National Football League on television

The television rights to broadcast National Football League (NFL) games are the most lucrative and expensive rights of any American sport. Television brought professional football into prominence in the modern era after World War II. Since then, National Football League broadcasts have become among the most-watched programs on American television, and the financial fortunes of entire networks have rested on owning NFL broadcasting rights. This has raised questions about the impartiality of the networks' coverage of games and whether they can criticize the NFL without fear of losing the rights and their income.

Since the 1960s, all regular season and playoff games broadcast in the United States have been aired by national television networks. Until the broadcast contract ended in 2013, the terrestrial television networks CBS, NBC, and Fox, as well as cable television's ESPN, paid a combined total of US$20.4 billion^[1] to broadcast NFL games. From 2014 to 2022, the same networks will pay $39.6 billion for exactly the same broadcast rights.^[2] The NFL thus holds broadcast contracts with four companies (CBS Corporation, Comcast, Fox Corporation and The Walt Disney Company/Hearst Corporation, respectively) that control a combined vast majority of the country's television product. League-owned NFL Network, on cable television, also broadcasts a selected number of games nationally. In 2017, the NFL games attracted the top three rates for a 30-second advertisement: $699,602 for NBC Sunday Night Football, $550,709 for Thursday Night Football (NBC), and $549,791 for Thursday Night Football (CBS).^[3]

Under the current contracts, regionally shown games on Sunday afternoons are televised on CBS and Fox, which primarily carry games of AFC and NFC teams respectively (the conference of the away team determines the broadcaster of an inter-conference game). Nationally televised regular season games on Sunday and Monday nights are aired on NBC and ESPN, respectively, while NBC, FOX and NFL Network share Thursday night games during the regular season. During the postseason, ESPN airs one game, NBC airs two, while CBS and Fox air the rest of the AFC and NFC games, respectively. The Super Bowl has rotated annually among CBS, Fox, and NBC since the 2006 season.

NFL preseason telecasts are more in line with the other major sports leagues' regular-season telecasts: preseason telecasts are more locally produced, usually by a local affiliate of one of the above terrestrial television networks. Some preseason games will air nationally, however. Under the NFL's anti-siphoning rules for cable games, these stations usually will air simulcasts of ESPN and/or NFL Network games in their local markets if the local team is playing.

Overview of schedule[edit]

The NFL regular season begins in the second weekend in September (the weekend after Labor Day in the United States) and ends in late December or early January. Each team plays 16 games during a 17-week period. Typically, the majority of each week's games are played on Sunday afternoon. The Sunday afternoon games are televised regionally, where the particular game available on local television will depend on where the viewer is located, and begin at either 1:00 p.m., 4:05 p.m., or 4:25 p.m. Eastern Time. In addition, there are usually single nationally televised games each on Thursday night, Sunday night, and Monday night. These primetime games are broadcast across the country over one national over-the-air broadcast or cable network, where there are no regional restrictions, nor any other competing NFL contest.

All playoff games, the Super Bowl, and the Pro Bowl are nationally televised on either Saturday or Sunday in January and early February, and either in the afternoon or in primetime.

Scheduling during the NFL preseason is more lenient in that most games usually start based on the local time. Thus, games on the West Coast are usually played after 7 p.m. Pacific Time (10 p.m. Eastern Time). However, the handful of primetime, nationally televised preseason games are still played at approximately 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Current broadcasting contracts[edit]

The television rights to the NFL are the most expensive rights of not only any American sport, but any American entertainment property. With the fragmentation of audiences due to the increased specialization of broadcast and cable TV networks, sports remain one of the few entertainment properties that not only can guarantee a large and diversified audience, but one that will watch live broadcasts.

The Super Bowl often ranks among the most watched shows of the year. Four of Nielsen Media Research's top 10 programs of all time are Super Bowls.^[4] Networks have purchased a share of the broadcasting rights to the NFL as a means of raising the entire network's profile.^[5]

The NFL distributes television revenue to all teams equally, regardless of performance. As of February 2019 each team receives $255 million annually from the league's television contracts, up 150% from $99.9 million in 2010.^[6] Under the current television contracts, which began during the 2014 season, regular season games are broadcast on five networks: CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, and the NFL Network.

As of the 2012 NFL season, the major networks have invested more in audio description due to FCC guidelines ramping up the requirements of opening up the second audio program audio channel to access audio description, which is also used by some networks to provide Spanish language audio of their primetime programming. Therefore, all of the NFL's broadcasting partners have added Spanish language audio commentary of games, either through a separate channel or over the SAP channel.

ESPN simulcasts Monday Night Football with Spanish-language commentary and graphics over ESPN Deportes and has since the move of MNF to ESPN in 2006, though its Wild Card game does carry the ESPN Deportes commentary over SAP on ABC. Since 2017, the Spanish-language coverage is also simulcast on ESPN2 during the first two months of the season.^[7]

NBC's sister Spanish-language cable network mun2 (which rebranded as Universo in 2015) began to simulcast select Sunday Night Football games in the 2014 season as part of the new television contract, while its Spanish-language counterpart Telemundo Deportesprovides the branding for NBC's SAP Spanish commentary.

