro football has been played on New Year's Day in 1967 (the 1966 NFL and AFL Championship Games), in 1978 (the 1977 NFC and AFC Championship Games), in 1984 (the 1983 NFC and AFC Divisional Playoff Games), in 1989 (the 1988 NFC and AFC Divisional Playoff Games), in 1995 (the second half of the 1994 NFC and AFC Wild Card Games), and in 2006 (the final weekend of the 2005 regular season). The latter situation will prevail on Sunday, January 1, 2012, the final day of the 2011 regular season.
In years when January 1 falls on a Monday, a regular slate of NFL games will be played on New Year's Eve
. Under current schedule arrangements, the regular season can end no later than January 3, and the league finishes its regular season on a Sunday, without a Monday Night Football game on the final week.
In 2006, ESPN opened the season with a Monday Night Football doubleheader, with a 7:00 p.m. game and a 10:30 p.m. both shown in their entirety nationwide. The doubleheader during the first week of the season has continued ever since.
Former broadcasters:
, but canceled the series after the league reportedly threatened to exclude the network from the next set of TV contracts.
The NFL has a strict policy prohibiting networks from running ads during official NFL programming (pre- and post-game studio shows and the games themselves) from the gambling
industry, and has rejected some ads from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
. Commissioner Roger Goodell
explained in 2007 that it was inappropriate for the sport to be associates with sports betting. Additionally, the networks and their announcers cannot discuss or run graphics showing point spreads during NFL shows (Al Michaels
, among other announcers, has been known to allude to them on-air, particularly at the end of the game where a seemingly insignificant score can have a major effect on the point-spread outcome.) Most teams also insert similar clauses into their radio contracts, which are locally negotiated. The NFL injury report and required videotaping of practice are intended to prevent gamblers from gaining inside information. In contrast, fantasy football
is often free to play.
At the start of the game, a teaser
animation is displayed on all broadcasts. "Name of broadcaster welcomes you to the following presentation of the National Football League" (or similar phrasing) is announced, while at the end of the game, the message is "Name of broadcaster thanks you for watching this presentation of the National Football League" (or similar phrasing). This announcement is designed to separate game coverage from news, sports analysis, or entertainment programming not under the NFL contract and ownership. Since 1998, the NFL has owned the rights to game broadcasts once they air—a copyright disclaimer airs either before the start of the second half or after the first commercial break of the second half, depending on the broadcaster ("This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience [and] any other use of this telecast or [of] any pictures, descriptions or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited"). Only the NFL Network can re-air games and they choose a few each week.
Further, the NFL imposes restrictions on sponsored segments during game coverage; this does not apply to national or local radio broadcasts. These are permitted only prior to kick off, during halftime, and following the game (once the "...welcomes you to the following presentation.." notice appears, the restrictions take effect until half-time, and again until the game ends); however, these segments (and other programming with title sponsorships, particularly halftime and post-game shows or other sports properties) can be advertised a couple of times during game coverage, and "aerial footage" providers (i.e. sponsored blimp
s) may be acknowledged, usually once an hour as is standard in other sports. Other acknowledgments (including HDTV or Skycam
-type camera sponsorships) are limited to pre-kickoff and post-game credits. This is done so that, while competitors of the NFL's official sponsors may advertise on game broadcasts, they will not potentially become synonymous with the league through in-game and/or title sponsorship.
Finally, sideline reporters are restricted as to whom they can speak to and when (usually a head coach at halftime, and one or two players before and after the game ends). Information on injured players or rules interpretations are relayed from NFL off-field officials to the TV producers in the truck, who then pass it along to the sideline reporters or booth announcers. Thus, CBS opted in 2006 to no longer use sideline reporters except for some playoff games. ESPN followed suit by reducing the roles of their sideline reporters in 2008.
, whose duties include providing game film to media outlets for highlights shows after a 2–3 day window during which outlets can use original game broadcast highlights.
Other locations
ESPN and/or NewsCorp-owned networks distribute NFL games to most other regions of the world.
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
(NFL) games are the most lucrative and expensive rights of any American sport. It was television that brought professional football into prominence in the modern era after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Since then, NFL broadcasts have become among the most-watched programs on American television, and the financial fortunes of entire network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
s have rested on owning NFL broadcasting rights. This has raised questions about the impartiality of the networks' coverage of games and whether they can criticize the NFL without fear of losing the rights and their income.
Currently, the American terrestrial television
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
networks CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
($3.73B), NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
($3.6B) and Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
($4.27B) — as well as cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
's ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
($8.8B) — are paying a combined total of $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
20.4 billion to broadcast NFL games through the 2013 season. However, the league imposes several strict television policies to ensure that stadiums are filled and sold out, to maximize telecast ratings, and to help leverage content on these networks. League-owned NFL Network
NFL Network
NFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
, on cable television, broadcasts eight games per season nationally.
NFL preseason telecasts are more in line with the other major sports leagues' regular-season telecasts, in that preseason games are more locally-produced telecasts, usually by a local affiliate of one of the above terrestrial television networks. Some preseason games will air nationally, however.
Current broadcasting contracts
The television rights to the NFL are the most expensive rights of not only any American sport, but any American entertainment property. With the fragmentation of audiences due to the increased specialization of broadcast and cable TV networks, sports remain one of the few entertainment properties that not only can guarantee a large and diversified audience, but a live one.The Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
often ranks among the most watched shows of the year. Four of Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
's top 10 programs of all time are Super Bowls. Networks have purchased a share of the broadcasting rights to the NFL as a means of raising the entire network's profile.
Under the current television contracts, which began during the 2006 season, regular season games are broadcast on five networks: CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
, and the NFL Network
NFL Network
NFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
.
Sunday regional games
Under the current contracts, the regional Sunday afternoon games (1 p.m. "early" and 4 p.m. "late" games Eastern time) are broadcast on CBS and Fox. CBS holds what is generally called the AFC package, and Fox holds what is referred to as the NFC package.The "AFC package" for CBS is summarized as the following:
- All afternoon games in which the road team is from the AFC
The "NFC package" for Fox is summarized as the following:
- All afternoon games in which the road team is from the NFC
An exception was made during the 2011 NFL season
2011 NFL season
The 2011 NFL season, the 92nd regular season of the National Football League, began on Thursday, September 8, 2011 with the Super Bowl XLV champion Green Bay Packers defeating the New Orleans Saints 42–34 at Lambeau Field and will end with Super Bowl XLVI, the league's championship game, on...
, with the Denver Broncos
2011 Denver Broncos season
The Denver Broncos season is the franchise's 42nd season in the National Football League and the 52nd overall. It also marks the first season under new head coach John Fox, as well as the first with John Elway as the team's Executive Vice President of Football Operations...
–Minnesota Vikings
2011 Minnesota Vikings season
-Week 2: at Seattle Seahawks:-Week 3: vs. Dallas Cowboys:-Week 4: vs. Houston Texans:-Schedule:COLOR KEY & NOTES:-Week 1: at San Diego Chargers:-Week 2: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers:-Week 3: vs. Detroit Lions:-Week 4: at Kansas City Chiefs:...
game in Week 13 being moved from CBS to Fox, due to Fox only having two games in the early time slot.
These packages consist mostly of Sunday afternoon games, as aforementioned, though each year, CBS and Fox get a game on Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Classic
The National Football League's Thanksgiving Classic is a series of games played during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It has been a regular occurrence since the league's inception in 1920. Since 2006, three games are played every Thanksgiving...
, which is covered in detail later in the article.
In 1970
1970 NFL season
The 1970 NFL season was the 51st regular season of the National Football League, and the first one after the AFL-NFL Merger.The merger forced a realignment between the combined league's clubs. Because there were 16 NFL teams and 10 AFL teams, three teams needed to transfer to balance the two new...
, when the NFL and AFL merged
AFL-NFL Merger
The AFL–NFL merger of 1970 was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League and the American Football League...
, and home blackouts were put into place for AFC games (the AFL had lifted these during its run), this assured that all Sunday afternoon away games would be seen on the same network. The current package allows both CBS and Fox access to every stadium/market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
in the league for at least two games per season (unless an interconference game is chosen as a prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
national game). In 2003
2003 NFL season
-Milestones:The following teams and players set all-time NFL records during the season:-Team:-Individual:-Awards:-External Links:**-References:*NFL Record and Fact Book *...
, both of Miami
2003 Miami Dolphins season
The 2003 Miami Dolphins season was the team's 38th as a member of the National Football League. The Dolphins improved upon their previous season's output of 9–7, instead winning 10 games. This marked the second consecutive winning season for the team, however, they failed to clinch a playoff berth...
's home games against NFC teams were televised in prime time, a rare occurrence that prevented Fox from airing a game from Pro Player Stadium that season (this had also happened in 1997, though Fox was scheduled to do the Bears game from there until it was moved to Monday night due to the World Series - ESPN was already planning to cover Detroit at Miami later on; in 2005 the Ravens also had both of what would have been their Fox games aired in primetime instead, with the Packers game on ABC, and the Vikings game on ESPN).
Doubleheaders and single games
Three games (with some contractual exceptions, see below) are broadcast in any one market each Sunday morning/afternoon, with one network being allocated a "doubleheader" each week:- A 1:00 p.m. ETNorth American Eastern Time ZoneThe Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
(10:00 a.m. PTPacific Time ZoneThe Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
) "early" game and a 4:15 p.m. ET (1:15 p.m. PT) "late" game
While the other network broadcasting either:
- A 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT) game
- Or a 4:05 p.m. ET (1:05 p.m. PT) game
Sunday afternoon games in the Mountain
Mountain Time Zone
The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time, during the shortest days of autumn and winter , and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time in the spring, summer, and early autumn...
and Pacific
Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
time zones are always scheduled for 2:05 or 2:15 P.M. Mountain time and 1:05 or 1:15 P.M. Pacific time. No 10 A.M. PT or 11 A.M. MT games are ever scheduled.
Since 1998, early games have the precise, official start time of 1:01 p.m. ET, which allows for one network commercial and the NFL broadcast copyright teaser animation. However, game times are generally advertised simply as 1:00 p.m. starts. In addition, the league revised the late games to start at 4:05 p.m. ET if it was the only game televised by the network that week and to start at 4:15 p.m. ET if it was part of a doubleheader. The additional 15 minutes for doubleheaders allowed the early games extra time to be showed to completion, and avoid continuing past the late game's scheduled kickoff. For single games, only 5 minutes were added to allow the network time for a short introduction (as three hours had passed since the pre-game show
Pre-game show
A pre-game show or pregame show is a TV or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event.Contents may include:http://miniunis.com/pregame* replayed highlights of each teams previous games....
has aired) and one commercial break before kickoff. In those cases there is no need to avoid early-game overlap as there is no early game shown. In addition, it allows those games to end earlier.
Doubleheader allotments
During the first sixteen weeks of the schedule, both Fox and CBS are each given eight doubleheaders. The two networks alternate doubleheaders, but not necessarily week-in and week-out. The networks never run three consecutive weeks of doubleheaders. Fox insists on having a doubleheader on the Sunday it airs Game 4 of the World Series, and uses the featured 4:15 game as a lead in for the baseball playoffsMajor League Baseball postseason
The Major League Baseball postseason is an elimination tournament held after the conclusion of Major League Baseball's regular season. It consists of one best-of-five series and two best-of-seven series...
.
Due to CBS' annual coverage of the U.S. Open tennis
U.S. Open (tennis)
The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881...
championships during the second Sunday in September, Fox has carried doubleheader coverage of the opening weekend since 1998. This means that the three AFC West
AFC West
The AFC West is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference, currently comprising the Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Oakland Raiders.-History:...
teams in the Mountain
Mountain Time Zone
The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time, during the shortest days of autumn and winter , and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time in the spring, summer, and early autumn...
or Pacific
Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
time zones—the Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Oakland Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and San Diego Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
—cannot play at home during the opening weekend, unless they are hosting an NFC
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
opponent (which would be aired by Fox) or scheduled in prime time (regardless of opponent). All three teams played either on Fox or in prime time during Week 1 of the 2011 season
2011 NFL season
The 2011 NFL season, the 92nd regular season of the National Football League, began on Thursday, September 8, 2011 with the Super Bowl XLV champion Green Bay Packers defeating the New Orleans Saints 42–34 at Lambeau Field and will end with Super Bowl XLVI, the league's championship game, on...
, with the Chargers hosting the Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
on Fox, and the Broncos hosting the Raiders on Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
. The Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team...
were subject to the same restriction from 1998–2001 as part of the AFC West, but with their move to the NFC West
NFC West
The NFC West is a division of the National Football League's National Football Conference. It currently has four members: Arizona Cardinals, St...
in 2002
2002 NFL season
The 2002 NFL season was the 83rd regular season of the National Football League.The league went back to an even number of teams, expanding to 32 teams with the addition of the Houston Texans. The clubs were then realigned into eight divisions, four teams in each...
, their games now air primarily on Fox, and so can open at home against an NFC team (to host an AFC
American Football Conference
The American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL....
team requires the game be played at night). During the years that CBS carried NFC games, the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
, Los Angeles Rams
St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...
, and later the Phoenix Cardinals
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
could not play at home against an NFC team in the afternoon during the same week of the U.S. Open tennis championships (their only options for hosting an NFC team were playing at night).
Since 2006, both networks have aired a doubleheader in week 17.
Restrictions on number of games aired
The NFL rules prohibit other NFL games from being shown on local television stations while a local team is playing a sold out, locally televised home game. The rules are designed to encourage ticket-holders show up at the stadium instead of watching another game on television. However, each network is guaranteed to have at least one game broadcast in every market, so some exceptions are granted to this rule. One such exception comes in Week 1 when CBS only has 1pm games due to its U.S. Open tennisU.S. Open (tennis)
The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881...
coverage, and does compete with locally broadcast home games on Fox.
When the home team is being shown on the network with the NFL single game, the doubleheader station can only air one of its games. When this happens, there are only two games shown in the market. However, when the home team is being shown on the network with the NFL doubleheader, all three games can air in the same market.
National games
National broadcasts of marquee matches occur on Sunday and Monday nights. Later in the season, Thursday night games are added and broadcast on NFL NetworkNFL Network
NFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
. After the completion of the college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
season, Saturday night games and a Thanksgiving prime time game are added as well and are broadcast by NFL Network. NBC has broadcast rights to Sunday night games. These are televised under a special "flexible schedule" that allows Sunday afternoon games late in the season to be moved to prime time. NBC also has broadcast rights to the opening night kickoff game
National Football League Kickoff game
The NFL Kickoff game, and related festivities, mark the start of the National Football League season. The first game of the season is currently scheduled for the Thursday following Labor Day. A single game is held, preceded by a concert and other ceremonies. Since the 2004 season, the defending...
.
Other regular season nationally televised games include those on Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Classic
The National Football League's Thanksgiving Classic is a series of games played during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It has been a regular occurrence since the league's inception in 1920. Since 2006, three games are played every Thanksgiving...
. Afternoon Thanksgiving games mirror the aforementioned AFC and NFC packages. AFC away games are on CBS and NFC away games are on Fox. Since Detroit
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
and Dallas
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
— the traditional hosts of Thanksgiving Day games — are both NFC teams, one of the two games must be an intraconference game, and the other an interconference game. This setup provides one game each for Fox and CBS.
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
is currently aired on ESPN; however, in the markets of the participating teams, it is allowed to be picked up by an over the air station, which often is ESPN's sister network ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, which was the home of the program from 1970-2005.
Certain Sunday afternoon "late" games can also be considered nationally televised. A marquee matchup at 4 p.m. is sometimes carried in every (or nearly every) market and thus available to a national audience (except in markets originating a game on the other network).
Games on NFL Network are also broadcast on local networks in the two teams' local markets but not elsewhere. This led to controversy in 2007
2007 NFL season
The 2007 NFL season was the 88th regular season of the National Football League.Regular-season play was held from September 6 to December 30....
