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.
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 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.[5] 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.
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
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).
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. ET (10:00 a.m. PT) "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 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.
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 playoffs.
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.
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 tennis 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 Network. 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.
NFL Sunday Ticket
Satellite broadcast company DirecTV 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.
elevision 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", 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.
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 Giants and New York Jets
The San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders
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. PT. 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.[14] An exception was granted during Week 15 of the 2009 season, when the 49ers played at the Philadelphia Eagles and the Raiders played at the Denver Broncos. The 49ers were originally scheduled to play the Eagles in the early time slot and the Raiders were to play the Broncos in the late time slot, but a severe snowstorm in the Philadelphia area forced the 49ers-Eagles game to be moved to the late time slot on only two days notice.
The 49ers or Raiders must have at least one prime time game under current television rules, in order to circumvent the television blackout schedule (sometimes and often, both may get at least one night game).
The 49ers' two interconference home games (with a visiting AFC team) are televised by CBS, and the Raiders' interconference home games (with a visiting NFC team) are on Fox, 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 the 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 Area 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. Thanksgiving, Thursday Night, Saturday Night, Sunday Night or Monday Night Football).
The NFL will avoid conflicts in the 2011 season by using both options listed in the second scenario above. The Raiders will host interconference games against the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions. The former game is scheduled during the week that the 49ers play at the Baltimore Ravens 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 Steelers on Monday Night Football. Conversely, the 49ers' other interconference home game, vs. the Cleveland Browns, will be scheduled during the Raiders' bye week.
In 2010, the 49ers hosted the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders, while the Raiders hosted the St. Louis Rams 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. The 49ers and Raiders played each other at Candlestick Park on week 6, and the Raiders hosted the Rams on week 2 with the 49ers hosting the Saints on Monday night that week.
If the 49ers or Raiders win the Super Bowl, the NFL may take advantage of the opportunity by scheduling an opponent from the opposite conference for the Kickoff Game 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 Baseball counterparts, the Oakland Athletics, 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. This means that one team—49ers or Raiders—would have to be scheduled in the early time slot (1:00 p.m. EST), while the other is scheduled in the late time slot (4:15 p.m. EST), both against teams from their own divisions—NFC West and AFC West, respectively. Since the Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams are the only western division teams not in the Mountain or Pacific time zones, this forces one of the following two options to be implemented:
The Raiders would have to end the season at Kansas City and the 49ers play in the late time slot, or
The 49ers would have to end the season at St. Louis and the Raiders play in the late time slot.
The first option was used in Week 17 of the 2010 season, while the second option will be used for Week 17 of the 2011 season (it is suggested that these will alternate each year). If the Raiders or 49ers 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.
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 season due to unusual scheduling logistics. These exceptions marked the first times since 1984 that the Giants and Jets played games simultaneously.
The aforementioned 49ers' and Raiders' 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 zone. 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 they play in the same stadium, it is impossible for one team to play a home game in the early time slot and for the other to play their home game in the late time slot, the only exception being if one of the teams was involved in the International Series.
In 2010, the Giants hosted the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars. The former game was played during the week that the Jets played at the Miami Dolphins on NBC Sunday Night Football, and the latter game was played three days after the Jets hosted the Cincinnati Bengals on Thanksgiving. Conversely, the Jets hosted the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football, and the Green Bay Packers during the Giants' bye week.
In 2011, the Giants and Jets will play each other on December 24, with Fox as the televising network (the Giants are the designated road team). The Jets' other interconference home game, against the Dallas Cowboys, was played on NBC Sunday Night Football on September 11. Conversely, the Giants will host the Buffalo Bills on October 16 and the Miami Dolphins on October 30. The former game will be played one day before the Jets host the Dolphins on Monday Night Football, while the latter game will be played during the Jets' bye week.
Other exceptions
The same principles that apply to the New York and San Francisco markets were also in effect when the Rams 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.
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 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 Packers 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.
Flexible scheduling
Since the 2006 season, 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 removed 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 exclusivly 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" 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 the seventh edition 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. 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.
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 terrestrial 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).
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 (to the point of the game day being a de facto national holiday), tickets sell out pretty quickly, and so 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 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 Football, 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 area; the Bengals game ended up being blacked out, and thus WKRC-TV and two other nearby CBS affiliates could not carry the game).
If the blacked-out nationally televised game is on a cable television network such as ESPN or the NFL Network, all cable and satellite television 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 Ticket 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. 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, 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)†
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)
Chargers (2010)
Lions (2010)
Raiders (2010)
Bengals (2011)
Buccaneers (2011)
As of the 2010 season, the Giants, Texans, and Ravens have never had a blacked out game.
† – Games were always blacked 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.
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 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.
Two-team secondary markets
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.
"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 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 occuring 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 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.
Commercial breaks
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| Network television coordinator with orange sleeves will lower his arm when the commercial is over. |
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.
Broadcasting history
From infancy to national success
NBC 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[who?] 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
All about: AFL-NFL Merger
When the rival American Football League (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.
Post AFL-NFL Merger
When the AFL and the NFL officially merged in 1970, the combined league divided its teams into the American Football Conference (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.[citation needed] 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.
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 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.
Broadcast realignments
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 Network. 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[citation needed] 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 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 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.
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 attacks. 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.
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; 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.
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.
Holiday games
Thanksgiving Day games
The Detroit Lions 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.
Christmas and Christmas Eve games
National Football League Christmas games.
In recent years, the NFL has generally scheduled games on Christmas 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 years.
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.
New Year's games
The NFL never stages games on New Year's Day 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.
Other holidays
The NFL scheduled Monday Night Football games on Labor Day in the past, but has not done so since 2000. Games continue to be scheduled on Columbus Day.
The NFL only plays on Halloween or Veterans Day 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
All about: 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.
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