NFL Network to broadcast eight prime-time games starting next season

[ALinChainz]

January 28, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- The NFL Network will broadcast eight prime-time games on Thursdays and Saturdays beginning next season.

The eight-game package, announced by commissioner Paul Tagliabue on Saturday, will begin with a game on Thanksgiving night. All of the games also will be shown on local stations in the teams' home markets. The package was created by taking Saturday and Sunday games that originally would have been shown by the league's broadcast partners or on their regional telecasts.

The league runs the 2-year-old NFL Network, which is in about 40 million homes. The addition of games to its lineup almost assuredly will increase that number.

The league also has lucrative deals with CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN and DirecTV.

"After discussing this new package of games with many potential partners, we decided it would be best presented on our own, high-quality NFL Network, which has developed so rapidly that the time had come to add live regular-season games to the programming," Tagliabue said. "In the end, we wanted these games on our network, which is devoted 24/7 to the sport of football, and not on a multi-sport network."

ESPN is paying $1.1 billion annually over eight years to broadcast the Monday night games. NBC has a six-year, $3.6 billion deal for the Sunday night package. CBS and Fox are paying a total of $8 billion over six years for the rights to Sunday afternoon games. DirecTV agreed to pay $3.5 billion for a five-year extension that runs through 2010.

AP Story (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-nflnetwork-games&prov=ap&type=lgns)

[ALinChainz]

http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm



POSTED 7:52 a.m. EST, January 29, 2006



TURKEY DAY TRIPLEHEADER ON TAP



A key point omitted to date in the coverage of the NFL's decision to air eight regular-season games on its own official network is that the launch of the package will be part of a new tripleheader on Thanksgiving.



The New York Times reported Saturday that the NFL Network will air the Redskins at Cowboys on Thanksgiving. Based on the language of the official press release (which one of our most loyal readers pointed out to us), the NFL Network's game will air at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. This means that both CBS and FOX will have games earlier in the day.



So, obviously, that the long-standing monopoly of the Lions and Cowboys on Turkey Day home games will end in 2006, since a new team will host the late afternoon matchup.



Because both Detroit and Dallas are from the NFC, look for an AFC team to get in on the action. The Chiefs have long carped about their inability to break into the Turkey Day rotation, so maybe they'll get the first shot at it. Since it's a FOX game, the visitors must be an NFC team.



And our guess is that the NFL will use the second game of the tripleheader as a true rotation going forward, with other cities now getting a shot at hosting a game on Thanksgiving.



The biggest loser in this regard is one of the NFL's prime broadcast partners. ESPN, which pays starting this year $1.1 billion for the rights to Monday Night Football, plans to air Boston College at Miami on Thanksgiving night. The ratings potential for that one, however, has just gone out the window with the news that one of the biggest rivalries in all of sports will be on the air at the same time.



Our guess is that the Boys in Bristol might take a look-see at moving that game a bit, perhaps to the night before the holiday.



POSTED 12:27 p.m. EST, January 28, 2006



NFL NETWORK THROWS WRENCH INTO TURKEY DAY



The NFL Network is making its boldest move yet to force its way into every cable system in America.



According to The New York Times, the league's official television station will carry eight regular-season games in 2006, starting with the Redskins at the Cowboys.



On Thanksgiving.



Though the game will be simulcast on broadcast channels in Dallas and D.C., the rest of the country will need to get their NTV before November or the only way folks will be watching Cowboys wrestling with other grown men on Thanksgiving is if they pick up a DVD of Brokeback Mountain.

[POJO_Risin]

Now that's interesting...

I don't see how having NFL games on the NFL channel will help the NFL...

what it will do is devalue other games...for example...Thanksgiving...since they are apparently taking the Cowboys...

what it does do...however...is give them ANOTHER way to make people pay for the games...

could this be the NFL's first step towards making ALL their games...pay per view?

Obviously...I THINK...it's a mistake...

I can tell you this...I pay for ALL the NFL games as we speak...but I think if the NFL would make that my ONLY choice...I think I'd stop...

[Va Beach VH Fan]

They're certainly taking a big hit in viewership, NFL Network isn't covered by very many basic cable packages...

I've had it since day one, but I think it's because I have seemingly every English-speaking channel known to man on my DirectTV plan...

[POJO_Risin]

Thing is...you'll see more cable networks carrying the Channel...more people asking for it...

and the big thing...

more people paying for it...

[ALinChainz]

Originally posted by POJO_Risin

I can tell you this...I pay for ALL the NFL games as we speak...but I think if the NFL would make that my ONLY choice...I think I'd stop...

As strange as it would be, I think I would to.

[POJO_Risin]

I've thought for years that's the way sports is going...to a pay per view service...

and I was a bit alarmed with the dish shit...figuring it was only a matter of time for the free tv NFL games to disappear...but it hasn't yet...

the the NFL channel...and figured that was just a tie in for NFL Films...and lots of "Inside" shit...

but started thinking...hmmm...what if they get some games...

Now they have 8 games...

what's the next step?

if they project more money by holding their own rights and selling THAT to cable...and satellite...

would they THEN decide to not sell TV rights to free TV?

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Well, Sunday Ticket now costs over 200 clams a year...

That's a 60 buck increase to what it was when I first got it in '99....

[ALinChainz]

I hear that VA ... and I think I got the Super Special when I signed up from Dish to DirecTV ...

With the new TV deal taking hold ... who kows what it is next season.

[POJO_Risin]

it should be less...

I got it free the first year I got it...and the second year for that matter...

lmfao...ran out of cons after that...

[Mama's Fool]

Seems they are forcing cable providers to put the channel on their cable packages and they did it with the biggest and highest rated rivalry in the game. Tack Thanksgiving on that also. Smart business move, but as a Skins fan I'm pretty pissed about it because if my cable company doesn't get it, I don't see the biggest regular season game for the Skins.