, when the New England Patriots
2007 New England Patriots season
The 2007 New England Patriots season was the 38th season for the team in the National Football League and 48th season overall. They finished with a perfect 16–0 regular season record but lost to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII....
were scheduled to play the New York Giants
2007 New York Giants season
The 2007 New York Giants season was the 83rd season for the New York Giants in the National Football League. The Giants finished the regular season 10–6 and in second place in the NFC East, improving upon their 8–8 record in 2006 in which they finished third in their division...
at Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...
in their regular season finale on the NFL Network, in what was to be a chance to complete the first 16–0 regular season in NFL history. After the Senate Judiciary Committee threatened the NFL's antitrust exemption if it did not make the game available nationwide, the NFL relented and made the game the first in league history to be simulcast on three networks. The game aired on the NFL Network, as planned; on NBC, which would normally have the rights to prime time games; and, since the away team was an AFC team, on CBS. (The game also aired on ABC affiliate WCVB in Boston, as are all Patriots games broadcast on cable, causing this game to be available on 3 Over-the-Air stations in the Boston TV Market). This however, did not lead to the NFL offering this package to other channels, the games remain on the NFL Network as of 2011.
NFL Sunday Ticket
Satellite broadcast company DirecTVDirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
offers NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket is an Out-of-Market Sports Package that broadcasts National Football League regular season games unavailable on local affiliates. It carries all regional Sunday afternoon games produced by Fox and CBS...
, a subscription-based package that allows all Sunday afternoon regional games to be watched. The only exception is that Sunday Ticket is subject to the same blackout rules as broadcast networks. This package is exclusive to DirecTV in the US. In Canada, NFL Sunday Ticket is available on a per-provider distribution deal on both cable and satellite, because Canadian law generally prevents one provider from offering a package on an exclusive basis.
Television policies
The NFL imposes several television and blackout policies to maximize ratings and to ensure that stadium attendances are optimized.Sunday regional coverage
Regular season Sunday afternoon games (1 p.m. "early" and 4 p.m. "late") aired on CBS and Fox are distributed to affiliates by means of regional coverage. Each individual game is only broadcast to selected media markets.Several factors determine which games are carried in each market. Each of the 32 NFL teams is assigned a "primary market." Most teams also have a selected number of secondary markets. Secondary markets can be of any size, and are typically defined by an area where any part of the market falls within 75 miles of an NFL stadium. Small markets that have no clubs tend to strongly associate with geographically-nearby or particularly relevant teams, but may fall outside of the 75 mile area are not necessarily considered secondary markets by the NFL. Generally, games are aired in the primary and secondary markets as follows:
- All away games are aired in the primary and secondary markets. This is a gesture to old policies based on the ability for fans to attend games. Away games were looked upon as too difficult to travel to and attend.
- All sold out home games are aired in the primary market. Games that do not sell out at least 72 hours prior to kickoff are subject to local blackout in the primary and all secondary markets. (see below)
Mid-game switches
During the afternoon games, CBS and Fox may switch a market's game to a more competitive one mid-game, particularly when a game becomes one-sided. For this to occur, one team must be ahead by at least 18 points in the second half.Due to the "Heidi Game
Heidi Game
The Heidi Game or Heidi Bowl was an American football game played on November 17, 1968. The home team, the Oakland Raiders, defeated the New York Jets, 43–32. The game is remembered for its exciting finish, as Oakland scored two touchdowns in the final minute to overcome a 32–29 New York lead...
", a primary media market must show its local team's game in its entirety and secondary markets usually follow suit for away games. Also, secondary markets (for home games) or any others where one team's popularity stands out may request a constant feed of that game, and in that case will not be switched.
If the local team is scheduled for the late game of a doubleheader, it has importance over any early game. If 4:15 p.m. arrives, and the early game is ongoing, the primary affiliate (all games) and secondary affiliates (road games) are required to cut off the early game and switch to the start of the local team's game. Additional affiliates, including secondary affiliates for home games, may also request to cut off an early game for a nearby team's late start. This is common in Texas where many affiliates which are not considered secondary markets by the NFL still switch out of early games in order to get to the start of a 4:15 Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
game.
When a local team plays the early game of a doubleheader, that game holds importance over any late game. If the local team's early game runs beyond 4:15 p.m., the primary and secondary markets stay on until completion, and the late game is joined in-progress.
Shared media markets
For this reason, if two teams share a primary media market, their games are never scheduled on the same network on the same day (unless they play each other). Otherwise, the networks could theoretically have to cut away from one team's game to show the other. Currently two pairs of teams are affected by this rule, and are subject to additional rules described below:- The New York GiantsNew York GiantsThe New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and New York JetsNew York JetsThe New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... - The San Francisco 49ersSan Francisco 49ersThe San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
and Oakland RaidersOakland RaidersThe Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
49ers and Raiders
The 49ers and Raiders are usually not scheduled at the same time, though this can mean that one of those teams will play a road game at 10:00 a.m. PTPacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
. To alleviate the conflicts, the 49ers and/or Raiders will typically be scheduled for at least one prime time game, regardless of their records during the previous season.
- The following exceptions have been or will be granted to this policy:
- During Week 15 of the season, the 49ers were originally scheduled to play at the Philadelphia Eagles2010 Philadelphia Eagles seasonThe 2010 Philadelphia Eagles season was the 78th season for the team in the National Football League , who looked to improve on their 11–5 record from 2009. They finished with a 10–6 record, but lost to the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card playoffs. For head coach Andy Reid, this was his 12th...
in the early time slot, and the Raiders' game at the Denver Broncos2009 Denver Broncos seasonThe 2009 Denver Broncos season was their 40th season in the NFL and 50th season overall. The Broncos matched their 8–8 regular season record from 2008 but did not make the playoffs. The Broncos welcomed many new defensive players signed during free agency, including veteran Eagles safety Brian...
was scheduled in the late time slot. However, a severe blizzard in the PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
area forced the 49ers–Eagles game to be moved to the late time slot on only two days notice. - In the season, the Raiders' Week 14 game at the Green Bay Packers2011 Green Bay Packers seasonThe 2011 Green Bay Packers season is the franchise's 91st season in the National Football League, the 93rd season overall and the sixth under head coach Mike McCarthy...
was flexed from the early time slot to the late-afternoon time slot, at the same time that the 49ers will play at the Arizona Cardinals2011 Arizona Cardinals seasonThe 2011 Arizona Cardinals season will be the franchise's 92nd season in the National Football League and the 24th season in Arizona. For Ken Whisenhunt, this will be his fifth season as the head coach of the Cardinals; he has compiled an overall record of 32–32 in the regular season and 4–2 in...
.
- During Week 15 of the season, the 49ers were originally scheduled to play at the Philadelphia Eagles
- The 49ers or Raiders must have at least one prime time game under current television rules, in order to circumvent the television blackoutBlackout (broadcasting)Blackout usually relates to the broadcasting of sports events, television programming, that is prohibited in a certain media market.The purpose is theoretically to generate more revenue by obliging certain actions from fans, either by making them buy tickets or watch other games on TV...
schedule. Every season, both teams play at least ten games that cannot be played in the early time slot—eight home games for each team, road games against the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle SeahawksSeattle SeahawksThe Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team...
for the 49ers, and road games against the Denver Broncos and San Diego ChargersSan Diego ChargersThe San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
for the Raiders. Between the two teams, they must play at least three prime time games every season. - The 49ers' two interconference home games (with a visiting AFCAmerican Football ConferenceThe American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL....
team) are televised by CBSNFL on CBSThe NFL on CBS is the brand name of the CBS television network's coverage of the National Football League's American Football Conference games, produced by CBS Sports.-Market coverage and television policies:...
, and the Raiders' interconference home games (with a visiting NFCNational Football ConferenceThe National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
team) are on FoxNFL on FOXNFL on Fox is the brand name of the Fox Broadcasting Company's coverage of the National Football League's National Football Conference games, produced by Fox Sports...
, unless they are scheduled in prime time. These games must be late games, as they are played on the west coast. By rule, when one of the teams is playing an interconference home game, the other team cannot play a late game at the same time on the other network. Nor can they play an early game on said network, regardless of whether they have the single game or the doubleheader.- The only window that would be available for the Raiders in that situation would be an early game on Fox, likewise with the 49ers on CBS. However, the only two games where the Raiders are on Fox or the 49ers on CBS are interconference home games. All home games in the San Francisco Bay AreaSan Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
must be late games. Therefore, a conflict is found in both cases. - One conflict can be solved by scheduling the 49ers' or Raiders' home game during the other team's bye week. The second conflict would have to be averted by scheduling one of the teams for national television (e.g. ThanksgivingThanksgiving ClassicThe National Football League's Thanksgiving Classic is a series of games played during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It has been a regular occurrence since the league's inception in 1920. Since 2006, three games are played every Thanksgiving...
, Thursday NightNFL NetworkNFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
, Saturday Night, Sunday NightNBC Sunday Night FootballNBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of Sunday evening National Football League games on NBC that began airing on Sunday, August 6, 2006 with the pre-season opening Hall of Fame Game. Al Michaels serves as the play-by-play announcer, with Cris Collinsworth as the color...
or Monday Night FootballMonday Night FootballMonday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
).- The NFL will avoid conflicts in the 2011 season2011 NFL seasonThe 2011 NFL season, the 92nd regular season of the National Football League, began on Thursday, September 8, 2011 with the Super Bowl XLV champion Green Bay Packers defeating the New Orleans Saints 42–34 at Lambeau Field and will end with Super Bowl XLVI, the league's championship game, on...
by using both options listed in the second scenario above. The Raiders will host interconference games against the Chicago Bears2011 Chicago Bears seasonThe 2011 Chicago Bears season is the franchise's 92nd overall season in the National Football League, and the 8th under head coach Lovie Smith. The Bears, defending NFC North Division champions, will seek a return to the playoffs after falling in the NFC Championship Game to their arch-rivals the...
and Detroit Lions2011 Detroit Lions seasonThe 2011 Detroit Lions season is the franchise's 82nd season in the National Football League, the 10th playing its home games at Ford Field and the third year under head coach Jim Schwartz. Currently 7–4, the team has improved on its 6–10 record from 2010, which is its third consecutive improved...
. The former game was scheduled during the week that the 49ers played at the Baltimore Ravens2011 Baltimore Ravens seasonThe 2011 Baltimore Ravens season will be the 16th in the National Football League and city of Baltimore, Maryland, and the 14th to host home games at M&T Bank Stadium. The Ravens will seek to act upon their 12–4 record from 2010 and win the American Football Conference's North division title for...
on Thanksgiving (the 49ers' first game played on that holiday in 39 seasons), while the latter game is scheduled during the week that the 49ers host the Pittsburgh Steelers2011 Pittsburgh Steelers seasonThe 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers season will be the team's 79th season as a professional sports franchise and as a member of the National Football League . It is expected to be the twelfth season under the leadership of general manager Kevin Colbert and the fifth under head coach Mike Tomlin...
on Monday Night Football. Conversely, the 49ers' other interconference home game, vs. the Cleveland Browns2011 Cleveland Browns seasonThe 2011 Cleveland Browns season will be the team's 65th season as a professional sports franchise and its 61st season as a member of the National Football League . The team will attempt to improve on its 2010 season, where it finished with a record of 5–11 and placed third in the AFC North...
, was scheduled during the Raiders' byeBye (sports)A bye, in sports and other competitive activities, most commonly refers to the practice of allowing a player or team to advance to the next round of a playoff tournament without playing...
week.
- The NFL will avoid conflicts in the 2011 season
- The only window that would be available for the Raiders in that situation would be an early game on Fox, likewise with the 49ers on CBS. However, the only two games where the Raiders are on Fox or the 49ers on CBS are interconference home games. All home games in the San Francisco Bay Area
- In 20102010 NFL seasonThe 2010 NFL season was the 91st regular season of the National Football League.The regular season began with the NFL Kickoff game on NBC on Thursday, September 9, at the Louisiana Superdome as the New Orleans Saints, Super Bowl XLIV champions, defeated the Minnesota Vikings 14–9.Tom Brady,...
, the 49ers hosted the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders, while the Raiders hosted the St. Louis Rams2010 St. Louis Rams season-Schedule:-Week 1: vs. Arizona Cardinals:The St. Louis Rams began their season at home for an NFC West match against the Arizona Cardinals. The Rams trailed in the 2nd quarter with Cardinals kicker Jay Feely nailing a 22-yard field goal, which was replied when Rams kicker Josh Brown made a 46-yard...
and the Seattle Seahawks. With the Broncos–49ers game being played in London, England during Week 8 of that season, the game occurred in the early time slot, something that would have been prohibited had the game been played in San Francisco. The Raiders hosted the Seahawks on that day, marking the first time the 49ers played on CBS and the Raiders played on Fox on the same day, though the Raiders game was blacked out anyway.
- If the 49ers or Raiders win the Super BowlSuper BowlThe Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, the NFL may take advantage of the opportunity by scheduling an opponent from the opposite conference for the Kickoff GameNational Football League Kickoff gameThe NFL Kickoff game, and related festivities, mark the start of the National Football League season. The first game of the season is currently scheduled for the Thursday following Labor Day. A single game is held, preceded by a concert and other ceremonies. Since the 2004 season, the defending...
at the beginning of the following season. If the 49ers host the Kickoff Game (on a Thursday night), the Raiders can possibly host a Week 1 season opener on Fox, unless the schedule of the Raiders' Major League BaseballMajor League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
counterparts, the Oakland AthleticsOakland AthleticsThe Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
, creates a conflict (the Raiders and Athletics share O.co Coliseum).
- Beginning in 2010, the NFL implemented intra-division scheduling only during Week 17 in order to discourage teams who have secured playoff berths from resting key players and phoning in games at the end of the season. All Week 17 games occur on Sunday, and the NBC Sunday Night flex-game for Week 17 is not determined until the final week of the season. Since the Kansas City ChiefsKansas City ChiefsThe Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
and St. Louis Rams are the only western division teams not in the MountainMountain Time ZoneThe Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time, during the shortest days of autumn and winter , and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time in the spring, summer, and early autumn...
or PacificPacific Time ZoneThe Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
time zones, this means that one Bay Area team would have to end their season at the appropriate MissouriMissouriMissouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
division rival in the early time slot, while the other team plays in the late time slot. It is suggested that each team will alternate every other year between ending their season at the appropriate Missouri rival and in the late time slot. If the 49ers or Raiders get flexed to NBC in the final week, the team not playing on NBC can have its game moved to 4:15 p.m. EST if it is visiting the appropriate Missouri team and playoff positioning is on the line.
The often complicated television package is a significant factor in why the schedule for a particular season takes several weeks to develop.
Giants and Jets
In general, the league never schedules the Giants and the Jets to play their games at the same time, except for a head-to-head meeting. The league allowed two exceptions during the 2009 NFL season2009 NFL season
The 2009 NFL season was the 90th regular season of the National Football League.The preseason started with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on August 9, 2009, and the regular season began September 10. The season ended with Super Bowl XLIV, the league's championship game, on February 7, 2010 at...
due to unusual scheduling logistics. These exceptions marked the first times since 1984
1984 NFL season
The 1984 NFL season was the 65th regular season of the National Football League. The Colts relocated from Baltimore, Maryland to Indianapolis, Indiana....
that the Giants and Jets played games simultaneously.
- The aforementioned 49ersSan Francisco 49ersThe San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
' and RaidersOakland RaidersThe Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
' late time slot requirement does not exist for the Giants and Jets. Both of those teams can play home games in either time slot: 1:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m. because they are in the Eastern time zoneEastern Time ZoneThe Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
. However, the same conflict presented by the interconference home games still exists, as having one team play a home interconference game would force the other team to also play a home interconference game during the same day. Since both teams play home games at MetLife Stadium, it is impossible for one team to play a home game in the early time slot and for the other to play a home game in the late time slot, the only exception being if one of the teams was involved in the International Series.- In 20102010 NFL seasonThe 2010 NFL season was the 91st regular season of the National Football League.The regular season began with the NFL Kickoff game on NBC on Thursday, September 9, at the Louisiana Superdome as the New Orleans Saints, Super Bowl XLIV champions, defeated the Minnesota Vikings 14–9.Tom Brady,...
, the Giants hosted the Tennessee TitansTennessee TitansThe Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
and Jacksonville JaguarsJacksonville JaguarsThe Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. The former game was played during the week that the Jets played at the Miami DolphinsMiami DolphinsThe Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
on NBC Sunday Night FootballNBC Sunday Night FootballNBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of Sunday evening National Football League games on NBC that began airing on Sunday, August 6, 2006 with the pre-season opening Hall of Fame Game. Al Michaels serves as the play-by-play announcer, with Cris Collinsworth as the color...
