NFL expected to give CBS marquee Thursday night games

[JMC00]

I do have to admit I think it is funny how the NFL is screwing over their other broadcast partners with this. There are only so many marquee games per week, usually a very small number. This creates one less marquee game per week for ESPN and Fox (for the first half of the season). I wonder how Fox will feel when CBS grabs 49ers-Packers or how ESPN will feel when their week 3 MNF matchup is Jets-Browns?

Goodell's top Capo, Howard Katz will come up with a schedule that makes everyone relatively happy.

I guarantee you at least 3 or 4 of the games CBS gets on Thursday would have been CBS games anyway. (AFC vs AFC or AFC visiting NFC)

 

[Zeus]

I do have to admit I think it is funny how the NFL is screwing over their other broadcast partners with this. There are only so many marquee games per week, usually a very small number. This creates one less marquee game per week for ESPN and Fox (for the first half of the season). I wonder how Fox will feel when CBS grabs 49ers-Packers or how ESPN will feel when their week 3 MNF matchup is Jets-Browns?

Kevin Bacon - Fraternity Paddle - YouTube

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Guess you missed the Pats/jets Thursday night game. That was a bad football game.

Absolutely!
I couldn't wait for that travesty to be over. Horribly played. Just awful. Were the majority of games this bad and as bad as several of the Thurs night fiascos in 2013, I'd become a pink hat casual fan, if that.

It's off-season when us fans get really, really desperate for football. By the time pre-season begins, we eagerly lap up the initial games but as opening week approaches, sanity returns and we can't wait for the junk games to end.

 

[Deus Irae]

Fitting thread for this, I think:

The 2014 regular-season schedule has yet to be released, and no portion of it has been leaked.

The first leak comes from the Bills’ official website, which buries as item No. 8 in a 13-point look at the team’s schedule the news that the Bills will play at Detroit on Thanksgiving.

Report: Lions to host Bills on Thanksgiving | ProFootballTalk

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Gives new meaning to Turkey Day

 

[SB39]

Guess you missed the Pats/jets Thursday night game. That was a bad football game.

And there is certainly no such thing as a bad football game which the Patriots win.

 

[DaBronxPats14]

Something to look out for is Where Pats play week before Thursday, Who they play on Thursday and where they play next after Thursday Game. I don't think it's a lock that Thursday Nite Teams get a Bye-Week next week. Travelin west coast home/away can be a difference in Playoffs HF'Advantage. On a side note, see what a difference Jets, Carolina Games did with blowin a call. Was difference from hosting AFCCG to travelin to Denver. Not lookin for excuses but it is what it is.

 

[SB39]

Goodell's top Capo, Howard Katz will come up with a schedule that makes everyone relatively happy.

What makes you say that? There were a lot of rumors of grumblings behind the scenes at ESPN over the fact they are paying the NFL the most and getting the worst games of the 4 network packages.

I guarantee you at least 3 or 4 of the games CBS gets on Thursday would have been CBS games anyway. (AFC vs AFC or AFC visiting NFC)

Yes, obviously it is a safe bet that roughly half of the 8 games would be CBS broadcast (AFC is the visiting team).

So that leaves 4 marquee games which would have been broadcast by Fox which are being taken away and given to CBS. Can't imagine they are going to be "relatively happy" about that.

As another writer in an article I read wrote, the league can't simply create more marquee games. There are a finite number of top matchups. CBS has just grabbed a larger share of those top matchups, so it is foolhardy to think Fox and ESPN are going to be "relatively happy" with worse matchups.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Even if they're marquee matchups, the games themselves are likely to suck. TNF has consistently sucked to date, because that's what happens when you put beat up teams on short rest/gameplanning that are way out of their routines on the field.

This is dumb, bute the league has to grow its short term revenue somehow. The more crap like this that gets pushed through, the more convinced I become that the NFL will lose its top dog status in the not-too-distant future. They're trading quality for quantity, and that rarely works out in the long term.

 

[DaBronxPats14]

They can gives us Pats@Jets Revis return with hated rivals. Last season was Jets@Pats 2nd game of season On Thurs. Nite I was there POURIN RAIN WHOLE GAME.
Then there's always Pats/Broncos, also with networks this a juicy match up for prime time Sunday/Monday Nites.

 

[DaBronxPats14]

Word 'Marquee' can be used dependin on who it concerns. Networks and us as fans. Do we consider a marquee match up Pats/Jets or/and Pats/Broncos Pats/Ravens? And if one can only be picked then which one gets billing?

 

[SB39]

Even if they're marquee matchups, the games themselves are likely to suck.

That doesn't matter one iota to the network execs who will be seeing lower ratings.

TNF has consistently sucked to date, because that's what happens when you put beat up teams on short rest/gameplanning that are way out of their routines on the field.

This is a ridiculously vague cliché oft-repeated by people who simply have nothing else they can think of saying.

As I mentioned before, I have no doubt that if anyone watched the typical Thursday game and the typical Sunday game, and we could somehow mask the teams playing, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Both Thursday games and Sunday games have good ones and have duds. You mean to tell me NE-NYJ was any worse than NE-Cincy?

 

[BradyFTW!]

That doesn't matter one iota to the network execs who will be seeing lower ratings.
This is a ridiculously vague cliché oft-repeated by people who simply have nothing else they can think of saying.

