Pats-Giants game to be trimulcast on CBS, NBC, and NFL Network

[KeithE4]

The league changed its mind and is allowing the game to be televised nationally on both CBS and NBC. Both will carry the NFL Network feed.

This is a first, and the first simulcast (or more) since the NFL-AFL Championship Game of 1967 (what is incorrectly call Super Bowl I).

Link: ESPN

 

[Jul]

The league changed its mind and is allowing the game to be televised nationally on both CBS and NBC. Both will carry the NFL Network feed.

This is a first, and the first simulcast (or more) since the NFL-AFL Championship Game of 1967 (what is incorrectly call Super Bowl I).

Link: ESPN

I hope that the NFL will stop the Thursday/Saturday NFL network games after this season.

 

[KeithE4]

I hope that the NFL will stop the Thursday/Saturday NFL network games after this season.

Don't hold your breath, although I'd like to see them return the Saturday games to CBS & Fox as a double-header. I'm not a big fan of the Thursday night games either.

 

[country103]

CONFIRMED ;D ;D ;D

NFL ARRANGES FOR NFL NETWORK TELECAST OF PATRIOTS-GIANTS GAME TO BE SIMULCAST BY NFL NETWORK, CBS AND NBC


The NFL has arranged with broadcast television partners CBS and NBC for an unprecedented three-way national simulcast of the NFL Network telecast of Saturday night’s New England Patriots at New York Giants game when the Patriots will try to become the first NFL team to go 16-0 in a regular season, NFL Commissioner ROGER GOODELL announced today.

“We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans,” Commissioner Goodell said. “What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever.”

CBS and NBC will carry the NFL Network feed of the game with BRYANT GUMBEL and CRIS COLLINSWORTH in the broadcast booth. The game also will be televised by WCVB-ABC (Channel 5) in Boston, WMUR-ABC in Manchester (Channel 9) and WWOR (Channel 9) in New York. The telecast begins at 8 p.m. ET with kickoff set at 8:15 p.m. ET.

This will be the first three-network simulcast in NFL history and the first simulcast of any kind of an NFL game since Super Bowl I in 1967 when CBS and NBC both televised the first meeting of the champions of the newly merged National Football League and American Football League. CBS was the network partner of the NFL at that time and NBC televised the AFL. In that first Super Bowl – in which the NFL Green Bay Packers beat the AFL Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on January 15, 1967 – Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker and Frank Gifford called the game for CBS while Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman broadcast the game on NBC.

Against the 10-5 playoff-bound Giants, the 15-0 Patriots on Saturday night will seek to become the first NFL team to complete an unbeaten regular season since the Miami Dolphins went 14-0 in 1972. The Dolphins proceeded to win three more games, including Super Bowl VII, to finish 17-0 for the only perfect season in NFL history. The NFL regular season was expanded to 16 games in 1978.

The Patriots also are aiming for their record 19th consecutive regular-season victory dating back to the 2006 season. With six points, they also will become the highest scoring team in one NFL season, breaking the Minnesota Vikings’ total of 556 in 1998. Individually, quarterback TOM BRADY (48) is in position to break PEYTON MANNING’s NFL record for most touchdown passes in a season (49 in 2004) and wide receiver RANDY MOSS (21) will set a new league mark if he catches two touchdown passes to surpass JERRY RICE’s 22 in 1987.

NFL Network is currently available on 240 cable systems, including Cox, plus satellite television providers DirecTV and Dish Network, and the telephone company TV services of AT&T U-VERSE and Verizon Fios. But the largest cable companies have refused to carry NFL Network on their most broadly distributed and affordable packages.

“NFL Network is a programming service of great interest to fans and should be broadly distributed by the cable industry,” said NFL Network President and CEO STEVE BORNSTEIN. “The only channel devoted 24/7 to America’s favorite sport is not programming that should be relegated to a poorly promoted, pay-extra sports tier that takes advantage of our fans’ passion for the NFL. A few of the biggest cable operators have refused to negotiate. We call on them to do what’s right for their consumers and negotiate agreements for NFL Network that make sense for everybody.”

NFL Network also will televise two college football bowl games over the next week. The Texas Bowl in Houston matches the University of Houston against TCU at 8 p.m. ET on Friday (December 28) and the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona will send Indiana University against Oklahoma State on Monday (December 31) at 6 p.m. ET.