, and the latter game was played three days after the Jets hosted the Cincinnati BengalsCincinnati BengalsThe Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL...
on ThanksgivingThanksgiving ClassicThe National Football League's Thanksgiving Classic is a series of games played during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It has been a regular occurrence since the league's inception in 1920. Since 2006, three games are played every Thanksgiving...
. Conversely, the Jets hosted the Minnesota VikingsMinnesota VikingsThe Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
on Monday Night FootballMonday Night FootballMonday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
, and the Green Bay PackersGreen Bay PackersThe Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
during the Giants' bye weekBye (sports)A bye, in sports and other competitive activities, most commonly refers to the practice of allowing a player or team to advance to the next round of a playoff tournament without playing...
. - In 20112011 NFL seasonThe 2011 NFL season, the 92nd regular season of the National Football League, began on Thursday, September 8, 2011 with the Super Bowl XLV champion Green Bay Packers defeating the New Orleans Saints 42–34 at Lambeau Field and will end with Super Bowl XLVI, the league's championship game, on...
, the Giants and Jets will play each other on December 24, with FoxNFL on FOXNFL on Fox is the brand name of the Fox Broadcasting Company's coverage of the National Football League's National Football Conference games, produced by Fox Sports...
as the televising network (the Giants are the designated road team). The Jets' other interconference home game, against the Dallas CowboysDallas CowboysThe Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
, was played on NBC Sunday Night Football on September 11. Conversely, the Giants hosted the Buffalo BillsBuffalo BillsThe Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
on October 16 and the Miami Dolphins on October 30. The former game was played one day before the Jets hosted the Dolphins on Monday Night Football, while the latter game was played during the Jets' bye week.
- In 2010
Other exceptions
The same principles that apply to the New York and San Francisco markets were also in effect when the RamsSt. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...
and Raiders shared the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
market from 1982 to 1994. Like San Francisco, this often meant the Rams or Raiders would be scheduled for a 10 a.m. PT start for away games.
The Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
and Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are a professional football franchise based in Baltimore, Maryland.The Baltimore Ravens are officially a quasi-expansion franchise, having originated in 1995 with the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy after Art Modell, then owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced his...
are served by separate media markets, and so they can play at the same time. If one team is at home and the other is on the road, both games have aired in each market on a few occasions. However, this policy is not consistently applied in either city.
Sunday bonus coverage
When a media market's regionally televised game ends before the others, the network (CBS or Fox) may switch to "bonus coverage" of the ending of another game. However, the league imposes two restrictions that are designed to maximize the ratings of the late games on the doubleheader network, which tend to record the most NFL viewers during the day, often beating the audience for Sunday night games.First, bonus coverage offered after any early time slot games cannot be shown past the start of the late time slot (either 4:10 ET for the doubleheader network or 4:15 ET for the non-doubleheader network). This prevents people from continuing to watch the bonus coverage instead of seeing the beginning of the late doubleheader network's game (which is usually either their local team or the network's featured game). Again, the networks may show highlights of the game, and usually will at the earliest opportunity. The network broadcasting the single game will sometimes show each play as soon as it ends as part of its post-game show. A station originally getting the game featured during bonus coverage will stay with it unless they are leaving to show a local team.
Second, bonus coverage cannot be shown after a late game on the single-game network because it will run in opposition to the ending of the late doubleheader network's game(s) and NBC's pre-game show. However, the single-game network usually schedules most of its top games in the early 1:00 ET time slot (except for west coast teams' home games, and possibly either a Giants or Jets game), so this does not tend to be a major issue.
If the doubleheader network's games all finish before 7:30 ET, it is supposed to conclude the post-game show within 10 minutes to protect NBC's pre-game show. If any games finish after 7:30, the post-game program can run until 8:00 ET. However, this restriction seems to apply to game footage only; on several occasions Fox has run its post-game offering to 8:00, despite all games ending before 7:30, by airing only panel discussions and interviews in the latter portion of the show. On the other hand, CBS rarely airs any post-game show after its doubleheaders or 4:05 single-games. This is because 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
is one of its signature shows, and CBS makes every effort to start it as close to 7:00—its traditional airtime—as possible.
Local simulcasting of cable games
To maximize TV ratings, as well as to protect the NFL's ability to sell TV rights collectively, games televised on ESPN or the NFL Network are simulcast on a local broadcast station in each of the primary markets of both teams (the Green Bay PackersGreen Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
have two primary markets, Green Bay
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
and Milwaukee, a remnant of when they played some home games in Milwaukee each season, see below). This station does not need to have affiliate connections with a national broadcaster of NFL games. Stations who are the affiliates of My Network TV or The CW have out bid more established local broadcasters in some markets. However, the home team's market must be completely served by the station and can that broadcast can only air if the game is sold out within 72 hours of kick-off (see below).
On November 8, 1987, the very first NFL game ever aired on ESPN was played between the New England Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
and New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
. Technically, the game was only simulcast in the Boston market, with a separate broadcast produced for the New York market by ESPN sister property WABC-TV
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
- at the time, WABC's union contract prohibited non-union workers (like those of ESPN) from working on live events broadcast on the station. This marked the only time since the AFL-NFL merger that a regular season game was locally produced for TV. The WABC broadcast featured WABC's own Corey McPherrin
Corey McPherrin
Corey B. McPherrin , known professionally as Corey McPherrin, is the morning news anchor for WFLD-TV in Chicago.- Early life and education :...
doing play-by-play, and Frank Gifford
Frank Gifford
Francis Newton "Frank" Gifford is a Hall of Fame former American football player and American sportscaster.-Early life:Gifford was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Lola Mae and Weldon Gifford, an oil driller....
and Lynn Swann
Lynn Swann
-Collegiate:Swann attended the University of Southern California, where he was an All-American on the Trojans football team. He played under legendary coach John McKay, including the 1972 undefeated and national championship season. McKay said of Swann, "He has speed, soft hands, and grace." He...
from Monday Night Football doing color commentary.
Flexible scheduling
Since the 2006 season2006 NFL season
The 2006 NFL season was the 87th regular season of the National Football League.Regular season play was held from September 7 to December 31, 2006...
, the NFL has used a "flexible scheduling" system for the last seven weeks of the regular season when there is a Sunday night game. This is because by week 11, there are a number of teams that have been eliminated or nearly eliminated from playoff contention. Flex-scheduling ensures that all Sunday night games have playoff significance. As an example, the Vikings played the Panthers in December 2009. The latter team was out of playoff contention, but Minnesota needed a win to acquire the #1 NFC seed. This system also allows teams that enjoy unexpected success to acquire a prime time spot that was not on their original schedule. Thanksgiving games and all games airing on cable channels (Monday, Thursday, and Saturday games) are fixed in place and cannot be changed, as are games during Christmas weekend whenever Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, as it will in 2011 (most games are played on Christmas Eve Saturday instead).
Under the system, most Sunday games in the affected weeks in the Eastern
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
and Central time zones will tentatively have the start time of 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT). Those played in the Mountain
Mountain Time Zone
The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time, during the shortest days of autumn and winter , and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time in the spring, summer, and early autumn...
or Pacific
Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
time zones will have the tentative start time of 4:05/4:15 p.m. ET (1:05/1:15 p.m. PT). Also, there will be one game provisionally scheduled for the 8:15 p.m. ET slot. On the Tuesday twelve days before the games (possibly sooner), the league will move one game to the prime time slot (or keep its original choice), and possibly move one or more 1:00 p.m. slotted games to the 4:00 p.m. slot. During the last week of the season, the league could re-schedule games as late as six days before the contests so that as many of the television networks as possible will be able to broadcast a game that has major playoff implications.
Fox and CBS each may protect a total of five Sunday afternoon games, not more than one per week, during weeks 11-16 and NBC selcts which game they want to air. FOX and CBS cannot protect games in week 17. In years when Christmas falls on Sunday (like 2011) the NFL schedules most games for Saturday December 24 and then schedules a Sunday night game for NBC on Christmas night. Thus, flexible scheduling can not occur in week 16 so the flex period changes to weeks 10-15, and week 17. Week 17 game on Sunday night is decided exclusively by the NFL without the ability of CBS or FOX to protect games, nor NBC to pick what game they want. There are no restrictions on which game the NFL can select. Starting in 2010 when the NFL schedules divisional matchups in week 17 it is possible an intradivisional game that appeared on national TV previously could be selected again. The NFL will only select such a game when there is no other option.
Individual teams may make no more than four appearances on NBC during the season. Only three teams may make as many as six prime time appearances (Sunday night, Monday night, and Thursday night combined). The remaining teams may make a maximum of five prime time appearances. In addition, there are no restrictions amongst intra-division games being "flexed."
Blackout policies
Since 1973, the NFL has maintained a blackout policy that states that a home game cannot be televised locally if it is not sold out 72 hours prior to its start time. Prior to 1973, all games were blacked out in the home city of origin regardless of whether they were sold out. This policy, dating back to the NFL's emerging television years, resulted in home-city blackouts even during championship games. For instance, the 1958 "Greatest Game Ever Played"NFL Championship Game, 1958
The 1958 National Football League Championship Game was played on December 28, 1958 at Yankee Stadium in New York City. It was the first ever National Football League playoff game to go into sudden death overtime. The final score was Baltimore Colts 23, New York Giants 17. The game has since...
between the Baltimore Colts
1958 Baltimore Colts season
The 1958 Baltimore Colts season was the 6th season for the team in the National Football League. The Baltimore Colts finished the National Football League's 1958 season with a record of 9 wins and 3 losses and finished first in the Western Conference....
and New York Giants
1958 New York Giants season
The 1958 New York Giants season was the 34th season for the club in the National Football League.-Transactions:*The Giants obtained Lindon Crow and Pat Summerall from the Chicago Cardinals in exchange for Dick Nolan, Bobby Joe Conrad, and the Giants first round pick.*The Giants acquired Carl...
was unavailable to New York fans despite the sellout. (Many fans rented hotel rooms in Connecticut to watch the game on Hartford TV, a practice that continued for Giants games through 1972.) Similarly, all Super Bowl games prior to 1973
Super Bowl VII
Super Bowl VII was an American football game played on January 14, 1973, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, to decide the National Football League champion following the 1972 regular season...
were unavailable in the host city's market.
Although that policy was successfully defended in court numerous times, Congress passed legislation requiring the NFL to impose the 72-hour deadline (see above). The league will sometimes change this deadline to 48 hours if there are only a few thousand tickets left unsold; much more rarely, they will occasionally extend this to 24 hours in special cases.
Alternatively, some NFL teams have arrangements with local television stations or businesses to purchase unsold tickets. Teams themselves are allowed to purchase remaining non-premium tickets at 34 cents on the dollar (the portion subject to revenue sharing
Revenue sharing
Revenue sharing has multiple, related meanings depending on context.In business, revenue sharing refers to the sharing of profits and losses among different groups. One form shares between the general partner and limited partners in a limited partnership...
) to prevent a blackout. Tickets in premium club sections
Club seating
Club Level Seating is a special section of seating in modern sports stadiums.The Club Level is usually located towards the middle of the stage of seating sections, above the lower deck but below the upper deck. They are usually right next to the Luxury Boxes, either right above, right below, or...
have been excluded from the blackout rule in past years, as have unused tickets allocated to the visiting team. The Jacksonville Jaguars
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
have even gone further and closed off a number of sections at their home EverBank Field to reduce the number of tickets they would need to sell. EverBank Field is one of the largest in the NFL, as it was built to also accommodate the annual Florida-Georgia game and Gator Bowl
Gator Bowl
The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. Held continuously since 1946, it is the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised nationally...
and was expanded for Super Bowl XXXIX
Super Bowl XXXIX
Super Bowl XXXIX was an American football game played on February 6, 2005, at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, to decide the National Football League champion following the 2004 regular season...
even though it draws from one of the smallest markets in the league. The NFL requires that closing off sections be done uniformly for every home game, including playoff games, in a given season. This prevents teams from trying to sell out the entire stadium only when they expect to be able to do so.
Blackout radius
The NFL defines a team's market area as "local" if it is within a 75-mile radius of the team's home stadium. Therefore, a blackout affects any market where the terrestrialTerrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
broadcast signal of an affiliate station
Network affiliate
In the broadcasting industry , a network affiliate is a local broadcaster which carries some or all of the television program or radio program line-up of a television or radio network, but is owned by a company other than the owner of the network...
, under normal conditions, penetrates into the 75-mile radius. These affiliates are determined before the season, and do not change as the season progresses. Some remote primary media markets, such as Denver and Phoenix, may cover that entire radius, so that the blackout would not affect any other affiliates. However, in some instances a very tiny portion of a distant city's market area can be within the 75-mile radius of a different city, thus leading to blackouts well beyond the targeted area. The most notable example is the Syracuse
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
market's blackout of Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
games because a small section of the town of Italy
Italy, New York
Italy is a town located in Yates County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 1,087. The town takes its name from the European country, Italy....
of Yates County containing a handful of people lies within the 75-mile radius of Ralph Wilson Stadium
Ralph Wilson Stadium
Ralph Wilson Stadium is a football stadium, located in the town of Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, New York. It is the home for the Buffalo Bills, of the NFL...
while the entirety of the remainder of the Syracuse market lies outside of it. At the time Yates County was part of Syracuse DMA but it was switched to Rochester DMA because of exurb expansion with more and more immediate Rochester area employees were living in Yates county and traveling to the Rochester are for events.
The NFL does allow in some cases for secondary markets to go beyond the 75 mile radius in part to help draw fans to attend the game. Some of these exceptions are in Charlotte where many of its secondary markets lie outside the 75 mile radius (Raleigh). Others include San Diego and San Francisco, primarily due to Los Angeles having not had an NFL team since 1994.
An exception to the 75-mile rule is the Green Bay Packers' market area. It stretches out to both the Green Bay
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
and Milwaukee television markets. (The team's radio flagship station is in Milwaukee, and selected Packer home games were played in Milwaukee until 1994.) Unofficially, and to a smaller extent, it also reaches the Escanaba
Escanaba, Michigan
Escanaba is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, located in the banana belt on the state's Upper Peninsula. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 13,140, making it the third-largest city in the Upper Peninsula after Marquette and Sault Ste. Marie...
/Marquette, Michigan
Marquette, Michigan
Marquette is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Marquette County. The population was 21,355 at the 2010 census, making it the most populated city of the Upper Peninsula. Marquette is a major port on Lake Superior, primarily for shipping iron ore and is the home of Northern...
market (which is actually a Detroit Lions stronghold) due to the presence of translator and satellite stations as well as extended cable coverage of Green Bay stations north into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. However, blackouts have never been required; the Packers' home stadium, Lambeau Field
Lambeau Field
Lambeau Field is an outdoor football stadium in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the home of the NFL's Green Bay Packers. Opened in 1957 as City Stadium, it replaced the original City Stadium as the Packers' home field...
, boasts a five-decade long streak of sellouts and 80,000 names on its season ticket waiting list (with very low turnover each year, thus making it difficult to get tickets; it is common practice in Wisconsin for a name to be put on the list when a person is born, as well as to purchase tickets for road games). The Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
, and Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
also have sellout streaks that predate the current blackout rules, and so have not had any of their home games blacked out since 1972 either (each of these teams also have long waiting lists for season tickets).
Similarly, no Super Bowl has ever been unavailable in the market of origin since the new blackout rules came into effect. Every Super Bowl except the first was a sellout, and, with the game's high-profile status, a blackout is highly unlikely for the foreseeable future.
No opposing games
Another policy to encourage sellouts, is that no other NFL game can air opposite the local club's broadcast on the primary market's affiliate.- If a local club's broadcast is at home in the early game of a doubleheader, the other network (which shows the single game) may only show a game during the late time slot.
- If a local club's broadcast is at home in the late game of a doubleheader, the other network (which shows the single game) may only show a game during the early time slot.
- If a local club is playing at home, and the broadcast is shown by the single game network, the other network (which shows the doubleheader) may only air one game in that market; either early or late (the slot which the local club is not playing).
- If a local club is playing away, and the broadcast is shown by the single game network, the other network (which shows the doubleheader) may air both of their games.
If a local club is playing on the road on the doubleheader network, the other network can air its single game in the same timeslot opposite the local club's game. However, most affiliates opt against it because such an action usually ensures low ratings. The "no opposing game" policy is a key reason why single game fixtures on the east coast are occasionally scheduled for the late time slot.