As I mentioned before, I have no doubt that if anyone watched the typical Thursday game and the typical Sunday game, and we could somehow mask the teams playing, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Both Thursday games and Sunday games have good ones and have duds. You mean to tell me NE-NYJ was any worse than NE-Cincy?

Yup, you caught me. Clearly this is just some dumb cliche that I can't support with actual professional opinions.

 

[CelticPatriot]

Pats schedule prediction...

TNF - Jets or Dolphins
SNF - Broncos, Colts, Packers
MNF - Bears

 

[pctronics0072]

I am kind of against TNF footbal myself because in my case, I cannot watch it as I work 9am-10pm that day every week.

 

[jmt57]

I do have to admit I think it is funny how the NFL is screwing over their other broadcast partners with this. There are only so many marquee games per week, usually a very small number. This creates one less marquee game per week for ESPN and Fox (for the first half of the season). I wonder how Fox will feel when CBS grabs 49ers-Packers or how ESPN will feel when their week 3 MNF matchup is Jets-Browns?

This column addresses that issue, and also brings up a few other interesting points.

Execs expect strong NFL slate for CBS - SportsBusiness Daily | SportsBusiness Journal | SportsBusiness Daily Global

Any schedule that doles out some of the biggest games to CBS’s new Thursday night schedule is certain to irk ESPN executives, considering that the network pays a much higher rights fee than its broadcast competitors and clearly wants a strong Monday night package. Since ESPN started producing “Monday Night Football” in 2006, it has had less compelling matchups than NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” ESPN has long lobbied for a stronger schedule and last week reiterated that it plans to have a schedule commensurate with the league’s most expensive package, regardless of what the league puts on Thursday nights.

“We have scheduling provisions in our new deal which gives us some insurance,” ESPN said in an emailed statement.

At an average of $1.9 billion per year, ESPN pays, by far, more than any other NFL TV partner. Over the years, NFL executives have viewed ESPN’s package as the premier cable package, which is different than the premier broadcast prime-time package. Much of ESPN’s rights fee covers highlight rights and shoulder programming that typically bring good ratings.​

On the other hand, a former NFL executive brings up this question:

“How much is going to be taken out of CBS and Fox’s packages?” Hawkins asked. “The league didn’t create more ‘A’ game inventory.”​

 

[Ivan]

I agree with Joker, terrible idea. This means the most important games will be played with the least rest for those playing. More greed from the owners and the networks, Roger Greedell, worst Commissioner ever.

 

[SB39]

Yup, you caught me. Clearly this is just some dumb cliche that I can't support with actual professional opinions.

Oh, I never said that there weren't people opposed to it. But absolutely nothing in any of those articles supports the point that the game are somehow of a worse quality than any other Sunday game (if we could adjust for the poor teams and poor matchups that have been part of the Thursday package up to now).

And despite the tired cliché, there is absolutely zero statistical evidence that they are any more dangerous (from an injury standpoint) than any other Sunday game.

 

[SB39]

This column addresses that issue, and also brings up a few other interesting points.

Execs expect strong NFL slate for CBS - SportsBusiness Daily | SportsBusiness Journal | SportsBusiness Daily Global

Any schedule that doles out some of the biggest games to CBS’s new Thursday night schedule is certain to irk ESPN executives, considering that the network pays a much higher rights fee than its broadcast competitors and clearly wants a strong Monday night package. Since ESPN started producing “Monday Night Football” in 2006, it has had less compelling matchups than NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” ESPN has long lobbied for a stronger schedule and last week reiterated that it plans to have a schedule commensurate with the league’s most expensive package, regardless of what the league puts on Thursday nights.

“We have scheduling provisions in our new deal which gives us some insurance,” ESPN said in an emailed statement.

At an average of $1.9 billion per year, ESPN pays, by far, more than any other NFL TV partner. Over the years, NFL executives have viewed ESPN’s package as the premier cable package, which is different than the premier broadcast prime-time package. Much of ESPN’s rights fee covers highlight rights and shoulder programming that typically bring good ratings.​

On the other hand, a former NFL executive brings up this question:

“How much is going to be taken out of CBS and Fox’s packages?” Hawkins asked. “The league didn’t create more ‘A’ game inventory.”​

Nice article. I did not realize ESPN had "schedule provisions" in their contract and I would love to find out the specifics behind that.

I think what the NFL should have done was split the Thursday package among Fox and CBS. Each network gets 4 games, alternating weeks. Needless to say, each Thursday night game would be one that that network would have been broadcasting anyway.

 

[SB39]

The reason why so many people believe the silly cliché that the quality of games on Thursday is any worse than any game on Sunday is because the Thursday game is the only game in town that night, so it gets a disproportionate amount of viewership, attention and coverage than it would if it were on a Sunday.

If it's Buffalo-Cleveland and it's a poor game, you can't just switch over to GB-Chicago. Heck, you probably wouldn't have been watching Buffalo-Cleveland in the first place on a Sunday, so you don't really see all the poor games which take place on Sunday's.

I admit the Thursday night schedule has (deliberately) been crafted not to be marquee games - at least until this year. But Buffalo-Cleveland on a Thursday is no worse than Buffalo-Cleveland on a Sunday.