In the aftermath of the highest-rating Super Bowl of all time comes the news that the National Football League’s television landscape has shifted again, and the big winner is CBS.
In a further sign that there is no ratings gold like NFL ratings gold, the hotly-contested Thursday night Football package for the first half of the 2014 season has been awarded to current AFC rights holder CBS, and should signal yet another series of beyond-belief viewer numbers for America’s most popular sport.
With the success that NBC has had with the league’s flagship television presentation, Sunday Night Football, it came as little surprise to anyone who’s followed the fortunes of both the Peacock Network and the NFL to learn that every broadcast network in America submitted a bid for the package of games that used to be the exclusive domain of the league-owned NFL Network.
Also submitting a bid was Turner Sports (presumably via it’s pseudo-sports arm, TNT) and cable sports giant ESPN, who promised that they would show the games on their broadcast partner, ABC, should they win the rights, and would have represented the first pro football on the Disney-owned network since Super Bowl XL, after which Monday Night Football shifted to it’s current home on ESPN, where it is consistently the highest-rating show on cable television.
One can only speculate on just how much money was thrown at the package, which includes eight early season Thursday night games, making the Tiffany network the first in America to broadcast the National Football League in primetime since Monday Night Football left the ABC line-up. No monetary figure was disclosed, but with ESPN, FOX and others prepared to dig deeply into their pockets and bank accounts, it surely wasn’t a cheap acquisition. The thing is, NFL football is a can’t miss prospect. It’s going to rate the house down.
It was a good time for the league to announce they intended to open bidding for the Thursday Night series. Though oft-maligned either due to NFL Network’s sometimes dubious commentator choices or the series being bereft of big-time matchups, Thursday Night Football is fresh off of it’s most-watched season ever. The broadcasts helmed by Brad Nessler (play-by-play) and Mike Mayock (analyst), a consistent broadcast duo whose futures are unclear now, averaged eight million viewers weekly, up a healthy ten percent from 2012.
The package is for one year, though the League has the option to pick up a second year, and unless the ratings are absolutely horrible – unlikely – I can’t see a reason why the NFL wouldn’t exercise that extra year. After all, they want nothing more than maximum exposure for their product, and there’s nothing that provides it more than a network television presence.
It’s a real coup for CBS, too, though it won’t come without some sacrifice: the network will likely move their immense ratings winner comedy The Big Bang Theory from Thursday night to a new timeslot somewhere else. It’s interesting that CBS will jettison what’s been a seriously good performer for many years now as though it were something that’s barely treading ratings water.
That’s the power of the NFL right there, ladies and gentlemen. CBS happily one of television’s highest rating comedies out of it’s established timeslot for half a season of football – and not even the business end – is all the proof anyone should need to illustrate that the network believes there’s no bigger brand on television at the moment than the NFL.
CBS is already America’s most-watched network, and the acquisition of primetime football will only serve to strengthen their dominant position.
Importantly for the NFL, it’s own network won’t lose out in this deal. NFL Network, which the league is forever trying to grow, will simulcast the eight games on CBS and have an additional eight games – six on Thursday night and two on Saturday nights, probably after the college football season has come to an end – exclusively, though all games will feature a CBS crew, reportedly led by the network’s leading commentary tandem, Jim Nantz (play-by-play) and Phil Simms (analyst). Further to that, NFL Network talent will appear alongside CBS talent pre-game, at half-time and for post-game segments. It’s the most unique simulcast arrangement I’ve ever heard of.
The presence of Nantz and Simms is an interesting one, given that they will likely work a reduced Sunday schedule this year: apparently only the 4.25pm games that are broadcast nationally as part of a fortnightly double header. The presence of CBS’ big guns would seem to suggest that the NFL is going to beef up the quality of Thursday Night games.
As I wrote above, the series has traditionally been stacked with games between under-performing teams – as has Monday Night Football on ESPN, for that matter – but if CBS have guaranteed their premiere broadcast crew for these midweek games, it makes sense that the carrot dangled by Commissioner Roger Goodell is big-rating teams and high-rating matchups.
That means divisional rivalries and probably a lot of games featuring Peyton, Eli, Tom and Drew. In that way, football fans everywhere are winners, too, but if big games start to disappear from Sunday afternoon and Monday night games, you can expect to hear grumbling from FOX and ESPN, who aren’t exactly getting their slice of the NFL pie at bargain-basement prices.
There are rumours abound that CBS will revamp their pre-game show, which is handily beaten by FOX’s offering in the midday Sunday timeslot, and the acquisition of Thursday Night Football might be the beginning of a reimagining of how the National Football league is presented on CBS.
Either way, although we’re more than half a year, from the first snap of the 2014 season, but CBS already has a big win on the board.
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