This rule does not apply in Week 1 when the US Open Tennis Championships are on CBS at 4:30 p.m. CBS affiliates may broadcast games opposite a team that has a home game on Fox at the same time in Week 1.
Each TV market, including one hosting a game that is not sold out, is assured of at least one televised game in the early and late time slots, one game on each network, but no network doubleheader in the home market of a game that is not sold out.
The New York and San Francisco Bay Area media markets typically get fewer doubleheaders than other markets as each has two teams, and one of them is at home virtually every week. The main exception is when one of the teams is idle, has its home game televised on the doubleheader network, or is chosen for a prime time game. This policy affects only the club's primary market, not others with signals that penetrate inside the 75-mile radius. It also does not affect viewers of NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket is an Out-of-Market Sports Package that broadcasts National Football League regular season games unavailable on local affiliates. It carries all regional Sunday afternoon games produced by Fox and CBS...
in the primary market; all other games remain available.
Blackout procedure
If a home game is unavailable locally because it is not sold out before the 72-hour deadline, one of the following things will happen:- If the blacked out home game is a nationally televised game on a broadcast network, such as NBC Sunday Night FootballNBC Sunday Night FootballNBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of Sunday evening National Football League games on NBC that began airing on Sunday, August 6, 2006 with the pre-season opening Hall of Fame Game. Al Michaels serves as the play-by-play announcer, with Cris Collinsworth as the color...
, where no other NFL games are played at the same time, all local stations inside the 75-mile radius must broadcast alternative programming (the stations have to program the time themselves, since other affiliates are showing the game). This scenario is unlikely to happen given that Sunday Night games are scheduled to have highly anticipated contests featuring teams in good form. Thus the chances of a home crowd not selling out during the first half of the season, when there is still hope for a team to rebound after a poor start, are remote. Roughly halfway through the season NBC and NFL are given the option to "flex" games in and out of the prime time slot. Therefore, if a late season match features an out-of-form home team and thus would be unlikely to sell out, it will be moved to Sunday afternoon in favor of a better game (a prime example being in 2010 when the Chargers-Bengals game was moved to the afternoon in favor of the Vikings-Eagles game, which ended up being played on Tuesday due to severe weather in the Philadelphia areaDecember 2010 North American blizzardThe December 2010 North American blizzard was a major nor'easter and historic blizzard affecting the United States from portions of northern Florida to Maine and portions of Canada on December 26–27, 2010. It was the first significant winter storm of the 2010-11 winter season and the fourth North...
; the Bengals game ended up being blacked out, and thus WKRC-TVWKRC-TVWKRC-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Tri-State area of Southern Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Southeastern Indiana that is licensed to Cincinnati. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter at its studios on Highland Avenue in the Mount...
and two other nearby CBS affiliates could not carry the game).
- If the blacked-out nationally televised game is on a cable televisionCable televisionCable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
network such as ESPNESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
or the NFL NetworkNFL NetworkNFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
, all cable and satellite televisionSatellite televisionSatellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
providers in the affected markets must black out the cable network's signal to customers in the affected markets during the game (this is a condition of the channels' agreements with both the league and the providers). In addition, the game is not simulcast on a local broadcast station in the blacked-out markets. Local stations would still be able to show highlights on their newscasts after the game has concluded. In areas where the game is blacked out, ESPN and the NFL Network would generally offer alternate programming (ESPN traditionally switches to a simulcast of ESPNNEWS); local stations originally scheduled to carry the game would either show their own alternate programming or, if a network affiliate, show the normal network schedule for that night.
- If the blacked-out home game is played on a Sunday afternoon, all local stations inside the 75-mile radius must show a different NFL game during that time slot—the network typically chooses the game. Also, NFL Sunday TicketNFL Sunday TicketNFL Sunday Ticket is an Out-of-Market Sports Package that broadcasts National Football League regular season games unavailable on local affiliates. It carries all regional Sunday afternoon games produced by Fox and CBS...
cannot telecast the game into that area. As stated earlier, the doubleheader network can broadcast only one game into that team's primary market (usually the #1 game), which is designed to prevent people from opting to watch the other televised NFL games instead of attending their local team's game. Again, the secondary markets would still carry a doubleheader. Sometimes, the networks will switch time slots so that the doubleheader network can still show its featured 4:15 p.m. game.
- The NFL Mobile app for mobile devices periodically checks the user's location in order to enforce blackouts, and will not show a blacked-out game if the device is being used in the game's home market. Transmissions are also blacked out if the mobile device is currently within or near the home stadium.
Critics claim that these blackout policies are largely ineffective in creating sold out, filled stadiums. They contend that there are other factors that prevent sellouts, such as high ticket prices and low enthusiasm for a losing team. Furthermore, blackouts hurt the league; without the television exposure, it becomes more difficult for those teams with low attendance and few sellouts to increase their popularity and following as the exposure decreases.
Conversely, the NFL has sold out well over 90 percent of games in recent seasons. Additionally, many teams sell out their entire regular season schedule before it begins (usually through season-ticket sales), and so there is no threat of a blackout in those markets.
In 2005, for the first time in its history, the NFL lifted the blackout policies for a team: the New Orleans Saints
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....
. Due to damage
Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Saints
After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans on August 29, 2005 and caused extensive damage to the Louisiana Superdome, the New Orleans Saints were not able to play any home games there for the entire 2005 NFL season...
by Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, the Saints split their home games between Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...
in East Rutherford, New Jersey
East Rutherford, New Jersey
East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,913. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan....
, Tiger Stadium at Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
in Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
, and the Alamodome
Alamodome
The Alamodome is a domed 65,000 seat, multi-purpose facility that is primarily used as a football/basketball stadium and convention center in San Antonio, Texas, U.S...
in San Antonio. Baton Rouge is a secondary Saints market and is subject to blackouts when games at the Superdome carried by over-the-air networks do not sell out, since CBS affiliate WAFB
WAFB
WAFB is the CBS-affiliated television station for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter southwest of Arlington. Owned by Raycom Media, WAFB is sister to Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WBXH-CA. The two share studios on Government...
and Fox affiliate WGMB
WGMB
WGMB-TV is the local Fox affiliate for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is owned by Communications Corporation of America, and is sister station to the area's The CW affiliate, WBRL-CD. WGMB also shared facilities and staff with WVLA-TV and KZUP-CD...
penetrate within 75 miles of the Superdome, even though the city limits of Baton Rouge are more than 75 miles from the Superdome (the Baton Rouge DMA is not blacked out when Saints games televised by ESPN or the NFL Network do not sell out).
San Antonio is an unofficial secondary market for the Dallas Cowboys (in that the Cowboys games are routinely televised in that area, but the area is not within the 75 mile blackout radius), and two of three 2005 Saints games played at the Alamodome were not broadcast anywhere in Texas, as the start times for the Cowboys and Saints games conflicted on those dates. The only game of the San Antonio dates not to sell out, in week 4 against Buffalo, was televised locally by CBS (on KENS-TV
KENS-TV
KENS is the CBS affiliate television station in San Antonio, Texas owned and operated by The Belo Corporation. Prior to late April 2010, KENS also managed UPN, later The CW, affiliate station KCWX through a local marketing agreement...
) as the Cowboys had a late game that day at Oakland. (San Antonio Fox affiliate KABB
KABB
KABB is the Fox Network affiliate television station in San Antonio, Texas. It is co-owned with The CW Television Network affiliate KMYS by the Sinclair Broadcast Group...
, therefore, never broadcast a Saints home game in San Antonio, as the Cowboys and Saints are in the NFC, and the Cowboys have a larger following in Texas.)
The blackout policies extend even to the Pro Bowl
Pro Bowl
In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
; if that game is not sold out, it is unavailable in the home media market. From 1980 through 2009, and also in 2011, the game was played in Honolulu, making the applicable market the entire state of Hawaii. The 2010 game was played in the Miami area.
Due to decreasing ticket sales, the league significantly softened its blackout policy in 2009. Though the traditional rules still apply, the league is using some of its new media features to provide access to untelecasted games. For instance, the league will not subject its "RedZone" channel to any blackouts. In addition, complete live games will be made available for free online on the Monday (except Monday Night Football), Tuesday, and Wednesday following the game if the game is blacked out, using the league's Game Rewind package.
Teams and year of last blackout/non-sell out
- Packers (1959)†
- Redskins (1965)†
- Broncos (1969)†
- Steelers (1972)†
- Giants (1975)
- Jets (1977)
- 49ers (1981)
- Bears (1984)
- Cowboys (1990)
- Patriots (1993)
- Browns (1995)‡
- Titans (1997)
- Vikings (1997)
- Dolphins (1998)
- Eagles (1999)
- Colts (2002)
- Panthers (2002)
- Seahawks (2002)
- Saints (2004)
- Cardinals (2005)
- Falcons (2006)
- Chiefs (2009)
- Jaguars (2009)
- Rams (2009)
- Bills (2010)
- Lions (2010)
- Raiders (2010)
- Bengals (2011)
- Buccaneers (2011)
- Chargers (2011)
As of the 2010 season, the Texans, and Ravens have never had a blacked out game.
† – Games were always blacked out locally before 1973; the dates for the Packers, Redskins, Broncos, and Steelers refer to the last non-sellout.
‡ – The Browns didn't sell out their last two home games for the 1995 season
1995 Cleveland Browns season
The 1995 Cleveland Browns season was the team's 46th season with the National Football League. On November 6, then-owner Art Modell announced his intentions to move the team to Baltimore...
as a direct result of the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
The Cleveland Browns relocation controversy was the decision by then Browns owner Art Modell to move the National Football League team from its longtime home of Cleveland, Ohio to Baltimore, Maryland for the 1996 NFL season...
, this was despite one of the games being against their in-state rivals, the Bengals. The Cleveland Browns have sold out every game since their re-introduction into the NFL in 1999.
Secondary markets
The league also designates "secondary markets," usually adjoining primary markets (generally areas within 75 miles of a stadium but not having their own team) that are also required to show the local team. Generally, these secondary markets must show the away games but are not obligated to telecast the designated team's sold out home games.Their decision on whether to show home games typically depends on whether the NFL-designated local team is perceived to be the most popular in the market. For example, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...
is a secondary market to the Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are a professional football franchise based in Baltimore, Maryland.The Baltimore Ravens are officially a quasi-expansion franchise, having originated in 1995 with the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy after Art Modell, then owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced his...
. Therefore the CBS station in Harrisburg, WHP-TV
WHP-TV
WHP-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for South Central Pennsylvania licensed to Harrisburg. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 21. Its transmitter on a ridge north of Linglestown Road in Susquehanna Township...
, must show all Ravens away games.
However, since there are many Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
fans in the region, when the Ravens are home at the same time the Steelers are playing, that station shows the latter. Harrisburg is thus considered a battleground territory for the Steelers–Ravens rivalry.
The same applies for the Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
metropolitan area, as its local CBS affiliate WKMG
WKMG
WKMG may refer to:*WKMG-TV, a television station licensed to Orlando, Florida, United States*WKMG , a radio station licensed to Newberry, South Carolina, United States...
broadcasts both Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and Jacksonville Jaguars
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
games. In some cases, the NFL has the two teams play at different times to accommodate the entire state of Florida (but only when CBS has the doubleheader, or if one of the teams is on Fox). WKMG lobbied to carry a Dolphins game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
in 2005, but the NFL refused - as Orlando is officially a Jaguars secondary market, the station had to carry the Jaguars game at Pittsburgh.
Two-team secondary markets
There are rare instances where a market will have two teams claiming their territory.
For instance, Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
lies roughly halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, is within the 75-mile radius for both cities and is considered a battleground territory in the Browns–Steelers rivalry. Therefore, local CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate WKBN-TV
WKBN-TV
WKBN-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Youngstown, Ohio. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 41 from a transmitter at WKBN's studios on Sunset Boulevard in Boardman Township. Owned by New Vision Television, WKBN is sister to and shares studios with low-power...
must show whichever team is playing an away game. If one game is on CBS while the other is on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, both games will air. (WKBN also owns low-powered
Low-power broadcasting
Low-power broadcasting is electronic broadcasting at very low power and low cost, to a small community area.The terms "low-power broadcasting" and "micropower broadcasting" should not be used interchangeably, because the markets are not the same...
Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliate WYFX-LP
WYFX-LP
WYFX-LD is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Mahoning Valley of Northeastern Ohio, licensed to Youngstown. It broadcasts a low-powered digital signal UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on Sunset Boulevard in Boardman Township. Owned by New Vision Television, the station is sister to CBS...
and simulcasts WYFX on its second digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
in HDTV
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
along with the main WKBN channel.)
If both the Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the Pittsburgh Steelers are scheduled to play at the same time on CBS or Fox and the location of the game does not matter, WKBN/WYFX will air the Browns game. The fan base is evenly split between those two teams, with the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
also having a small following due to team owners John
John York
John C. York is a retired American cancer research pathologist, married to Marie Denise DeBartolo York, and former co-owner and current co-chairman of the San Francisco 49ers. The Yorks have four children: sons Jed and Tony, and daughters Jenna and Mara.York was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma...
and Denise DeBartolo York
Denise DeBartolo York
Marie Denise DeBartolo York is the former owner and current co-chair of the San Francisco 49ers. She is the daughter of late construction magnate Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. and the late Marie Patricia Montani DeBartolo....
being based out of the Youngstown suburb of Canfield, Ohio
Canfield, Ohio
Canfield is an affluent suburban city located in Mahoning County, Ohio,[United States, at the intersection of U.S. Route 224 and State Route 46/U.S. Route 62, about ten miles southwest of Youngstown. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 7,374. It is part of the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman,...
.
Similar issues concerning the same market teams happens on the Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
CBS affiliate WTRF, who runs CBS on its main subchannel, with a FOX affiliate on its first subchannel ("FOX Ohio Valley"). At times, WTRF will run a FOX broadcast game on the subchannel opposite a Browns or Steelers home game that aired on the CBS channel regardless, and vice versa. It's interesting to note that Wheeling is right near the 75-mile radius border of the Pittsburgh market to where they would be regulated.
"Unofficial" and "temporary" secondary markets
Many markets serve as "unofficial" secondary markets for the league's various teams due to rooting interest in those markets. As they are not designated by the NFL as official secondary markets, they technically are not required to air any games, but will do so to please the fanbases. For example, in Texas, virtually all CBS and Fox stations carry the Houston Texans
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is currently a member of the Southern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
, respectively when those teams are on different networks. However, KTVT
KTVT
KTVT, virtual channel 11, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas-Fort Worth designated market area. The station is co-owned with independent station KTXA , and the two stations share facilities in Dallas and Fort Worth...
in Dallas never airs Texans games unless it has no other option. KRIV
KRIV
KRIV, channel 26, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox, located in Houston, Texas. KRIV is co-owned with MyNetworkTV affiliate KTXH...
in Houston always airs Cowboys games if it is not prohibited from doing so by NFL rules.
As another example, Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team...
games are usually aired across the entire Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
as they are the only team in the area.
The New England Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
, especially since Tom Brady
Tom Brady
Thomas Edward Patrick "Tom" Brady, Jr. is an American football quarterback for the New England Patriots of the National Football League . After playing college football at Michigan, Brady was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft.He has played in four Super Bowls,...
became quarterback, also have almost all of New England as unofficial secondary markets (Providence is an official secondary market). Not only do all or almost all CBS or Fox (depending on the game carrier) affiliate in New England carry Patriots games, but also their preseason network covers the entire region. Hartford is close to New York, and sometimes has aired a New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
game instead. However, this rarely occurs.
An oddity of "temporary" secondary markets has occurred in Wisconsin due to a rooting interest in one particular player. After the 2007 season, quarterback Brett Favre
Brett Favre
Brett Lorenzo Favre is a former American football quarterback who spent the majority of his career with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League . He was a 20-year veteran of the NFL, having played quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons , Green Bay Packers , New York Jets and Minnesota...
departed the Green Bay Packers for the New York Jets. Thus, CBS affiliates WFRV in Green Bay and WDJT-TV
WDJT-TV
WDJT-TV, channel 58, is the CBS-affiliated television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin broadcasting on UHF digital channel 46, that displays WDJT's virtual channel as its former analog channel assignment of 58 via PSIP...
in Milwaukee were able to ask for as many Jets games as CBS and the NFL could offer to their viewers. In 2009, when Favre moved to an NFC North division rival, the Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
, Fox affiliates WLUK-TV
WLUK-TV
WLUK-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Fox River Valley area and Northeastern Wisconsin. Licensed to Green Bay, Wisconsin, the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11 from a transmitter on Scray's Hill in Ledgeview; the station also broadcasts in...
