As the NFL attempts to rejigger its media rights and account for the inventory freed up by the ESPN-NFL Media deal, several games have seemingly been passed around like hotcakes this offseason.
We finally know where the four games previously exclusive to ESPN are headed. Jon Lewis at Sports Media Watch confirmed that Fox and NBC, both of which announced additional NFL inventory early today, are each taking one of the games ESPN sent back to the NFL as part of its equity deal earlier this year. Netflix will reportedly get the other two, in addition to the Week 1 game from Australia, which together with its Christmas Day doubleheader creates a five-game package.
With those games seemingly settled, there’s another wrinkle in the upcoming NFL season broadcasting schedule: The addition of several new standalone windows for broadcast networks.
Fox will air a rare “tripleheader” in Week 10 when it broadcasts an International Series game from Munich on Sunday morning, followed by its standard afternoon games. Per SMW, this will be the first NFL tripleheader on a single broadcast network since 2016.
NBC said its additional game, branded as an NFL Holiday Special, would air Saturday, January 2, at 4:30 p.m. ET (Week 17), leading into its annual Peacock-exclusive game, with kickoff scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. That gives NBC Sports three exclusive broadcast windows that week.
Not to be outdone, CBS Sports announced it will add an exclusive primetime window of its own in Week 15, with a game on Saturday, December 19 at 8:00 p.m. ET, airing on both CBS and Paramount+. This game reportedly would’ve been a regional Sunday afternoon game, but was carved out to add another standalone window.
Incidentally, Fox will also reportedly air a game on Saturday, December 19, though it did not specify kickoff time. Based on the language of the CBS announcement, we can fairly assume it will take place earlier in the day. These games will, in all likelihood, compete directly with the first round of the College Football Playoff, as has been the case in each of the past two years since the event expanded to 12 teams.
Reports of the NFL promising a “slight increase” in broadcast exposure this season were certainly accurate. The move is not surprising amid two federal probes into the league’s broadcast practices, both of which stem from the league’s transition of certain games from traditional television to streaming.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.