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ABC/ESPN reportedly bidding for Thursday night football

FreddyE1977 said:
Nobody seems to like Thursday Night Football. Not players, not coaches, and not the NFL which blames it for a drop in ratings (though personally I think a combination of long video replay delays and anger over national anthem protests is responsible for that).
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Exactly. Thursday Night Football, 4 days after the last game, exposes the NFL's lack of seriousness about player safety. I quit cable TV a couple of years ago (or was it 3 years ago?) and I'm not going back. I shrug and move on whenever a game isn't on free over-the-air TV so if it's on ESPN or the NFL's channel, I'm out.
 
TheBigA said:
" Both networks lost money on the current package and sources say advertiser interest in the package is not as keen as it used to be."

I can understand why. Thursday night is traditionally not a big viewing night for anything. Saturday night is one of the worst. Sunday is one of the best.
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Thursday was a big night for viewing not very long ago, but hasn't really been since NBC's must see TV days
 
TheBigA said:
" Both networks lost money on the current package and sources say advertiser interest in the package is not as keen as it used to be."

What really hurts TNF in my opinion has been the matchups. I'm just not interested in seeing last place teams battle it out. The Texans playing the Giants may have looked good in August, but it was a dog in October. I also think the fantasy league thing has cooled down a bit.
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many of the MNF matchups were dogs, many late season MNF games when it was on were dogs, there were also some dogs on Sunday Night Football that weren't flexed out because all the other matchups that week were also dogs, cord cutters aren't missing these dog matchups
 
Splitting the Thursday night package between CBS and NBC never made much sense to me. Being on one network for the whole season makes more sense.
 
Thought that Fox was going to get the TNF package as CBS & NBC put in a low bid less than what they paid for when they won the bid a couple of years ago.
 
For the record, Thursday, Oct. 25 will be a World Series travel day between Games 2 and 3, so there won't be a TNF conflict with the World Series.

Then again, who will Fox choose for the Thursday night announcers? Will they be Joe Buck and Troy Aikman? (Although Buck probably won't be available for the Oct. 25 game due to World Series commitment). And if so, will Buck and Aikman also still announce "America's Game of the Week" on Sunday?

Also, did this package include the Thanksgiving Night (Nov. 22) game? Is that staying on NBC or will Fox get two Thanksgiving games (if so, they'll be back to back this year--the Cowboys game Thanksgiving afternoon then Thanksgiving night TNF).
 
The package does not include Thanksgiving Night. Not known who will air that game.
 
http://wowway.net/news/read/categor...nfl_thursday_night_football_in_fiveyear-tca-3



Hard to wrap my mind around this as a good deal. Ratings for all NFL games are falling with interest in TNF at the lowest. It further takes away a night of Prime Time programming from the network for a significant chunk of the year. Not worth $660M a year. I also think ESPN will be dumping MNF soon unless they get a serious discount, and this removes a bidder for that as Fox isn't likely to try to pick it up after this deal.
 
mvcg66b3r said:
NBC, of course. The Thanksgiving night game is part of their Sunday night package.
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That probably includes the season opening game, which was on a Thursday and also has been on NBC.

I mentioned earlier that I thought splitting the Thursday night games between CBS and NBC didn't make sense to me. NBC actually had an advantage because of their having their half of the Thursday night package along with the season opener and Thanksgiving games, so they actually had two more games on Thursday nights than CBS.
 
umfan said:
It further takes away a night of Prime Time programming from the network for a significant chunk of the year. Not worth $660M a year.
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We're talking about Fox here...they don't have much of a prime time schedule. If they sell this as a companion with their Sunday game of the week, they'll make money.

Fox Sports has a lot more power at the table than Fox Entertainment.
 
Local Fox program reported this morning that Fox has nailed down Thursday night NFL.
 
TheBigA said:
Not gonna happen. Right now, those games belong to CBS, Fox, and NBC. None of them are going to let them get away.
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The only possible path of entry for ESPN would be for the NFL to schedule a fourth, late-late Thanksgiving game between West Coast teams. ESPN could show this at 10:30 p,m. Eastern or even 11:00. There's precedent -- the network already shows a late-late game as the second half of its Week 1 Monday night doubleheader. Whether ESPN or the NFL has any interest in that is anyone's guess.
 
CTListener said:
The only possible path of entry for ESPN would be for the NFL to schedule a fourth, late-late Thanksgiving game between West Coast teams.
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That's funny...the turkey usually knocks me out halfway during the NBC game, so I doubt they'd have much audience. But hey, ESPN does west college football and basketball all the time. The bad news is it throws off the schedule for 8 teams instead of 6.
 
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