- Joined
- Aug 13, 2005
- Messages
- 19,250
- Reaction score
- 12,783
Here's a look at the television coverage across the country for this week's game. Out-of-towners without Sunday Ticket or Slingbox should be able to get the game on their local channels throughout the eastern half of the US, except in Florida where they will be treated to Miami - Arizona.
http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/2008-02-CBS2.html
See those two gray areas on the map, in Tampa and Seattle? They don't get any CBS late game - even though CBS has the doubleheader. The reason for this is that the NFL has a rule that prohibits the broadcast of an NFL game opposite the local team's home game. In this case, Seattle and Tampa have 4:00 home games - which are televised because they are sold out - but because they are home, the CBS (AFC) game is blacked out.
Apparently the logic is that the NFL doesn't want people staying home (and not spending money on $8 beers) to watch a game on TV that they may find more compelling - even after they've already paid for their ticket. Seems to me that the game being broadcast on TV isn't going to sway a whole lot of people from throwing away the money they spent on tickets to watch the local game. Lost in all that logic is that if somebody's not interested in attending, it's very easy to find a sports bar showing every NFL game - and if they don't care about throwing away $150 on tickets, they're not going to sweat their bar tab watching the better game on TV.
Sounds like an outdated and obsolete NFL rule. Actually what I find most surprising is that the networks agreed to go along with this idea. Considering the amount of money they are paying to the NFL for broadcasting rights, I'm surprised that they're willing to give up a couple of markets every week, even though those games would obviously lag behind the local game in ratings.
Here's an idea for the NFL: go back to how it was in the AFL - NFL days, when both networks broadcast two games, one at 1pm and another at 4pm. That would result in about 20 more games being beamed into every living room in every market each year. The NFL can charge the networks even more money, and the fans would have even more choice. While ratings for individual games may dip, the total number of people watching should increase - making the networks and their adverisers happy.
http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/2008-02-CBS2.html
See those two gray areas on the map, in Tampa and Seattle? They don't get any CBS late game - even though CBS has the doubleheader. The reason for this is that the NFL has a rule that prohibits the broadcast of an NFL game opposite the local team's home game. In this case, Seattle and Tampa have 4:00 home games - which are televised because they are sold out - but because they are home, the CBS (AFC) game is blacked out.
Apparently the logic is that the NFL doesn't want people staying home (and not spending money on $8 beers) to watch a game on TV that they may find more compelling - even after they've already paid for their ticket. Seems to me that the game being broadcast on TV isn't going to sway a whole lot of people from throwing away the money they spent on tickets to watch the local game. Lost in all that logic is that if somebody's not interested in attending, it's very easy to find a sports bar showing every NFL game - and if they don't care about throwing away $150 on tickets, they're not going to sweat their bar tab watching the better game on TV.
Sounds like an outdated and obsolete NFL rule. Actually what I find most surprising is that the networks agreed to go along with this idea. Considering the amount of money they are paying to the NFL for broadcasting rights, I'm surprised that they're willing to give up a couple of markets every week, even though those games would obviously lag behind the local game in ratings.
Here's an idea for the NFL: go back to how it was in the AFL - NFL days, when both networks broadcast two games, one at 1pm and another at 4pm. That would result in about 20 more games being beamed into every living room in every market each year. The NFL can charge the networks even more money, and the fans would have even more choice. While ratings for individual games may dip, the total number of people watching should increase - making the networks and their adverisers happy.
