- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 138,770
CBS-NBC split package for Thursday night could be coming
Posted by Mike Florio on January 22, 2016, 3:50 PM EST
The NFL is expected to decide on a new Thursday Night Football arrangement before the Super Bowl. Ultimately, the league could have multiple new arrangements.
According to Joe Flint and Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal, CBS and NBC currently are poised to share the Thursday package with NFL Network. Both would carry five Thursday night games (NBC already has the season-opening Thursday night and the Thanksgiving night game), and NFL Network would retain the rest.
FOX also is in the mix. Regardless of which networks emerge from the scrum, a split package is regarded as more likely than a one-network situation, based on the report. Since 2014, when the NFL expanded Thursday Night Football to a full-season product, the first half of the schedule has been simulcast on CBS and NFLN, with the remainder of the games on the in-house network exclusively. As part of the deal, CBS produced all of the games, including the games not televised by CBS.
The approach could result in more net dollars for the NFL, with multiple networks paying more for half than one would pay for all of the games. The schedule, according to the report, could end up being flexible, which would prevent the networks from knowing with certainty which games they would televise. While that would make it harder for the networks to program Thursday nights, the NFL has the leverage to dictate this and other terms.
The power of the NFL to draw live audiences together gives the league its leverage. Nothing else delivers a large audience like live pro football, giving any network televising the games the ability to leverage that audience for selling ads and promoting other shows.
Posted by Mike Florio on January 22, 2016, 3:50 PM EST
The NFL is expected to decide on a new Thursday Night Football arrangement before the Super Bowl. Ultimately, the league could have multiple new arrangements.
According to Joe Flint and Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal, CBS and NBC currently are poised to share the Thursday package with NFL Network. Both would carry five Thursday night games (NBC already has the season-opening Thursday night and the Thanksgiving night game), and NFL Network would retain the rest.
FOX also is in the mix. Regardless of which networks emerge from the scrum, a split package is regarded as more likely than a one-network situation, based on the report. Since 2014, when the NFL expanded Thursday Night Football to a full-season product, the first half of the schedule has been simulcast on CBS and NFLN, with the remainder of the games on the in-house network exclusively. As part of the deal, CBS produced all of the games, including the games not televised by CBS.
The approach could result in more net dollars for the NFL, with multiple networks paying more for half than one would pay for all of the games. The schedule, according to the report, could end up being flexible, which would prevent the networks from knowing with certainty which games they would televise. While that would make it harder for the networks to program Thursday nights, the NFL has the leverage to dictate this and other terms.
The power of the NFL to draw live audiences together gives the league its leverage. Nothing else delivers a large audience like live pro football, giving any network televising the games the ability to leverage that audience for selling ads and promoting other shows.