http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/22273473/fox-broadcast-thursday-night-football-next-five-seasons
Impressive increase considering the lower ratings.
Fox gets TNF for 5 years
- Thread starter axx
- Start date
Rumors of the NFL gravy train running dry are premature, to say the least.
NFL ratings are down, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Ratings for everything else on TV are down too. The amount of money flowing into TV advertising isn’t declining as rapidly as most of us would have predicted a couple years ago. And the desirability gap (in the eyes of advertisers) between live sports and pretty much everything else continues to grow.
That said, I wouldn’t read this as a bellwether. Increased attention to player safety issues may be turning off casual fans, but people who watch TNF (at least when their favorite team isn’t playing) are pretty much by definition not casual fans. Assuming no change in the product offering, TNF ratings will likely decline more slowly than other NFL broadcasts over the next five years. When the league’s larger TV packages come up for bid in a few years, we’ll get a better read on how changing viewing patterns and the NFL’s PR issues are affecting the league’s bankability.
NFL ratings are down, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Ratings for everything else on TV are down too. The amount of money flowing into TV advertising isn’t declining as rapidly as most of us would have predicted a couple years ago. And the desirability gap (in the eyes of advertisers) between live sports and pretty much everything else continues to grow.
That said, I wouldn’t read this as a bellwether. Increased attention to player safety issues may be turning off casual fans, but people who watch TNF (at least when their favorite team isn’t playing) are pretty much by definition not casual fans. Assuming no change in the product offering, TNF ratings will likely decline more slowly than other NFL broadcasts over the next five years. When the league’s larger TV packages come up for bid in a few years, we’ll get a better read on how changing viewing patterns and the NFL’s PR issues are affecting the league’s bankability.
Really interesting minor news is that (at least according to Will Brinson's piece) not only does the Fox deal not include the streaming rights, the TNF digital partner isn't finalized yet. I would have expected that either Amazon got insta-renewed or the TV partner would package the streaming rights into their bid. Wonder what's going on behind the curtain.
The matchups are not the main problem with Thursday night games. It's the short week that screws up teams' preparations, particularly with game-planning, putting in plays, practice reps, that leads to a shitty product.
Plus, every team has to play on Thursday* at least once, so bad matchups are completely unavoidable.
*-Some of the late-season Saturday games, I believe, are technically considered part of the Thursday package.
Why not? They broadcast 11 games from Week 4-15. Increase the number of bye weeks by having only two teams off for a few bye weeks, and always have the teams coming off of byes play each other on Thursday. The big issue will be that a few teams will have to wait until very late in the year for their bye, but I'm not sure that's a good reason not to take this approach.
I hope it doesn't mean the end of Dan Hicks for NBC golf PBP. Tirico already took his ND gig, which is fine, and Tirico hosts big events like The Open, but I like Hicks quite a lot on golf (Expect anything different?!).
The theory that TNF games are unusually sloppy has been analyzed, and found wanting. The problem is the matchups. You would never watch the majority of these games on a Sunday unless your local/favorite team was playing.
I’d like the NFL try to restore MNF to its former status as a marquee event, but I’m OK with TNF being a niche offering that only appeals to fans of the competing teams and diehard NFL fans.
I've always thought if the league wants two prime time games, they should do what they do in Week 1 and do the east coast MNF game at 6ET and the west coast one at 9ET. I fucking love that setup so I don't have to stay up until midnight.
