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NFL COVERAGE WHO DECIDES WHAT NETWORK GETS WHICH GAME?

D

donnyg

This has always puzzled me. I know the logic of it, CBS has AFC, FOX has NFC, NBC has Sunday night and ESPN has Monday night. I know occasionally FOX and CBS split coverage when AFC plays NFC, That happened already this weekend with Denver VS. Seattle, instead of the game being on CBS like you'd figure, the game ended up on FOX. Why? That always throws me off, not to mention I have never cared for our local FOX station. The way it should go is, if game is played in AFC park, then CBS gets it, if game is in NFC park then FOX gets it. Call me crazy, but that's just logic.

Donny G ;D
 
The packages as currently laid out say the interconference games are carried by the network of the "away" team--NFC road games in AFC cities on Fox, AFC road games in NFC cities on CBS. You could also say it's the traveling team in all cases--either way, the result is the same.
 
imhomerjay said:
The packages as currently laid out say the interconference games are carried by the network of the "away" team--NFC road games in AFC cities on Fox, AFC road games in NFC cities on CBS. You could also say it's the traveling team in all cases--either way, the result is the same.
Click to expand...
and it's been this way for as long as I can remember...
 
Logic being: The home market could be blacked out. The away market always gets the game so let that determine which network does the broadcast.

Another wrinkle, which may or may not matter where you live: The NFL assigns each team various secondary markets. These are markets without an NFL team located nearby. Secondary markets must always take home games of their assigned team. If the local affiliate of the network scheduled to carry that assigned game thinks another contest on the same network would draw better, they can ask their network to let them carry the other game (and usually that's allowed).

To see who carries what each week, go to:
http://the506.com/sports/?p=458

Also see the Wikipedia article: NFL on television.
 
Actually, secondary markets must carry a given team's ROAD games. Example: The Erie, PA market must carry all Buffalo Bills road games, like they'll be doing this week when Buffalo is at New England. Likewise, if New England is at Buffalo, the Providence, RI market must carry that game.
 
Also in some markets, the CBS or Fox affiliate whose areas don't have a NFL team will have a "viewer's poll" to let them decide which games will air in their area. For example, this week the Fox affiliate in Shreveport, Louisiana is letting viewers decide between the Cowboys-Texans game or Saints-Falcons...not necessarily an easy decision. You have a pretty big game between two old rivals (the defending champs versus a good Falcons team) and the in-state battle between "America's Team" (who's in free-fall two weeks into the season) and an up-and-coming team coming off two dramatic wins.
 
One of the interesting points of contention in this model is Erie, Pennsylvania.
They are roughly equidistant from 3 NFL teams. The Buffalo Bills (97 miles),
Cleveland Browns (just over 100 miles) and Pittsburgh Steelers (120 miles).
The market seems about evenly divided between Steelers and Browns fans,
but due to NFL rules which say "closest gets priority", Erie gets stuck watching
a very bad Bills team every Sunday.
 
donnyg said:
This has always puzzled me. I know the logic of it, CBS has AFC, FOX has NFC, NBC has Sunday night and ESPN has Monday night. I know occasionally FOX and CBS split coverage when AFC plays NFC, That happened already this weekend with Denver VS. Seattle, instead of the game being on CBS like you'd figure, the game ended up on FOX. Why? That always throws me off, not to mention I have never cared for our local FOX station. The way it should go is, if game is played in AFC park, then CBS gets it, if game is in NFC park then FOX gets it. Call me crazy, but that's just logic.

Donny G ;D
Click to expand...

I guess the question is, was the game played in Denver or in Seattle?
 
The Seattle-Denver game was in Denver.

We (FOX) have the Chiefs home game against the 49ers this week. Under the current agreement, we get two Chiefs games a year since the Chiefs play two NFC teams at home. After the 49ers, we get the Chiefs home game against the Cardinals in week 11.
 
Once again, look at which conference the visiting team is from! When Miami played (and won!) at Minnesota this past Sunday, the game was on CBS because the Dolphins are in the AFC, which is what CBS covers. The only time the Dolphins will be on FOX is in week 16 on Sunday, December 26th, when they host Detroit (an NFC team).
 
And then there's this little caveat.....

Denver & San Francisco are both in a unique position this year.

That is because when Denver plays SF, the game WILL NOT be in SF even though it is considered a 49ers home game. The game will instead be played in London, England.

Normally a Denver-San Francisco game in SF would be a CBS Late game just as it would be a Fox Late game if the meeting were to be in Denver. But since the game is in London, the game will not only be on CBS, it will be an early game due to the Time Zone difference between the U.S. & London.

The only remaining question is whether there will be TWO late games in Denver & San Francisco (One on CBS & the other on Fox) or would normal NFL rules apply as if the game were in the Bay Area. This would be unchartered waters for the networks since there's never been a case where BOTH teams in the London game have come from points WEST of the Mississippi before that I can remember (Though the most recent case has been SD two years ago but they played NO in London that year).

Cheers :D
 
Looking at the Week 8 schedule for Halloween, it's a FOX doubleheader week. Seattle is at Oakland at 4:15 PM ET on FOX. If it's blacked out, the other FOX options at that time would be Buccaneers @ Cardinals or Vikings @ Patriots. As for the CBS schedule, it looks like we'll get the London game here in Hartford/New Haven because the Packers @ Jets and Vikings @ Patriots will both be carried by FOX (two cases of an NFC visitor). As for the Giants, that happens to be their bye week.
 
I have a related question. How is it that the Fox 4:00 game ended before 7:30, meaning we lost nearly all of a "Simpsons" episode (Fortunately a rerun, but then why didn't they just make James Brown's show longer?)? I thought we weren't even supposed to HAVE a "Simpsons" episode or anything else at 7 when there was a game.
 
Here's what bugs me: the Carolina Panthers (and the way
they're playing I should say, who cares?), being an NFC team,
are usually on Fox. But yesterday, because they were playing
host to the Cincinnati Bengals (AFC), the game was on CBS.
So what does Fox give us? The Redskins, because North Carolina
was Redskins country before the Panthers came along. Why not
the Falcons-Saints game? The Saints are the defending Super Bowl
champions, both teams are in the same division with
the Panthers (NFC South), and the game turned out to be a nailbiter,
with the Falcons winning 27-24 on a field goal with less than two minutes
to go in overtime. I would think the Falcons would be Fox's second choice
for us when the Panthers are on CBS for the very reason that the two teams
are in the same division.

For us, the usual CBS game probably makes sense; it usually involves
the Baltimore Ravens, the closest AFC team to us.
 
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