 

[oldvnewschool]

Good for two reasons.

1. To watch history in the making.

2. We finally get a chance to see the talking muppets Kermit The Frog (Bryant Gumbel) & Beeker (Cris Collinsworth) ;D

Then again it my be the spark to launch the NFL Network to the top of the world.

 

[EnbyCee]

Good for two reasons.

1. To watch history in the making.

2. We finally get a chance to see the talking muppets Kermit The Frog (Bryant Gumbel) & Beeker (Cris Collinsworth) ;D

Then again it my be the spark to launch the NFL Network to the top of the world.

Uh, no, if anything it's the league admitting that the NFL "Network" is a failure....and exposing its putrid production and horrid announcers in front of a huge nationwide audience in such a historic game will open itself up to further ridicule.

Vitriol aside, it's damned good to know that pretty much anyone who wants to watch this game, will be able to.

 

[MarkL]

But they also get a huge opportunity to promote NFL Network to a large audience. No doubt, they will promote their programming and bad mouth the cable companies.

 

[chuckydoll]

Patriots-Giants goes OTA nationwide

Helps NBC (#4 in prime time) but may hurt CBS (which does OK on Saturday).

That said, the Thursday-night and Saturday-night games will stay with NFL Network. CBS and Fox wanted out of late-season Saturday games because those matchups were set before the season and often wound up as losers.

 

[justthenumbers]

Re: Patriots-Giants goes OTA nationwide

Not that anyone here cares (or should), but this is bad news for WCVB, WMUR, WWOR, and any cable systems carrying NFL Network who sold local ad time in this game. Any audience delivery estimates provided by these stations/systems are worthless now, because the audience is going to be split up among multiple channels (the exact number will vary by market). Advertisers who purchased time through these outlets, presumably paying a lot of $$$$$$$$, are not going to be happy…

 

[KeithE4]

I wonder if any CBS and NBC affiliates outside the Northeast will refuse to carry the game, deciding to show local programming (or worse, infomercials). I'd think NFL cities' affiliates (and of course, all O&Os) would carry it, but would smaller markets' CBS & NBC stations in the Midwest, south, and west bother?

 

[Mainedude2007]

CBS and NBC will carry the NFL Network feed of the game with BRYANT GUMBEL and CRIS COLLINSWORTH in the broadcast booth. The game also will be televised by WCVB-ABC (Channel 5) in Boston, WMUR-ABC in Manchester (Channel 9) and WWOR (Channel 9) in New York.

so that means in Boston the big 3 networks will all be carrying the same exact thing : just like a 9/11 telethon

 

[Jul]

Any word if WCAU channel 10 (NBC) and KYW-TV 3 (CBS) in Philly will air this game Saturday night? I hope that the NFL will stop the Thursday/Saturday NFL network games after this season. It is a joke that NFL would air live NFL games on a channel that is not widely available like ESPN, CNN, etc.

 

[justthenumbers]

I wonder if any CBS and NBC affiliates outside the Northeast will refuse to carry the game, deciding to show local programming (or worse, infomercials). I'd think NFL cities' affiliates (and of course, all O&Os) would carry it, but would smaller markets' CBS & NBC stations in the Midwest, south, and west bother?

Will CBS & NBC affiliates be able to sell local ad time in this game? Even if they can, given the short notice and considering that it's a holiday week, is there enough time to sell advertising in this game? That may dictate whether any affiliates refuse to carry it.

My feeling is that there's enough interest in this game, even among the casual NFL viewer, to prevent any affiliates from deciding to not carry it.

 

[chuckydoll]

Why all the whining and complaining?

This is the biggest event of the TV season so far, a season that's been affected by a writers' strike.

No CBS or NBC affiliate is going to pre-empt the network this Saturday night. You don't get an opportunity every day to televise history in the making. Yes, the affiliates will get their station breaks as if it were an ordinary Saturday night.

In Boston you'll have 3 of the Big 4 airing the Pats, including a network O&O. The total audience in that region could surpass Game 4 of the 2004 World Series. That's a whole lot different from "a 9/11 telethon".

In New York you'll have the CBS and NBC O&Os airing Big Blue alongside quasi-indie My9.