Fox's Spanish-language sports network Fox Deportes began broadcasting select Fox games, including the playoffs and Super Bowl XLVIII in Spanish during the 2013 season. Super Bowl LI for Fox featured Spanish audio exclusive to Fox Deportes, without a SAP component over-the-air.

CBS, which lacks any Spanish language outlets, still uses solely SAP for its Spanish simulcasts. It relied on ESPN Deportes to simulcast Super Bowl 50 in Spanish, though it still carried Spanish SAP audio on the CBS broadcast of the game.

Sunday regional games[edit]

Under the current contracts, the regional Sunday games (1:00 p.m. "early" and 4:05 p.m. "late" games Eastern time) are split into AFC and NFC "packages." Each package is held by a single network; as of 2019, NFL on CBS holds the AFC package, and Fox holds the NFC package. These packages consist of Sunday afternoon games during each week of the regular season, a single game for each network on Thanksgiving, wild card playoff games, divisional playoff games, and the respective conference championship game for each network.

These games are classified as "A", "B", or "C" games. "A" games are usually the primary game for each network (1:00 ET for Eastern and Central time zone or 4:05 ET for Mountain and Pacific time zone games in a single-game week), and if the network has a doubleheader, is typically the 4:25 ET game (the NFL typically will move primary games from 1:00 ET to 4:25 ET). "B" games are typically the primary 1:00 ET game when the network has a doubleheader, or the secondary game if the network has a single game. "C" games are only shown in the playing teams markets and in some cases, markets if the game has playoff implications for the local team.

Market size and team success plays a huge factor in determining the level of games. For example, Green Bay has a city population of 105,000, one of the smallest for a city with a sports team. But the Packers usually have the "A" or "B" game because of their long history and almost unparalleled success. (The team is actually two markets for the NFL policy; Milwaukee is the other primary market for the team.) The Dallas Cowboys (due to that team's national popularity) and the New England Patriots (due to that team's success since Bill Belichick took over in 2000) have typically been shown in the national doubleheader timeslot in recent years for ratings purposes, despite affiliate requests to show a team that may have more appeal locally; these games are typically decided by the NFL and CBS or Fox, depending on who has the doubleheader that week.^[8]^[9]^[10]

In 1970, when the NFL and AFL merged, and home blackouts were put into place for AFC games (some AFL teams had lifted these during its run; as an example, most New York Jets' home games in 1968 and 1969 were telecast on WNBC-TV New York), this assured that all Sunday afternoon away games would be seen on the same network. The current package allows both CBS and Fox access to every stadium/market in the league for at least two games per season (unless an interconference game is chosen as a prime time national game).

In 1990, both of the Indianapolis Colts's home games against the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins were played in prime time. The Indianapolis Colts were the first NFL team that played neither of its home interconference games in the afternoon since 1978, the first year all teams (except the four fifth-place teams) were guaranteed two interconference games at home. In 1992, both of the Houston Oilers's home games against the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers were played in prime time. In 1993, both of the Buffalo Bills's home games against the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins and both of the San Diego Chargers's home games against the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers were played in prime time. In 1999, both of the New England Patriots's home games against the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys were played on Sunday nights. In 2001, the Jacksonville Jaguars's home game against the Green Bay Packers was played on a Monday night instead. In 2003, both of the Miami Dolphins's home games against NFC teams were televised in prime time, a rare occurrence that prevented Fox from airing a game from Pro Player Stadium that season. This had also happened in 1997, though Fox was scheduled to broadcast the Chicago Bears' game from Miamiuntil it was moved to Monday night due to its coverage of the World Series; ESPN was already planning to cover the Detroit Lions' game at Miami later on. In 2005, the Baltimore Ravens also had both of their interconference games aired in prime time instead, with the game against the Green Bay Packers on ABC and the contest against the Minnesota Vikings on ESPN. In 2013, the Atlanta Falcons had both of their interconference home games aired in prime time instead, with the game against the New England Patriots on NBC's Sunday Night Football and the contest against the New York Jets on Monday Night Football. The Atlanta situation affected CBS affiliate WGCL-TV, which is the lowest-rated of the major network affiliates in the Atlanta market and has struggled to gain traction in the market since becoming the market's CBS affiliate following television realignment of the mid-1990s. In 2015, the Arizona Cardinals had both of their interconference home games aired in prime time instead, with the game against the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football and the contest against the Cincinnati Bengals on NBC's Sunday Night Football, though CBS was scheduled to broadcast the Bengals-Cardinals game until it was moved to Sunday night (for the first time since 1997). Both of the Cardinals' interconference home games in 2016 were also in primetime, with the New England Patriots game on Sunday Night Football and the New York Jets game on Monday Night Football, though CBS will air the team's game at San Francisco as part of that network's joint Thursday Night Football coverage with NFL Network. As such, barring a crossflex of a Cardinals Sunday afternoon game, CBS's solo production will have no Cardinals games for the second consecutive season (possibly the first time such a scenario occurred with one team in back-to-back years). Also, Fox did not broadcast any games from O.co Coliseum in 2016 (barring crossflexes) as both of the Oakland Raiders' interconference home games (versus the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers) were crossflexed to CBS, though Fox will air the team's road game at the New Orleans Saints which was crossflexed from CBS. In 2018, both of the Detroit Lions's home games against the New York Jets and the New England Patriots were played in prime time. Also, CBS did not broadcast any games from Raymond James Stadium as one of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' interconference home games (versus the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns) was aired in primetime and the other was crossflexed to Fox. In 2019, both of the New Orleans Saints's home games against the Houston Texans and the Indianapolis Colts will be playing on Monday nights. In addition, Fox will not be broadcasting any games from Dignity Health Sports Park as one of the Los Angeles Chargers' interconference home games (versus the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings) will be crossflexed to CBS and the latter will be played on Sunday night.

