Now even some great NFL shows are on NBC Sports Network on Thursday and on Friday nights so we don't have to watch lame college football games or whatever ESPN is trying to push instead of NFL football, and then of course there is always the NFL Network though not everyone gets it on TV (but it's easy to watch on your PC).
I don't know why a few are asking on here sometimes about the obscene sums paid by each major network to run NFL games, but basically for sake of TV it's either you have the NFL or you are out down here.
Just ask NBC who had only their Thursday night comedy line-up for years until in 2006 they made Sunday Night Football as great as it is now after it sucked the first few years there many years after ESPN made it suck too like everything else they touch at ESPN.
As was definitely a bad deal for ESPN given Monday night’s ratings have not matched up with Sunday night for some time now …
It’s part ESPN’s fault for screwing things up as they did Sunday night football for years before and just about everything else they touch for a whole host of reasons including years of East Coast arrogance and bias, and it’s part the circumstances by which the NFL can’t change the Monday night game but can change the Sunday schedule.
The latter policy favours heavily NBC sometimes too.
Also let’s not overlook that both markets with teams participating in the Monday night game, unless the game is not sold out as has not happened in I don’t know how long (it even sold out here in Tampa Bay this season), have the game aired also on “free” network TV on ABC.
Now check out the boost in rights fees requested by the NFL. I don't know about this though, as perhaps the NFL is ceding the higher ground it has secured in this sort of boost though of course they are getting a bigger piece than ever of the off television broadcast action too:
Nothing has stopped game re-transmissions such that everyone is watching via outside of North America back to here whatever they heck they want online when they want to watch it.
And like me they are saying (expletive) cable and satellite trying to gouge us for extra sports programming by simply not paying at all. :rockin:
NFL games are 23 of the 25 most-watched programs among all television shows this fall and draw more than twice as many average viewers as broadcast primetime shows.
Well there you have it. They pay massively through 2022 so that we get free games to watch on TV with of course the obligatory establishment firm promos as well as heavy network cross-promotion for crappy shows.
[url=http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8250cb48/article/the-tradition-continues-nfl-to-remain-on-broadcast-tv]http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8 ... oadcast-tv[/url]
The bottom line financially any more for US broadcasters is that if you don’t have the NFL on your network, well you don’t have anything on your network.
With viewing options no longer locked to TVs, they figured out to do even such a record deal right quick.
According to The Sports Business Journal, the Broncos and Patriots were also a huge draw nationally, with CBS receiving a 19.5 overnight rating, which marks the network’s highest national rating of the season, as well as the largest regular-season rating in four years.
This article explains how and why there are NFL blackouts for games locally in the US when they are not sold out.
I live in the Tampa Bay area where the games are blacked out regularly including especially in September and October when it is just plain too damn hot to sit in a stadium to watch a game. I know blackouts all too well from growing up in Indianapolis when they were standard practice when the Colts sucked and especially before Peyton showed up.
Note that for the last game here in the Tampa Bay area last Saturday night against Dallas, the game aired locally I heard later only because the NFL bought out the 24K tickets that were unsold. The stands had a substantial number of fans of the Cowboys too.
The NFL will always go out of its way to protect its image via the NFC East division of course including especially via the Cowboys.
Interesting Paolo that the NFL would buy out those seats. Didn’t realize that about the heat affecting attendance in TB. I know my wife won’t go to Cats games, we are season ticket holders though, when the weather is too hot, cold she handles much better.