Green Bay and WITI Milwaukee requested as many Vikings games on their stations as possible. This is also occurring in 2011 in Seattle where the market when able to will broadcast Tennessee Titans games because former Seahawks QB Matt Hasselback starts for the Titans and locally born and raised and former University of Washington QB Jake Locker was drafted in the first round of the 2011 NFL draft by the Titans. Given these two fan favorites the local CBS affiliate has requested being able to air as many of these games as possible.
Other information
In all other markets, the networks are the sole arbiters of the telecast matches. However, they usually make their decisions after consulting with all of their local affiliates. On rarer occasions, some affiliates are offered a choice of a few games for a given time-slot, if there is no game that stands out as appropriate. In those cases, some stations have allowed the viewers to vote online for their preferred game.
For example, during Week 3 of the 2010 season, viewers of Fox affiliate KMSS
KMSS-TV
KMSS-TV is the Fox affiliate in Shreveport, Louisiana. The station is seen via satellite through Dish Network and DirecTV...
in Shreveport, Louisiana took part in an online vote where fans could choose between the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
-Houston Texans
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is currently a member of the Southern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
game and the Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are a member of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
-New Orleans Saints
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....
game. The station is situated in the Ark-La-Tex
Ark-La-Tex
The Ark-La-Tex, Arklatex, or ArkLaTex is a U.S. socio-economic region where Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma intersect. Some prefer the more inclusive Arklatexoma...
region, where both the Saints and Cowboys have significant fan bases, due to the Shreveport market being situated on the northern border between Louisiana and Texas, including Texarkana
Texarkana, Texas
Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue...
, and the southwest corner of Arkansas. The poll concluded with viewers choosing the Falcons v. Saints game, even though Shreveport is closer to Dallas than New Orleans.
Commercial breaks
During each half of a network-televised game, there are ten prescribed commercial breaks following the official kickoff. Two are firmly scheduled, and eight others are worked in during breaks in the play.Pre-scheduled commercial breaks:
- The end of the first (or third) quarter
- The two-minute warning of the second (or fourth) quarter
Other instances used for commercial breaks (eight total required per half):
- A timeout called by either team
- Instant replay stoppage
- Game stoppage after a score
- Game stoppage after a kickoff or punt (excluding the opening kickoff of each half)
- Game stoppage after a turnover
- Injury timeout
Two commercial breaks during the typical 12-minute halftime period are considered separate.
Networks are more apt to front-load their commercials in the first and third quarters, to prevent an overrun in the second and fourth quarters respectively. If a team calls a timeout and the network decides to use it for a commercial break, a representative from the broadcast crew stationed on the sidelines wearing orange sleeves makes a crossing motion with his hands to alert the officials. The referee declares it a "two-minute timeout."
Once a broadcast has fulfilled the 8 "random" breaks, game stoppages are no longer needed for commercials. The orange sleeve will hold his hands down in a twirl motion to alert the officials. If a team calls a timeout, the referee will declare it a "30-second timeout." Once any timeout in a half is declared a 30-second timeout, all remaining timeouts will be of the same duration.
Since the 10 total commercial breaks for the second half are to be finished prior to the end of regulation, commercial breaks are rarely needed in overtime situations. In many cases, overtime periods are conducted without any commercials. By definition, a game that has entered overtime is tied, and so the game is still undecided, thus increasing the appeal of the given game. This also allows the extended broadcast to finish in a timely manner. In cases of long overtime periods, networks have been known to have a commercial break during a lengthy injury time out. During postseason play, the very rare instances of double overtime will feature a commercial between periods.
From infancy to national success
NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
was the first major television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
to cover an NFL game, when on October 22, 1939, it broadcast a match between the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the Brooklyn Dodgers
Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL)
The Brooklyn Dodgers were an American football team that played in the National Football League from 1930 to 1943, and in 1944 as the Brooklyn Tigers. The team played its home games at Ebbets Field. In 1945, because of financial difficulties, the team was merged with the Boston Yanks...
; the network was still only in its infancy, with only two affiliates, the modern day WRGB
WRGB
WRGB, channel 6, is a television station located in Schenectady, New York, USA. WRGB is owned by Freedom Communications, and is the CBS affiliate for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy television market...
(now a CBS affiliate) in Schenectady and WNBC
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
in New York City.
Regular broadcasts of games began after World War II and the first NFL championship to be televised was the 1948 match between the Eagles and Cardinals.
In 1950, the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
became the first NFL teams to have all of their games—home and away—televised. In the same year, other teams made deals to have selected games telecast. The DuMont Network
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
then paid a rights fee of $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
75,000 to broadcast the 1951 NFL Championship Game across the entire nation.
From 1953 to 1955, DuMont also televised Saturday night NFL games
NFL on DuMont
The NFL on DuMont was an American television program that broadcast National Football League games on the now defunct DuMont Television Network. The program ran from 1951 to 1955.-1951-1952:...
. It was the first time that NFL fixtures were broadcast live
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
, coast-to-coast, in prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
, for the entire season. The broadcasts ended after the 1955 season, when the DuMont Network folded. DuMont was a less than ideal partner for NFL broadcasts: with only eighteen affiliates in 1954, it was dwarfed by the amount of coverage the "Big Four
Canadian Football League East Division
The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.- Pre-1907 :...
" (later the East Division of the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
) had with its contract on NBC, which had 120 affiliates at the time.
By 1955, NBC became the televised home of the NFL Championship Game, paying $100,000 to the league. The 1958 NFL Championship Game played at Yankee Stadium between the Baltimore Colts
History of the Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They play in the AFC South division of the National Football League. They have won 3 NFL championships and 2 Super Bowls....
and the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
went into sudden death overtime. This game, since dubbed the "Greatest Game Ever Played," was watched widely throughout the country and is credited with increasing the popularity of professional football in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
CBS
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is a division of CBS Broadcasting which airs sporting events on the American television network. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on West 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street.CBS...
began to televise selected NFL regular season games in 1956.
By 1959, big-market teams such as the Bears and Giants had all their games televised, but small-market ones like the Packers and 49ers still did not. Upon becoming NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle worked to ensure that every team got all its games on TV.
War with the AFL
When the rival American Football LeagueAmerican Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
(AFL) began in 1960, it signed a 5-year television contract with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. This became the first ever cooperative television plan for professional football
Professional football
In the United States and Canada, the term professional football includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country...
, through which the proceeds of the contract were divided equally among member clubs. ABC and the AFL also introduced moving, on-field cameras (as opposed to the fixed midfield cameras of CBS and the NFL), and were the first to have players "miked" during broadcast games. As the AFL also had players' names stitched on their jerseys, it was easier for both TV viewers and people at the games to tell who was who.
As of the 1961 season, CBS held the rights to all but one of the NFL's teams; the Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
had a separate contract with Sports Network Incorporated (SNI) to carry their games over a regional network. However, the Browns and SNI were forced to break their deal when the NFL and CBS devised their own revenue sharing plan after CBS agreed to telecast all regular season games for an annual fee of $4.65 million. CBS' fee later increased to $14.1 million per year in 1964, and $18.8 million per year in 1966.
With NBC paying the AFL $36 million in 1965 to televise its games, and the intensified battle over college prospects, both leagues negotiated a merger agreement on June 8, 1966. Although they would not officially merge into one combined league until 1970, one of the conditions of the agreement was that the winners of each league's championship game would meet in a contest to determine the "world champion of football."
The first ever AFL-NFL World Championship Game
Super Bowl I
The First AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, later known as Super Bowl I and referred to in some contemporary reports as the Supergame, was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California.The National Football League ...
was played on January 15, 1967 between the NFL champion Packers and the AFL champion Chiefs. As CBS held the rights to nationally televise NFL games and NBC had the rights to broadcast AFL matches, it was decided that both would cover that first game. The next three AFL-NFL World Championship Games, later renamed the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, were then divided by the two networks: CBS broadcast Super Bowls II
Super Bowl II
The second AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, later to be known as Super Bowl II, was played on January 14, 1968 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida....
and IV
Super Bowl IV
Super Bowl IV was the fourth AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, and the second one to officially bear the name "Super Bowl"...
while NBC covered III
Super Bowl III
Super Bowl III was the third AFL-NFL Championship Game in professional American football, but the first to officially bear the name "Super Bowl". This game is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in sports history...
.
Post AFL-NFL Merger
When the AFL and the NFL officially merged in 1970, the combined league divided its teams into the American Football ConferenceAmerican Football Conference
The American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL....
(AFC) and the National Football Conference
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
(NFC). It was then decided that CBS would televise all NFC teams (including playoff games) while NBC were responsible for all AFC teams. For interconference games, CBS would broadcast them if the visiting team
Home team
In team sports, the term home advantage describes the advantage–usually a psychological advantage–that the home team is said to have over the visiting team as a result of playing in familiar facilities and in front of supportive fans...
was from the NFC, and NBC if the visitors were from the AFC. The two networks had a rotation policy for the Super Bowl.
ABC also agreed to televise one regular season game per week on Monday night. ABC aired its first edition of Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
on September 21, 1970
1970 NFL season
The 1970 NFL season was the 51st regular season of the National Football League, and the first one after the AFL-NFL Merger.The merger forced a realignment between the combined league's clubs. Because there were 16 NFL teams and 10 AFL teams, three teams needed to transfer to balance the two new...
. MNF pushed the limits of football coverage with its halftime highlights segment, occasional banter from Howard Cosell
Howard Cosell
Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these...
and Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
, and celebrity guests such as John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
and President Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. During its 36-year run on ABC, Monday Night Football consistently ranked among the most popular prime time broadcasts each week during the season.
As the league's broadcasters, ABC, CBS, and NBC had their own talent. Announcers such as Cosell, Frank Gifford
Frank Gifford
Francis Newton "Frank" Gifford is a Hall of Fame former American football player and American sportscaster.-Early life:Gifford was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Lola Mae and Weldon Gifford, an oil driller....
, and Al Michaels
Al Michaels
Alan Richard "Al" Michaels is an American television sportscaster. Now employed by NBC Sports after nearly three decades with ABC Sports, Michaels is one of the most prominent members of his profession...
(from ABC); Pat Summerall
Pat Summerall
George Allen "Pat" Summerall is a former American football player and television sportscaster, having worked at CBS, Fox, and ESPN.Summerall is best known for his work with John Madden on NFL telecasts for CBS and Fox.-High school:...
and John Madden
John Madden
John Madden may refer to:*Jack Madden, basketball referee*John Madden , American former football coach and television announcer*John Madden , ice hockey player...
(from CBS); and Curt Gowdy
Curt Gowdy
Curtis Edward "Curt" Gowdy was an American sportscaster, well known as the longtime "voice" of the Boston Red Sox and for his coverage of many nationally-televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:The son of a manager for the Union Pacific railroad,...
, Dick Enberg
Dick Enberg
Richard Alan "Dick" Enberg is an American sportscaster. He currently provides play-by-play for telecasts of San Diego Padres baseball on 4SD, following a long career calling various sports for such networks as NBC, CBS, and ESPN...
, Marv Albert
Marv Albert
Marv Albert is an American television and radio sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he is commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball." From 1967–2004, he was also known as "the voice of the New York Knicks."Including Super Bowl XLII, Marv has called...
, Jim Simpson, Kyle Rote
Kyle Rote
William Kyle Rote, Sr. was an American football player and sports announcer.-Early life:Rote attended Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, Texas, where he was an all-state basketball and football player....
and Jim Lampley
Jim Lampley
James "Jim" Lampley is an American sportscaster, news anchor, movie producer, and restaurant owner. Lampley has anchored a record 14 Olympic Games U.S. television broadcasts, most recently the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China....
(from NBC), all had their own unique analysis of the game. Individual networks had distinctive innovations in their coverage. For example, CBS' The NFL Today
The NFL Today
The NFL Today is an American sports series that precedes the American football program The NFL on CBS on CBS Sports. The program usually airs at noon on Sundays of the National Football League regular season...
was the first pre-game show to have a female co-host (Phyllis George
Phyllis George
Phyllis Ann George Brown is an American businesswoman, actress and a former sportscaster. She is a former Miss Texas and Miss America of 1971.- Early life :...
). On December 20, 1980
1980 NFL season
The 1980 NFL season was the 61st regular season of the National Football League.After the league declined to approve the proposed move by the Raiders from Oakland, California to Los Angeles, the team along with the Los Angeles Coliseum sued the NFL for violating antitrust laws...
NBC made history by broadcasting a game between the New York Jets
1980 New York Jets season
The 1980 New York Jets season was the 21st season for the team and the 11th in the National Football League. It began with the team trying to improve upon its 8–8 record from 1979 under head coach Walt Michaels...
and Miami Dolphins
1980 Miami Dolphins season
-NFL Draft:-Regular season:The 1980 NFL season would see the Dolphins drop to an 8–8 record, from their 10–6 showing the previous year.Quarterback Bob Griese, who struggled with leg problems during 1979, lost the starting job to longtime backup Don Strock, but he did poorly in two games, leading...
with no announcers. NBC has also tried one-announcer football when Dick Enberg called the New York Jets'
1981 New York Jets season
The 1981 New York Jets season was the 22nd season for the team and the 12th in the National Football League. It began with the team trying to improve upon its 4–12 record from 1980 under head coach Walt Michaels...
visit to Cleveland Browns
1981 Cleveland Browns season
The 1981 Cleveland Browns season was the team's 32nd season with the National Football League.-NFL Draft:The following were selected in the 1981 NFL Draft.-Schedule:-Standings:-Roster:-References:...
on December 12, 1981
1981 NFL season
The 1981 NFL season was the 62nd regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XVI when the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals.-Major rule changes:...
without his regular colleague Merlin Olsen
Merlin Olsen
Merlin Jay Olsen was an American football player in the National Football League, NFL commentator, and actor. He played his entire 15-year career with the Los Angeles Rams and was elected to the Pro Bowl in 14 of those seasons, a current record shared with Bruce Matthews...
in accompaniment. NBC instead pre-recorded interviews with players and coaches from both teams which filled in the parts where Olsen would have spoken. On December 27, 1987
1987 NFL season
The 1987 NFL season was the 68th regular season of the National Football League. A 24-day players' strike reduced the 16-game season to 15. The games that were scheduled for the third week of the season were canceled, but the games for weeks 4–6 were played with replacement players...
, NBC introduced the first female play-by-play football announcer in Gayle Sierens
Gayle Sierens
Gayle Sierens is a news anchor on WFLA-TV. She joined the Tampa NBC affiliate in 1977 as a weekend sports anchor and reporter after working with WFSU in Tallahassee while she was attending Florida State University...
, who partnered with Dave Rowe
Dave Rowe (American football)
David Homeyer "Dave" Rowe is a former American football defensive tackle in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints, the New England Patriots, the San Diego Chargers, the Oakland Raiders, and the Baltimore Colts....
in a game between the Seattle Seahawks
1987 Seattle Seahawks season
The 1987 Seattle Seahawks season was the team's 12th season with the National Football League.-1987 NFL Draft:-Staff:-Regular season:A 24-day players' strike reduced the 16-game season to 15. The games that were scheduled for the third week of the season were canceled, but the games for weeks 4-6...
and Kansas City Chiefs
1987 Kansas City Chiefs season
The 1987 Kansas City Chiefs season ended with an 4–11 record, and last place finish in the AFC West.One of the most tumultuous weeks in franchise history took place following the club’s playoff loss against the Jets in the playoffs...
which in its own way, set the mold for female sportscasters of today. It is still the only time a female has called play-by-play on an NFL game.
In 1978
1978 NFL season
The 1978 NFL season was the 59th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded the regular season from a 14-game schedule to 16. Furthermore, the playoff format was expanded from 8 teams to 10 teams by adding another wild card from each conference...