I take back part of my earlier comment; CBS and NBC have strong station lineups, so this will only benefit them as well as NFL Network. It doesn't hurt that CBS usually does well on Saturday nights.

 

[KeithE4]

Any word if WCAU channel 10 (NBC) and KYW-TV 3 (CBS) in Philly will air this game Saturday night?

They're network O&Os so I can say that the chances of either of them pre-empting it are somewhere around zero.

 

[Nate Wesley]

But they also get a huge opportunity to promote NFL Network to a large audience. No doubt, they will promote their programming and bad mouth the cable companies.

Ding! We have a winner.

The NFL Network loses (exclusivity), but in essence, it still wins. There is no way CBS nor NBC will stop NFLN from shamelessly promoting itself--they need the programming. The basic plan still remains--to make Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House, Mediacom, Cablevision et. al. get some more complaints from sports fans.

 

[coops]

nbc and cbs will be able to sell 18- 30 second spots during the game...nfl really caved on this one as that nasty phrase...repeal of antitrust exemption...reared its ugly head in congress this past week. let's hope the top notch players are in the game....not the second-stringers as is anticipated. if this were a night other than saturday only one network would be simulcast...saturday is the dead zone so it seems the thinking was it couldn't hurt.

 

[Darrel M]

But they also get a huge opportunity to promote NFL Network to a large audience. No doubt, they will promote their programming and bad mouth the cable companies.

Ding! We have a winner.

The NFL Network loses (exclusivity), but in essence, it still wins. There is no way CBS nor NBC will stop NFLN from shamelessly promoting itself--they need the programming. The basic plan still remains--to make Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House, Mediacom, Cablevision et. al. get some more complaints from sports fans.

Indeed, one need only to look at the commissioner's statement to see where the NFL is going with this:

“We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans,” Commissioner Goodell said. “What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever.”

Gee, Roger, do you mean "demand" for NFLN as a whole, or "demand" for one historic game that just happens to be on NFLN? While the NFL no doubt blinked on this one (heck, they squinted with dry eye!), they're already turning this "gesture of goodwill" into a 3-hour NFLN infomercial. Here's hoping CBS and NBC, if they have any pre-game comments of their own Saturday night, will dwell upon this controversy.

BTW, you notice in the AP coverage that WWOR is peeved about having the game on 3 different channels in NYC. I presume there's no legal recourse for WWOR to ensure their exclusive rights in the New York market? (Ditto for WCVB/WMUR?)

 

[justthenumbers]

nbc and cbs will be able to sell 18- 30 second spots during the game....

So, to clarify...

(a) SOME of the commercials seen on the actual NFL Network channel will also be seen on NBC & CBS (Do you know how much commercial time this consists of?)
(b) Other commercials seen on the actual NFL Network channel will NOT be shown on NBC & CBS - this is where each of those networks' 18 30-second spots comes in
(c) On top of that, there will still be LOCAL ad time set aside for NBC affiliates, CBS affiliates, and cable systems who insert on the NFL Network Channel (Do you know how much commercial time this consists of?)

If this is the case...how will NFL Network decide which commercials will receive the additional CBS/NBC exposure (group 'a' above), and which will not (group 'b' above?) My guess is that they already sold out all available inventory before this announcement was made...will they be contacting all of those clients and offering the 'a' ad position if they pay more?

And with only two business days remaining before the game -- and considering that this is a holiday week -- is there enough time for NBC & CBS to sell the available ad time? I assume that there is -- NBC & CBS probably wouldn't have agreed to carry the game if there wasn't. I'm not familiar with the network TV ad sales business, so I apologize if that's a really stupid question.

BTW, you notice in the AP coverage that WWOR is peeved about having the game on 3 different channels in NYC. I presume there's no legal recourse for WWOR to ensure their exclusive rights in the New York market? (Ditto for WCVB/WMUR?)

The "right" thing to do is to force the NBC & CBS affiliates in NYC, Boston, and Manchester to black out the game and carry other programming. But I doubt that will happen.

 

[radioguy555]

I'm just curious how the NFL "chose" CBS and NBC as the networks to simulcast the game on. Why didn't Fox get it since they air more NFL games than NBC? Also, are there areas in the country where you can only get a CBS affiliate or an NBC affiliate and not both? I'm glad they are doing this, but I must say I'm surprised by the arrangements.