, the NFL increased its revenue from both ticket sales and TV by expanding the regular season from 14 games to 16. Furthermore, the playoff format was expanded from 8 teams to 10 teams, enabling the league to give another post-season game each to CBS and NBC. This was partially due to the league's 1976 expansion to 28 teams.
Meanwhile, the Super Bowl became a yearly ratings blockbuster, allowing the broadcasting network to generate millions of dollars in advertising revenue. Four of the ten highest rating television broadcasts of all-time (in the U.S.) are Super Bowls. When the league signed a new 5-year TV contract with the three networks in 1982, it allowed ABC to enter into the Super Bowl rotation; Super Bowl XIX
Super Bowl XIX
Super Bowl XIX was an American football game played on January 20, 1985 at Stanford Stadium, on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, to decide the National Football League champion following the 1984 regular season...
was ABC's debut. Since then, the network that televises each Super Bowl is determined by the contracts that the league negotiates with all of its broadcasters. Each network broadcaster generally gets one Super Bowl before any received a second. This process repeats before any network airs a third event, although the TV contracts usually expire by that time.
Expansion to cable TV, satellite TV, and a four tiered playoff
Cable TV became commonplace during the 1980s, and the NFL was eager to exploit that opportunity in 1987.ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
became the first cable network to broadcast regular season NFL games. Chris Berman helped redefine the pre- and post-game shows when he launched NFL Countdown and NFL Prime Time, and they have since become the top-rated pre- and post-game shows on television. The cable network's contract to show ESPN Sunday Night Football
ESPN Sunday Night Football
ESPN Sunday Night Football is the ESPN cable network's weekly television broadcasts of Sunday evening National Football League games. The first ESPN Sunday night broadcast occurred on November 8, 1987, while the last one aired on January 1, 2006....
was one of the turning points in their growth, transforming them from a small cable network to a marketing empire.
When ESPN first started televising NFL games in 1987, it only broadcast Sunday night games during the second half of the season. Meanwhile, ABC, CBS, and NBC maintained their rights to Monday Night Football, the NFC, and the AFC, respectively.
By 1990, Turner
Turner Sports
Turner Sports is the division of Turner Broadcasting System responsible for sports broadcasts on Turner channels including TBS, TNT, and TruTV, and for operating the interactive properties , , , and...
's TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
network started to broadcast Sunday night games for the first half of the season. The combined 1990 contracts with ABC, CBS, ESPN, NBC, and TNT totaled $3.6 billion ($900 million per year), the largest in TV history. One major factor in the increased rights fee was that the league changed the regular season so that all teams would play their 16-game schedule over a 17-week period. ABC was also given the rights to televise the two Saturday games on the opening weekend of the postseason. This was made possible after the league expanded its playoff format to include more teams.
TBS had also broadcast the infamous 1982 "strike" games. The NFLPA called for a players' strike three weeks into that season which reduced it to nine games. In October, two "all-star" exhibition games were held with generic NFC and AFC teams in Los Angeles and Washington DC and aired on TBS. Ratings and attendance at both games was minimal.
In 1994, the league signed an exclusivity agreement with the direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
(DBS) service DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
to launch NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket is an Out-of-Market Sports Package that broadcasts National Football League regular season games unavailable on local affiliates. It carries all regional Sunday afternoon games produced by Fox and CBS...
, a satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
subscription service that offers every regular season NFL game.
NFL leaves CBS after 38 years
When new contracts were signed in December 1993, CBS (which had been home to NFC games for 38 years) lost their rights to the fledgling Fox NetworkFox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
. Fox offered a then-record $1.58 billion to the NFL over four years, significantly more than the $290 million offered by CBS. Fox was only seven years old and had no sports division, but it began building its own coverage by hiring many former CBS personalities such as Summerall and Madden.
Fox's NFL rights ownership made the network a major player in American television by attracting many new viewers (and affiliates) and a platform to advertise its other shows. In the meantime, CBS lost several affiliates (mainly owned by New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...
in NFC markets) to Fox, and ratings for its other offerings languished. To this day, CBS admits it has never recovered from the loss of affiliates, primarily in Atlanta
WGCL-TV
WGCL-TV, virtual channel 46.1 is the CBS-affiliated television station serving the Atlanta, Georgia area. Its city of license is Atlanta, and the station is owned by Meredith Corporation, making it the largest-market CBS station not owned by the network...
, Detroit
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV, virtual channel 62 , is the CBS-owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan. It is co-owned with Detroit's CW station, WKBD-TV , and the two stations share a studio in Southfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb....
, and Milwaukee
WDJT-TV
WDJT-TV, channel 58, is the CBS-affiliated television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin broadcasting on UHF digital channel 46, that displays WDJT's virtual channel as its former analog channel assignment of 58 via PSIP...
, where it was dropped to lower-powered UHF affiliates unable to be received in some areas.
Due to satellite television, the NFL Sunday Ticket in local markets, and rules of the time, satellite subscribers were required to use antennas to pick up local affiliates. CBS was devastated by the loss of over-the-air availability of these stations in the outer reaches of some markets. Since 1994 the situations in Milwaukee and Atlanta have improved due to committed station ownerships and acquisition of high-profile syndicated programming, along with the digital transition equalizing the field into being received via UHF-only, while CBS's Detroit station continues to struggle for relevancy and exists mainly as an automated pass-through for CBS programming, along with shows from the network's syndication arm, CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution is a global television distribution company, formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's two domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including its home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment...
.
ABC, NBC, TNT and ESPN renewed their contracts in the meanwhile. TNT was able to get a stipulation that the Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are a member of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, based in Turner's home of Atlanta, be featured on TNT once a year, regardless of the previous season's record.
NBC loses the NFL
Meanwhile, NBC's rebound in the overall ratings in both the 1980s and 1990s after years at the bottom of the ratings were partly attributed to its continuing coverage of the NFL. With television contract re-negotiations in early 1998 ushering in the era of multi-billion dollar broadcasting agreements, an era of pro football broadcasting was about to end. CBS, stung by Fox's surprise bid four years earlier, aggressively sought to reacquire some broadcasting rights. CBS agreed to pay $4 billion over eight years ($500 million per season) to air AFC games.NBC, meanwhile, had indicated a desire to bid for Monday Night Football rights in 1998, but gave up when the financial stakes increased sharply. Thus, after six decades, NBC, the network that had shaped television broadcasts of football, lost its rights, thus marking the beginning of a slow decline for its sports division, culminating in the unproductive 2004–05 prime time season, when NBC carried no major sporting championships during prime time (NBC had already lost Major League Baseball broadcasting rights in 2000
2000 in baseball
-Major League Baseball:*Regular Season Champions*World Series Champion - New York Yankees*Postseason - October 3 to October 26Click on any series score to link to that series' page....
and National Basketball Association rights in 2002
2001-02 NBA season
-Statistics leaders:-Yearly awards:*Most Valuable Player: Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs*Rookie of the Year: Pau Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies*Defensive Player of the Year: Ben Wallace, Detroit Pistons...
).
NBC's attempts to replace the NFL with other professional football, including the XFL
XFL
The XFL was a professional American football league that played for one season in 2001. The league was founded by Vince McMahon, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of WWE...
in 2001 and the Arena Football League coverage from 2003 to 2006, proved to be very unsuccessful. Like CBS before it, NBC would later decide that not having NFL rights did too much damage to its overall ratings to justify foregoing the high rights fees required.
The other networks also signed eight-year deals in 1998. Fox extended its NFC deal by agreeing to a $4.4 billion contract ($550 million per season). ABC retained its longtime rights to Monday Night Football by also paying $4.4 billion over eight years. ESPN agreed to a $4.8 billion ($600 million a season) deal to become the sole cable broadcaster of NFL games, marking an end to the league's association with TNT. As with previous TV contracts, the coverage of the Super Bowl was divided between the broadcast networks.
Thursday Kickoff Game
In 2002, the NFL began scheduling a Thursday night special opening "Kickoff" game, taking place on the Thursday after Labor Day leading into the opening Sunday slate of NFL games. The event includes a pre-game concert and other televised festivities. The first series of these events were held in New York and Washington, DC respectively, to celebrate both cities' resilience in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacksSeptember 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
. The 2002
2002 NFL season
The 2002 NFL season was the 83rd regular season of the National Football League.The league went back to an even number of teams, expanding to 32 teams with the addition of the Houston Texans. The clubs were then realigned into eight divisions, four teams in each...
San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
and the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
game was held on September 5 and televised on ESPN. The 2003
2003 NFL season
-Milestones:The following teams and players set all-time NFL records during the season:-Team:-Individual:-Awards:-External Links:**-References:*NFL Record and Fact Book *...
edition featured the Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
hosting the New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
on September 4, 2003, and the game was televised by ABC. Since 2006, NBC has televised the Kickoff game (see below).
Starting in 2004, the NFL began awarding the opening game to the defending Super Bowl champions as the official start of their title defense. The unfurling of the team's Super Bowl championship banner in their stadium has become a centerpiece of the opening ceremonies.
Financial losses lead to another realignment
Recently, the NFL's TV broadcasters have suffered annual financial losses because advertising revenue is unable to keep up with the rising costs of broadcast rights.Nevertheless, the current broadcast contract, which began in 2006, resulted in a sizable increase in total rights fees. Both Fox and CBS renewed their Sunday afternoon broadcast packages through 2011, in both cases with modest increases. Furthermore, the league and DirecTV signed a five year extension to their exclusivity deal on NFL Sunday Ticket.
Despite relatively high, if declining, TV ratings, ABC decided to end its relationship with the NFL after losing significant money on Monday Night Football. In addition to the fees, part of this decision may have been the result of a resurgent ABC prime time entertainment schedule during the 2004–05 season, particularly on Sunday evening with Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
; thus ABC would be unable to satisfy the league's reported preference for a Sunday night game on broadcast television as opposed to Monday.
Because of that, Monday Night Football moved to ESPN, the cable network paying $1.1 billion per year from 2006 to 2014 for the rights. Unlike the broadcast networks, however, ESPN can generate revenue from subscription sales, in addition to traditional commercial breaks (ESPN's subscriber fees are the highest of any American cable network, more than four times that of second-place TNT). The cable network's coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with SportsCenter Special Edition: Monday Night Kickoff
SportsCenter
SportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major...
. The 2009 edition saw the game itself start at 8:30 p.m., with Mike Tirico
Mike Tirico
Michael Todd Tirico is an announcer for ESPN's presentation of Monday Night Football, and second lead broadcaster for ESPN's presentation of the NBA. In addition, Tirico hosts a multitude of programming on ESPN/ABC. He was the host of ABC's golf coverage from 1996 to 2007, and continues in that...
, Ron Jaworski
Ron Jaworski
Ronald Vincent "Ron" Jaworski is a former American football quarterback and currently an NFL analyst on ESPN. He is also CEO of Ron Jaworski Golf Management, Inc., based out of Blackwood, New Jersey, and manages golf courses in southern New Jersey, northeast Pennsylvania, and West Virginia...
, and Jon Gruden
Jon Gruden
Jon David Gruden is an American football analyst and former head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for seven seasons and prior to that the Oakland Raiders for four seasons. In his first year as the head coach of Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII, defeating the Raiders whom he had...
in the broadcast booths.
Meanwhile, NBC, after losing the AFC package to CBS in 1997, was able to reclaim some broadcast rights with a deal worth an average of $650 million per year to air the Sunday night package from 2006 to 2014 (not much more than what ESPN used to pay for the same rights). This new deal includes the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2012. NBC's coverage also includes three preseason games (including the annual Hall of Fame Game
Pro Football Hall of Fame Game
The Pro Football Hall of Game is an annual National Football League exhibition game that is held the weekend of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's induction ceremonies. The game is played at Fawcett Stadium, which is located next door to the Hall of Fame building in Canton, Ohio...
), the first two Wild Card playoff games of each post-season, and the annual Thursday opening Kickoff Game, similar to ABC's broadcast rights package. The major difference is that the NFL allows NBC flexibility in selecting games in the latter part of the season. ABC did not have the right to be flexible with their Monday Night Football schedule and picked matchups based on a team's record in the previous season (as NBC does), which often led to teams with losing records playing each other on Monday night later in the season. The moves were intended to break NBC out of its ratings slump; however, as of 2010, this has not happened, and although NBC Sunday Night Football is the network's top rated program and in the top 30 for viewing audience, it has not lifted the rest of the schedule, which remains firmly in fourth place and losing large sums of money, so much so that the network had to cut an hour of prime time programming from its weeknight schedule in favor of a somewhat lower budget talk show
The Jay Leno Show
The Jay Leno Show is an American comedy show created by and starring Jay Leno, that aired from September 14, 2009 to February 9, 2010 on NBC following the May 29, 2009 conclusion of Leno's first tenure as host of The Tonight Show...
, which lasted five months.
Coverage of NBC Sunday Night Football
NBC Sunday Night Football
NBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of Sunday evening National Football League games on NBC that began airing on Sunday, August 6, 2006 with the pre-season opening Hall of Fame Game. Al Michaels serves as the play-by-play announcer, with Cris Collinsworth as the color...
starts at 8:15 p.m. ET with Al Michaels
Al Michaels
Alan Richard "Al" Michaels is an American television sportscaster. Now employed by NBC Sports after nearly three decades with ABC Sports, Michaels is one of the most prominent members of his profession...
serving as the play-by-play announcer, Cris Collinsworth
Cris Collinsworth
Anthony Cris Collinsworth is a former American college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League for eight seasons in the 1980s. He played college football for the University of Florida, and thereafter, he played his entire professional career for...
as color commentator
Color commentator
A color commentator is a sports commentator who assists the play-by-play announcer, often by filling in any time when play is not in progress. The color analyst and main commentator will often exchange comments freely throughout the broadcast, when the play-by-play announcer is not describing the...
, and Andrea Kremer
Andrea Kremer
Andrea Kremer is an American television sports journalist. She currently works as a correspondent on HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel." Until the 2011 season she worked as a sideline reporter for NBC on the network's coverage of Sunday Night Football.Kremer has covered more than 20 Super...
as the sole sideline reporter. Each telecast begins with a pre-game show airing at 7 p.m. ET entitled Football Night in America
Football Night in America
Football Night in America is the studio pregame show usually preceding NBC's broadcasts of Sunday night and Wild Card Saturday National Football League games starting in the 2006 National Football League season...
, hosted by Bob Costas
Bob Costas
Robert Quinlan "Bob" Costas is an American sportscaster, on the air for the NBC network since the early 1980s.-Early life:...
.
In addition, for the first three years of the contract, the network that carried the Super Bowl also broadcast the Pro Bowl
Pro Bowl
In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
on the Saturday night following the championship game. In 2007, CBS broadcast both games, followed by Fox in 2008, and NBC in 2009. In 2010, the Pro Bowl was played the weekend before the Super Bowl, broadcast by ESPN. The 2010 deal was meant as a one-time situation to protect the Winter Olympics in Vancouver
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
that started the next week (as well as the NBA All-Star Game
2010 NBA All-Star Game
The 2010 NBA All-Star Game was an exhibition basketball game between players selected from the National Basketball Association 's Western Conference and the Eastern Conference that was played on February 14, 2010 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. This game was the 59th edition...
and the Daytona 500
2010 Daytona 500
The 2010 Daytona 500 was the 52nd running of "The Great American Race", and it kicked off the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season on February 14 at the 2.5 mile Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Fox telecast the race while radio coverage was handled by Sirius XM Radio...
), but the NFL played the 2011 game (and will play the 2012 game) in Honolulu the week before the Super Bowl.
The NFL Network
NFL Network
NFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
was created by the league in 2003 and given a separate package of broadcast games. The eight-game package
Run to the Playoffs
Thursday Night Football is the brand name used by NFL Network for its schedule of live regular season telecasts of National Football League games on Thursday nights. Also included in the package are some Saturday specials....
consists of prime time games which in 2006 and 2007 began airing from Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
to the end of the regular season. Five games aired on Thursday nights and three on Saturday nights, the latter beginning Week 15 of the season. Starting in the 2008 season the ratio and dates of the games changed: now there are seven Thursday night games beginning in the first week of November and continuing to Week 16. There is only one Saturday night game, airing during Week 15 or 16 (usually 16, but when Saturday is Christmas Eve, it airs in week 15). The NFL could theoretically decide to sell this package to another network should NFL Network broadcasts not generate enough revenue. NFL Network will also carry several preseason games. The introduction of the NFL Network games also marked the end to late-season Saturday afternoon regular season games on the networks that aired Sunday afternoon games: CBS, Fox and NBC.
As a result of the 2006 contracts with television networks and the increased concentration of media ownership
Concentration of media ownership
Concentration of media ownership refers to a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media...
in recent years, the NFL now holds broadcast contracts with the companies that control all of the nationwide American broadcast networks and the vast majority of the major cable networks. This has resulted in a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
on the ability to broadcast professional football games on television; the United Football League lost its agreement with Versus
Versus (TV channel)
Versus is a sports-oriented cable television channel in the United States. It was previously known as Outdoor Life Network and was launched on July 1, 1995, focusing on fishing, hunting, and other outdoor sports...
when its parent company purchased NBC and has not been able to secure television contracts since the purchase. The Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
and Arena Football League
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League is the highest level of professional indoor American football in the United States. It is currently the second longest running professional football league in the United States, after the National Football League. It was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster...
have resorted to airing its games on NFL Network, despite its ownership by a competing league.
ESPN renewed its contract with the NFL in 2011, which extends broadcast rights to the NFL through 2022 the end of the 2021 NFL season. ESPN increased the purchase price for the eighteen-game package, which will include the Pro Bowl beginning in 2015. Cable television operators condemned the new contract, noting that ESPN has the highest retransmission consent
Retransmission consent
Retransmission consent is an option granted to US television stations as part of the law that granted such stations the option to elect must-carry rights. Under retransmission consent, a full-power US television station may elect to negotiate with a cable system operator for carriage of its...
fees of any national cable television channel, nearly five times higher than the nearest competitor (TNT), and raises fees on an annual basis.
Coverage changes
The style of pro football broadcasting has seen several changes since the 1990s, including female hosts and sideline reporters, visual first-down markers, advanced graphics, new multi-camera angles, and high definition telecasts.Thanksgiving Day games
The Detroit LionsDetroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
have hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving (United States)
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday,...
since 1934 (with the exception of 1939–1944 due to the "Franksgiving
Franksgiving
Franksgiving is a portmanteau of "Franklin" and "Thanksgiving", coined by Atlantic City mayor Thomas Taggart to describe the American Thanksgiving holiday from 1939–1941....
" confusion and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
), and they have been nationally televised since 1962. In 1966, the NFL introduced an annual game hosted by the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
, which has been played every year except in 1975 and 1977 when the St. Louis Cardinals
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
hosted a match instead. However, St. Louis football fans, used to the traditional "Turkey Day Game" between Kirkwood High School
Kirkwood High School
Kirkwood High School is a secondary school in Kirkwood, Missouri. It is located at 801 W Essex Ave, Kirkwood, MO. The school is part of the Kirkwood R-7 School District. The current principal is Dr. Mike Havener who replaced Dr...
and Webster Groves High School
Webster Groves School District
The Webster Groves School District is a school district in and around Webster Groves, Missouri, west of St. Louis.The current superintendent is Dr. Sarah Booth Riss, and the district's central office is located at 400 E...
as the only local match on Thanksgiving, did not respond well to an NFL fixture on the same day, and thus Dallas resumed hosting the game in 1978.
When the AFL began holding annual Thanksgiving Day games, the league chose a different model, circulating the game among several cities. During the 1967–69 seasons, two Thanksgiving AFL games were televised each year.
After the 1970 merger, the NFL decided to keep only the traditional Detroit and Dallas games. Due to the broadcast contracts in place since 1970, three NFC teams play on Thanksgiving, as opposed to only one AFC outfit. During even years, the Lions play their Thanksgiving game against an AFC team, and thus are televised by the network holding the AFC package (NBC and later CBS); the Cowboys host an NFC team and are shown by the network with the NFC package (CBS and later Fox). During odd years, Dallas hosts an AFC team and Detroit plays an NFC opponent (usually another NFC North team, and often the Green Bay Packers, who draw high TV ratings). Every decade or so, this even-odd rotation is reversed, Detroit hosting an NFC team in even years and an AFC team in odd years, Dallas hosting an AFC team in even years and an NFC team in odd years.
When the league created its new TV package for the NFL Network
NFL Network
NFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
in 2006, a third Thanksgiving game was added, a prime time game hosted by one of the remaining 30 NFL teams each year. While the first game featured two AFC teams, conference affiliation has varied since.
Christmas and Christmas Eve games
In recent years, the NFL has generally scheduled games on ChristmasChristmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
only if it falls on a day normally used for games (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday). If Christmas falls on a Sunday, as it will in 2011, most of the games are played on the preceding day, Saturday, December 24, (with no games that night) with one or two games are scheduled for Christmas Night to be broadcast nationally. Through the 2006 season
2006 NFL season
The 2006 NFL season was the 87th regular season of the National Football League.Regular season play was held from September 7 to December 31, 2006...
, there have been 14 such Christmas contests.
The first NFL games played on December 25 came during the 1971 season
1971 NFL season
The 1971 NFL season was the 52nd regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl VI when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Miami Dolphins...
. The first two games of the Divisional Playoff Round that year were held on Christmas Day. The first game that day was between Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
and the Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
. The second of the two contests played that day, the Miami Dolphins versus the Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
, ended up being the longest game in NFL history. The league received numerous complaints due to the length of this game, reportedly because it caused havoc with Christmas dinners around the nation. As a result, the NFL decided to not schedule any Christmas Day matches for the next 17 seasons.
In 1976 and 1977, the last two years before the advent of the 16-game schedule and expanded playoffs, the NFL came up with different approaches to avoid Christmas play. In 1976, when Christmas fell on a Saturday, the league moved the start of the regular season up one week to Sunday, September 12. The divisional playoffs were held on the weekend of December 18 and 19, leaving the conference championship games on Sunday, December 26. Super Bowl XI
Super Bowl XI
Super Bowl XI was a football game played on January 9, 1977 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the 1976 regular season...
was played on January 9, 1977, the earliest it has ever been held. In 1977, with Christmas on Sunday, the NFL split the divisional playoffs, and for the only time since the AFL-NFL merger, each conference held both divisional playoff games the same day (AFC Saturday, December 24 and NFC Monday, December 26), ostensibly not to give one team a two-day rest advantage over the other for the conference championship games. Since two of the venues were in the Western United States, it was not possible to have regional coverage in both time slots on either day.
The NFL continued to avoid Christmas even after it started to increase the regular season and the playoffs. The league expanded to a 16-game regular season and a 10-team playoff tournament in 1978, but it was not until 1982 that the regular season ended after Christmas, due to the players' strike. In 1989, the NFL tried another Christmas Day game, with the Cincinnati Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL...
hosted by the Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
, but it was a 9:00 p.m. ET Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
contest, thereby not conflicting with family dinners. In the years since, the NFL has played an occasional late-afternoon or night game on the holiday but there has not been a Christmas Day game starting earlier than 5:00 p.m. ET since 1971.
There have also been several games played on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
over the years, including a Oakland Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
-Baltimore Colts
History of the Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They play in the AFC South division of the National Football League. They have won 3 NFL championships and 2 Super Bowls....
playoff contest in 1977 which culminated in a play known as "Ghost to the Post
Ghost to the Post
Ghost to the Post is a significant play in NFL history. It refers specifically to a 42-yard pass from Ken Stabler to Dave Casper, nicknamed "The Ghost" after the cartoon character, that set up a game tying field goal in the final seconds of a double-overtime playoff game played between Casper's...
". These games have typically been played during the afternoon out of deference to the holiday.
New Year's games
The NFL never stages games on New Year's DayNew Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
if it is not a Sunday, deferring to the numerous New Year's Day college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
bowl games traditionally held on that day. However, when New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the traditional bowl games are moved to Monday, January 2 (which becomes a federal holiday), allowing NFL games to be played on the 1st. The AFL played its first league championship game on January 1, 1961. Thereafter, pro football has been played on New Year's Day in 1967 (the 1966 NFL and AFL Championship Games), in 1978 (the 1977 NFC and AFC Championship Games), in 1984 (the 1983 NFC and AFC Divisional Playoff Games), in 1989 (the 1988 NFC and AFC Divisional Playoff Games), in 1995 (the second half of the 1994 NFC and AFC Wild Card Games), and in 2006 (the final weekend of the 2005 regular season). The latter situation will prevail on Sunday, January 1, 2012, the final day of the 2011 regular season.
In years when January 1 falls on a Monday, a regular slate of NFL games will be played on New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
. Under current schedule arrangements, the regular season can end no later than January 3, and the league finishes its regular season on a Sunday, without a Monday Night Football game on the final week.
Other holidays
- The NFL scheduled Monday Night Football games on Labor DayLabor DayLabor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
in the past, but has not done so since 2000. Games continue to be scheduled on Columbus DayColumbus DayMany countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday...
. - The NFL only plays on HalloweenHalloweenHallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
or Veterans DayVeterans DayVeterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, is an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark...
if the holiday falls on a Sunday or Monday. The latter holiday can also see games on Thursday night, as it did in 2010.
Monday Night Football
Between 1970 and 1977, and again since 2003, there has been no Monday night game during the last week of the season. From 1978 until 2002, a season-ending Monday night game was scheduled. The 2003 revision permits the NFL to have all eight teams involved in the Wild Card playoffs to have equal time in preparation, instead of the possibility of one or two teams having a shorter preparation for their playoff game if they were picked to play on Saturday, instead of Sunday. This scenario, in which a team finishing its season on Monday night had a playoff game the following Saturday, never occurred.In 2006, ESPN opened the season with a Monday Night Football doubleheader, with a 7:00 p.m. game and a 10:30 p.m. both shown in their entirety nationwide. The doubleheader during the first week of the season has continued ever since.
NFL broadcasters
Current broadcasters:- NBCNFL on NBCNFL on NBC is the brand given to NBC Sports coverage of National Football League games until 1998, when NBC lost the NFL American Football Conference rights to CBS...
- 19391939 NFL seasonThe 1939 NFL season was the 20th regular season of the National Football League. Before the season, NFL president Joseph Carr died, and Carl Storck was named to replace him....
, 19551955 NFL seasonThe 1955 NFL season was the 36th regular season of the National Football League. NBC paid $100,000 to replace DuMont as the national television network for the NFL Championship Game...
–19631963 NFL seasonThe 1963 NFL season was the 44th regular season of the National Football League. On April 17, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle indefinitely suspended Green Bay Packers running back Paul Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras for gambling on their own teams, as well as other NFL games;...
: (NFL) - 19651965 American Football League seasonThe 1965 American Football League season was the sixth regular season of the American Football League.The season also saw a change of television address as the games moved from ABC to NBC....
–19691969 American Football League seasonThe 1969 American Football League season was the tenth regular season of the American Football League, and the last one before the AFL-NFL Merger...
: (AFL) - 19701970 NFL seasonThe 1970 NFL season was the 51st regular season of the National Football League, and the first one after the AFL-NFL Merger.The merger forced a realignment between the combined league's clubs. Because there were 16 NFL teams and 10 AFL teams, three teams needed to transfer to balance the two new...
–19971997 NFL seasonThe 1997 NFL season was the 78th regular season of the National Football League. The Oilers relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee...
: (AFC) - 20062006 NFL seasonThe 2006 NFL season was the 87th regular season of the National Football League.Regular season play was held from September 7 to December 31, 2006...
–2013: Sunday Night FootballNBC Sunday Night FootballNBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of Sunday evening National Football League games on NBC that began airing on Sunday, August 6, 2006 with the pre-season opening Hall of Fame Game. Al Michaels serves as the play-by-play announcer, with Cris Collinsworth as the color...
- 1939
- CBSNFL on CBSThe NFL on CBS is the brand name of the CBS television network's coverage of the National Football League's American Football Conference games, produced by CBS Sports.-Market coverage and television policies:...
- 19561956 NFL seasonThe 1956 NFL season was the 37th regular season of the National Football League. CBS became the first network to televise some regular season games across the nation...
–19691969 NFL seasonThe 1969 NFL season was the 50th regular season of the National Football League, and the last one before the AFL-NFL Merger. To honor the NFL's 50th season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season.As per the...
: (NFL) - 19701970 NFL seasonThe 1970 NFL season was the 51st regular season of the National Football League, and the first one after the AFL-NFL Merger.The merger forced a realignment between the combined league's clubs. Because there were 16 NFL teams and 10 AFL teams, three teams needed to transfer to balance the two new...
–19931993 NFL seasonThe 1993 NFL season was the 74th regular season of the National Football League. For the first time in league history, all NFL teams played their 16-game schedule over a span of 18 weeks. After the success of expanding the regular season to a period of 17 weeks in 1990, the league hoped this new...
: (NFC) - 19981998 NFL seasonThe 1998 NFL season was the 79th regular season of the National Football League.The Tennessee Oilers moved their home games from Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis to Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, still awaiting construction on a new stadium in Nashville.This was the first season that CBS...
–2013: (AFC)
- 1956
- FoxNFL on FOXNFL on Fox is the brand name of the Fox Broadcasting Company's coverage of the National Football League's National Football Conference games, produced by Fox Sports...
- 19941994 NFL seasonThe 1994 NFL season was the 75th regular season of the National Football League. To honor the NFL's 75th season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season...
–2013: (NFC)
- 1994
- ESPNESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
- 19871987 NFL seasonThe 1987 NFL season was the 68th regular season of the National Football League. A 24-day players' strike reduced the 16-game season to 15. The games that were scheduled for the third week of the season were canceled, but the games for weeks 4–6 were played with replacement players...
–19971997 NFL seasonThe 1997 NFL season was the 78th regular season of the National Football League. The Oilers relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee...
: Sunday Night FootballESPN Sunday Night FootballESPN Sunday Night Football is the ESPN cable network's weekly television broadcasts of Sunday evening National Football League games. The first ESPN Sunday night broadcast occurred on November 8, 1987, while the last one aired on January 1, 2006....
(second half of season) - 19981998 NFL seasonThe 1998 NFL season was the 79th regular season of the National Football League.The Tennessee Oilers moved their home games from Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis to Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, still awaiting construction on a new stadium in Nashville.This was the first season that CBS...
–20052005 NFL seasonThe 2005 NFL season was the 86th regular season of the National Football League.With the New England Patriots as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 8, 2005 to January 1, 2006...
: Sunday Night Football (entire season) - 20062006 NFL seasonThe 2006 NFL season was the 87th regular season of the National Football League.Regular season play was held from September 7 to December 31, 2006...
–2021: Monday Night FootballMonday Night FootballMonday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
- 1987
- NFL NetworkNFL NetworkNFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
- 20062006 NFL seasonThe 2006 NFL season was the 87th regular season of the National Football League.Regular season play was held from September 7 to December 31, 2006...
–2013 Thursday Night Football
- 2006
Former broadcasters:
- DuMont Television NetworkNFL on DuMontThe NFL on DuMont was an American television program that broadcast National Football League games on the now defunct DuMont Television Network. The program ran from 1951 to 1955.-1951-1952:...
- 19511951 NFL seasonThe 1951 NFL season was the 32nd regular season of the National Football League. Prior to the season, Baltimore Colts owner Abraham Watner faced financial difficulties, and thus gave his team and its player contracts back to the league for $50,000. However, many Baltimore fans started to protest...
–19551954 NFL seasonThe 1954 NFL season was the 35th regular season of the National Football League. The season ended when the Cleveland Browns defeated the Detroit Lions in the NFL Championship Game.-Major rule changes:...
: Saturday Night Football
- 1951
- TNT
- 19901990 NFL seasonThe 1990 NFL season was the 71st regular season of the National Football League. To increase revenue, the league changed the regular season so that all NFL teams would play their 16-game schedule over a 17-week period...
–19971997 NFL seasonThe 1997 NFL season was the 78th regular season of the National Football League. The Oilers relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee...
: Sunday Night Football (first half of season) - 19481948 NFL seasonThe 1948 NFL season was the 29th regular season of the National Football League. During the season, Halfback Fred Gehrke painted horns on the Los Angeles Rams' helmets, making the first modern helmet emblem in pro football. The season ended when the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Chicago...
, 19501950 NFL seasonThe 1950 NFL season was the 31st regular season of the National Football League. The merger with the All-America Football Conference expanded the league to 13 teams. Meanwhile, television brought a new era to the game. The Los Angeles Rams became the first NFL team to have all of its games – both...
, 19531953 NFL seasonThe 1953 NFL season was the 34th regular season of the National Football League. The names of the American and National conferences were changed to the Eastern and Western conferences....
–19551955 NFL seasonThe 1955 NFL season was the 36th regular season of the National Football League. NBC paid $100,000 to replace DuMont as the national television network for the NFL Championship Game...
: (NFL) - 19601960 American Football League seasonThe 1960 American Football League season was the inaugural regular season of the American Football League.The season ended when the Houston Oilers defeated the Los Angeles Chargers in the inaugural AFL Championship game.-Division races:...
–19641964 American Football League seasonThe 1964 American Football League season was the fifth regular season of the American Football League.The season ended when the Buffalo Bills defeated the San Diego Chargers in the AFL Championship game...
: (AFL) - 19701970 NFL seasonThe 1970 NFL season was the 51st regular season of the National Football League, and the first one after the AFL-NFL Merger.The merger forced a realignment between the combined league's clubs. Because there were 16 NFL teams and 10 AFL teams, three teams needed to transfer to balance the two new...
–20052005 NFL seasonThe 2005 NFL season was the 86th regular season of the National Football League.With the New England Patriots as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 8, 2005 to January 1, 2006...
: Monday Night Football
- 1990
List of NFL television contracts
- Since 1982
Period AFC Package NFC Package Sunday Night Monday Night Thursday Night Total Amount 1982–1986 NBC CBS None ABC $420 million/yr 1987–1989 NBC CBS ESPN (2nd half) ABC $473 million/yr 1990–1993 NBC CBS TNT (1st half)
ESPN (2nd half)ABC $900 million/yr 1994–1997 NBC Fox ($395 million/yr) TNT (1st half)
ESPN (2nd half)ABC $1.1 billion/yr 1998–2005 CBS ($500 million/yr) Fox ($550 million/yr) ESPN ($600 million/yr) ABC ($550 million/yr) ESPN $2.2 billion/yr 2006–2013 CBS ($622.5 million/yr) Fox ($712.5 million/yr) NBC ($650 million/yr) ESPN ($1.1 billion/yr) NFL Network ($0/yr) $3.085 billion/yr 2014–2021 TBA TBA TBA ESPN ($1.9 billion/yr) TBA TBA
- ESPN's Sunday Night Football contract included selected Thursday and Saturday night games in December. Through 2001, the contract included one Thursday night game in October (the weekend of games 1–2 of the World SeriesWorld SeriesThe World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
), in lieu of the Sunday night game that weekend. In 2002, the night game was eliminated altogether for that weekend, and replaced with the NFL Kickoff game. In 2003, the NFL Kickoff game moved to ABC (to replace the Week 17 Monday night game), and ESPN filled the void with another late-season Saturday night game. - ESPN's contract runs through 2013, after which a new contract will continue with ESPN until 2021. NFL Network was last known to be planning to continue the current arrangement through the 2012 season. The CBS, Fox and NBC packages were originally scheduled to expire in 2011, but all were extended to their current 2013 expiration date.
- As the NFL Network is owned by the league, there was no rights fee paid for the 8-game package.
- NFL Sunday TicketNFL Sunday TicketNFL Sunday Ticket is an Out-of-Market Sports Package that broadcasts National Football League regular season games unavailable on local affiliates. It carries all regional Sunday afternoon games produced by Fox and CBS...
's package on DirecTVDirecTVDirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
brings in another $700 million annually not counted in this listing.
Leverage over the networks
The NFL's status as a prime offering by the networks has led some to conclude that unbiased coverage of the league is not possible, although this may be true of most sports. ESPN attempted to run a dramatic series showing steamier aspects of pro football, PlaymakersPlaymakers
Playmakers is an American television series that aired on ESPN from August 26, 2003 to November 11, 2003. It depicted the lives of the Cougars, a fictional professional football team in an unidentified city. The show starred Omar Gooding, Marcello Thedford, Christopher Wiehl, Jason Matthew Smith,...
, but canceled the series after the league reportedly threatened to exclude the network from the next set of TV contracts.
The NFL has a strict policy prohibiting networks from running ads during official NFL programming (pre- and post-game studio shows and the games themselves) from the gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
industry, and has rejected some ads from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is a public/private partnership that owns and operates the Las Vegas Convention Center, Cashman Center, and Cashman Field and is responsible for the advertising campaigns for the Clark County, Nevada area....
. Commissioner Roger Goodell
Roger Goodell
Roger S. Goodell is the Commissioner of the National Football League , having been chosen to succeed the retiring Paul Tagliabue on August 8, 2006. He was chosen over four finalists for the position, winning a close vote on the fifth ballot before being unanimously approved by acclamation of the...
explained in 2007 that it was inappropriate for the sport to be associates with sports betting. Additionally, the networks and their announcers cannot discuss or run graphics showing point spreads during NFL shows (Al Michaels
Al Michaels
Alan Richard "Al" Michaels is an American television sportscaster. Now employed by NBC Sports after nearly three decades with ABC Sports, Michaels is one of the most prominent members of his profession...
, among other announcers, has been known to allude to them on-air, particularly at the end of the game where a seemingly insignificant score can have a major effect on the point-spread outcome.) Most teams also insert similar clauses into their radio contracts, which are locally negotiated. The NFL injury report and required videotaping of practice are intended to prevent gamblers from gaining inside information. In contrast, fantasy football
Fantasy football (American)
Fantasy football is an interactive, virtual competition in which people manage professional football players versus one another and that allows people to act as general managers of a pseudo-football team. The players that an individual is able to manage are professional American Football players...
is often free to play.
At the start of the game, a teaser
Teaser
A teaser is a type of gambling bet that allows the bettor to combine his bets on two different games. The bettor can adjust the point spreads for the two games, but realizes a lower return on the bets in the event of a win....
animation is displayed on all broadcasts. "Name of broadcaster welcomes you to the following presentation of the National Football League" (or similar phrasing) is announced, while at the end of the game, the message is "Name of broadcaster thanks you for watching this presentation of the National Football League" (or similar phrasing). This announcement is designed to separate game coverage from news, sports analysis, or entertainment programming not under the NFL contract and ownership. Since 1998, the NFL has owned the rights to game broadcasts once they air—a copyright disclaimer airs either before the start of the second half or after the first commercial break of the second half, depending on the broadcaster ("This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience [and] any other use of this telecast or [of] any pictures, descriptions or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited"). Only the NFL Network can re-air games and they choose a few each week.
Further, the NFL imposes restrictions on sponsored segments during game coverage; this does not apply to national or local radio broadcasts. These are permitted only prior to kick off, during halftime, and following the game (once the "...welcomes you to the following presentation.." notice appears, the restrictions take effect until half-time, and again until the game ends); however, these segments (and other programming with title sponsorships, particularly halftime and post-game shows or other sports properties) can be advertised a couple of times during game coverage, and "aerial footage" providers (i.e. sponsored blimp
Non-rigid airship
A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is a floating airship without an internal supporting framework or keel. A non-rigid airship differs from a semi-rigid airship and a rigid airship in that it does not have any rigid structure, neither a complete framework nor a partial keel, to help the airbag...
s) may be acknowledged, usually once an hour as is standard in other sports. Other acknowledgments (including HDTV or Skycam
Skycam
Skycam is the trademarked brandname of a patented, computer-controlled, stabilized, cable-suspended camera system. The system, similar to Steadicam, but maneuvered through three dimensions in the open space over a playing area of a stadium or arena by computer-controlled cable-drive system, is...
-type camera sponsorships) are limited to pre-kickoff and post-game credits. This is done so that, while competitors of the NFL's official sponsors may advertise on game broadcasts, they will not potentially become synonymous with the league through in-game and/or title sponsorship.
Finally, sideline reporters are restricted as to whom they can speak to and when (usually a head coach at halftime, and one or two players before and after the game ends). Information on injured players or rules interpretations are relayed from NFL off-field officials to the TV producers in the truck, who then pass it along to the sideline reporters or booth announcers. Thus, CBS opted in 2006 to no longer use sideline reporters except for some playoff games. ESPN followed suit by reducing the roles of their sideline reporters in 2008.
NFL Films
The NFL owns NFL FilmsNFL Films
NFL Films is a Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based company devoted to producing commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries on the National Football League, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows...
, whose duties include providing game film to media outlets for highlights shows after a 2–3 day window during which outlets can use original game broadcast highlights.
International broadcasters
Current NFL broadcast dealsOther locations
- Australia – One HD, ESPN AustraliaESPN AustraliaESPN Australia is a 24 hour sports channel offered in Australia and New Zealand.Initially, ESPN was known as Sports ESPN on the Optus Vision cable television system, and focused on sports aired by its home network in the United States, including American football, baseball, and basketball...
, Fox Sports Australia - Austria - Puls 4Puls 4Puls 4 is a terrestrial television channel in Austria. As its name implies, it is the fourth Austrian-wide full-service television channel, behind ORF eins, ORF 2, and ATV.-History:...
one 4 p.m Sunday game every week - Belgium - Sporting Telenet
- BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
– ESPN BrasilESPN BrasilESPN Brasil is a Brazilian cable television network. Launched in June 1995 through a joint venture between ESPN Inc. and Grupo Abril's television arm TVA, ESPN Brasil was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States. Today, the network has 12.2 million subscribers... - Canada - CTVCTV television networkCTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
and TSNThe Sports NetworkThe Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
own most broadcast rights, with 1:00 p.m. Sunday games airing on CTV and TSN2TSN2TSN2 is a secondary feed of the Canadian English language Category C specialty channel TSN, owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc., a joint venture of Bell Media and ESPN...
, and the Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football games airing on TSN. Rogers SportsnetRogers SportsnetSportsnet was launched on October 9, 1998 as CTV Sportsnet. The name was chosen to match the regional "Fox Sports Net" operations across the United States...
and CitytvCitytvCitytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
own rights to the 4:00 p.m. and Thanksgiving Day games and to those games broadcast by the NFL Network. RDSRéseau des sportsRéseau des sports , is a Canadian French language Category C specialty channel showing sports and sport-related shows. It is available in 2.5 million homes, and is owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc....
carries games in the French languageFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. U.S. network television feeds may also be available, often from multiple markets, on cable and satellite (and via terrestrial broadcast in the border lands); all games are subject to simultaneous substitutionSimultaneous substitutionSimultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or...
. - Denmark – TV2 SportTV 2 Sport (Denmark)TV 2 Sport is a Danish sports channel operated as a joint-venture between Danish TV 2 and Swedish Modern Times Group.MTG launched a dedicated Danish version of its Viasat Sport channel in January 2002...
, TV3+ - Finland - Nelonen Pro 1, Nelonen Pro 2
- Germany - ESPN America, Das ErsteDas ErsteErstes Deutsches Fernsehen , marketed as Das Erste , is the principal publicly owned television channel in Germany...
, Sport 1+Sport 1Sport 1 is a European sports channel which is currently available in Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania broadcasting in different languages... - Hungary - Sport 1Sport 1Sport 1 is a European sports channel which is currently available in Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania broadcasting in different languages...
- Continental EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
(Except Spain, UK, Ireland and Scandinavia) – ESPN America - IcelandIcelandIceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
– ESPN America - India – ESPN Star SportsESPN Star SportsESPN Star Sports is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and News Corporation...
, Ten SportsTEN SportsTEN SPORTS is a sports channel, widely broadcast in Asia. Its key programming includes Cricket, Football and sports-entertainment shows viz. WWE. Ten Sports was launched on April 1, 2002, and became the world's premier sports channel for South Asians, reaching over 55 million homes across the Arab... - Italy – ESPN America Provided by Sky ItaliaSky ItaliaSky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian digital satellite television platform owned by News Corporation launched on 1 August 2003, when the former platforms TELE+ and Stream TV merged together...
and Dahlia TV - Japan – NHKNHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
, NTVNippon Televisionis a television network based in the Shiodome area of Minato, Tokyo, Japan and is controlled by the Yomiuri Shimbun publishing company. Broadcasting terrestrially across Japan, the network is commonly known as , contracted to , and abbreviated as "NTV" or "AX".-Offices:*The Headquarters : 6-1,...
, Gaora - Latin America - ESPN Latin AmericaESPN Latin AmericaESPN Latin America is an ESPN channel that broadcasts in Latin America, not to be confused with ESPN Deportes, which is another channel which broadcasts in the United States in Spanish. ESPN Latin America is not available in the U.S., because is not authorized to air most of the programming seen on...
, FOX Sports - Mexico – TelevisaTelevisaTelevisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...
, TV AztecaTV AztecaAzteca, is the second largest Mexican television entertainment. It was established in 1983 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión , a holding of the national TV networks channel 13 and 7 and was privatized under its current name in 1993 and now is part of Grupo Salinas... - Middle East and North AfricaNorth AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
– ESPN America Provided by Arab Radio and Television NetworkArab Radio and Television NetworkArab Radio and Television Network is an Arabic-language television network characterized by its multitude of channels. It is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The company was founded in October 1993 by Saleh Abdullah Kamel, a Saudi businessman...
ART, ShowSportsShowSportsShowSports is part of the Orbit Showtime Network. ShowSport 1 HD, 2, 3, 4 and Extreme Sports Channel are available on many Orbit Showtime Network packages. They began showing from the first of April 2007.-ShowSports 1 HD:...
, Fox SportsFox Sports (USA)Fox Sports is a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company . It was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games... - New Zealand - ESPN AustraliaESPN AustraliaESPN Australia is a 24 hour sports channel offered in Australia and New Zealand.Initially, ESPN was known as Sports ESPN on the Optus Vision cable television system, and focused on sports aired by its home network in the United States, including American football, baseball, and basketball...
- Norway – Viasat SportViasat SportViasat Sport is the common brand of several sports channels targeting the Nordic, Baltic and Eastern European countries owned by Modern Times Group.Viasat Sport is also the name of one tv-channel in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Baltics...
, NRK - PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
– ESPN Star SportsESPN Star SportsESPN Star Sports is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and News Corporation...
, Ten SportsTEN SportsTEN SPORTS is a sports channel, widely broadcast in Asia. Its key programming includes Cricket, Football and sports-entertainment shows viz. WWE. Ten Sports was launched on April 1, 2002, and became the world's premier sports channel for South Asians, reaching over 55 million homes across the Arab... - PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
– Solar SportsSolar SportsSolar Entertainment Corporation which also created its sister stations, Talk TV, The Game Channel, ETC, 2nd Avenue, Jack TV, Universal Channel, Diva Universal & Basketball TV, Solar Sports or the Solar Sports Network is a Philippine sports channel owned by Solar Entertainment Corporation... - Romania - Sport 1Sport 1Sport 1 is a European sports channel which is currently available in Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania broadcasting in different languages...
- Spain – Digital+
- Sweden – Viasat SportViasat SportViasat Sport is the common brand of several sports channels targeting the Nordic, Baltic and Eastern European countries owned by Modern Times Group.Viasat Sport is also the name of one tv-channel in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Baltics...
- ThailandThailandThailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
– TrueVisionsTrueVisionsTrueVisions is Thailand's leading cable satellite television operator, broadcasting largely in English. Now owned by the True Corporation, the company was formerly known as the United Broadcasting Corporation , but it was rebranded in February 2007.... - TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
– Fox SportsFox Sports (USA)Fox Sports is a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company . It was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games...
, ESPN America - UK/IrelandRepublic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
– Sky SportsSky SportsSky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
has live coverage of the 1:00 p.m and 4:00 p.m Sunday games, Thursday games and play-off games including the Superbowl and airs extensive highlights packages. ESPNESPN (UK)ESPN is a sports television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland owned by American sports broadcaster ESPN Inc. The channel launched on 3 August 2009...
has the rights to Monday Night Football games, Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
has the live rights to show Sunday Night Football games while the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
shows highlights packages of the annual NFL game played in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and the playoffs and broadcasts the Superbowl live. - Russia – NTV PlusNTV PlusNTV Plus is the brand name for the Russian digital satellite television service from NTV, transmitted from Eutelsat's W4 satellite at 36.0°E & from Bonum 1 at 56.0°E...
ESPN and/or NewsCorp-owned networks distribute NFL games to most other regions of the world.