The Seattle Seahawks did not appear on NBC in their inaugural season of 1976 despite not playing a single Monday Night game. Seattle's lone interconference game that season was at fellow expansion franchise Tampa Bay and televised by CBS, since Seattle played in the NFC West and Tampa Bay in the AFC West. In 1977, the Buccaneers did not appear on NBC (nor on ABC), as their only interconference game was at Seattle, which was televised by CBS. The Buccaneers and Seahawks swapped conferences in 1977, with Tampa Bay moving to the NFC Central and Seattle to the AFC West. Seattle returned to the NFC West in 2002.

After a Broncos-Vikings game was moved to Fox in 2011 because of Fox having a lack of games as a result of an NFL flexible scheduling policy, the NFL permanently instituted a "cross-flex" policy in 2014 allowing Fox games to be moved to CBS and CBS games moved to Fox to protect each local market; this effectively guarantees each Fox and CBS affiliate in a team's primary market to carry at least one game from the team during the season. With CBS later also picking up most Thursday games, which are not designated by conference, CBS will air many more NFC games than Fox will air AFC games. For example, when Fox aired AFC game during week 6 of the 2014 season, CBS had already aired four NFC games to that point in the season (two on Thursdays and two on Sundays). This was reversed in 2018, when Fox purchased the rights for Thursday Night games.

Doubleheaders and single games[edit]

Three games (with some contractual exceptions, see below) are broadcast in any one market each Sunday morning/afternoon, with one network being allocated a "doubleheader" each week:^[11]

A 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT) "early" game and a 4:25 p.m. ET (1:25 p.m. PT) "late" game

While the other network broadcasting either:

A 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT) game
Or a 4:05 p.m. ET (1:05 p.m. PT) game

Sunday afternoon games in the Mountain and Pacific time zones are always scheduled for 2:05 or 2:25 p.m. Mountain Time and 1:05 or 1:25 p.m. Pacific Time. (No 10:00 a.m. PT or 11:00 a.m. MT games are ever scheduled, partly to avoid conflict with religious services in those cities.)

The state of Arizona lies entirely within the Mountain Time Zone, however, Daylight saving time is only observed within the Navajo Nation. As a result, Arizona is aligned with Pacific Daylight Time from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday of November. Therefore, home games for the Arizona Cardinals are scheduled for 1:05 or 1:25 p.m. before the end of daylight saving time, and 2:05 or 2:25 p.m. (Mountain Standard Time) after the end of daylight saving time. Similarly, any home Cardinals' games in primetime are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the early part of the season and 6:30 p.m. in the later part of the season. Similarly, Indiana, almost all of which is in Eastern Time Zone, did not observe daylight saving time prior to 2006, except for the parts of the state in the Central Time Zone (a few counties close to Cincinnati and Louisville, however, did observe daylight saving time on an unofficial basis, to maintain synchronization with their larger city), so from their 1984 relocation to Indianapolis until 2005, Indianapolis Colts home games were scheduled for 12:00 p.m./3:05 p.m./3:15 p.m. local kickoff prior to the end of daylight saving for the year and 1:00 p.m./4:05 p.m./4:15 p.m. local in the later part of the season. With all of Indiana observing DST as of 2006, the hour adjustments for local time kickoffs are no longer necessary for Colts home games.

Since 1998, early games have the precise, official start time of 1:01 p.m. ET,^[12] which allows for one network commercial and the NFL broadcast copyright teaser animation. However, game times are generally advertised simply as 1:00 p.m. starts. In addition, the league revised the late games to start at 4:05 p.m. ET if it was the only game televised by the network that week and to start at 4:15 p.m. ET (moved to 4:25 p.m. ET in 2012) if it was part of a doubleheader. The additional 15 minutes for doubleheaders allowed the early games extra time to be shown to completion, and avoid continuing past the late game's scheduled kickoff. For single games, only 5 minutes were added to allow the network time for a short introduction (as three hours had passed since the pre-game show has aired) and one commercial break before kickoff. In those cases there is no need to avoid early-game overlap as there is no early game shown. In addition, it allows those games to end earlier.

Doubleheader allotments[edit]

Fox and CBS each have eight doubleheader weeks during the season during the first 16 weeks.^[11] These are not necessarily alternating weeks. The networks never run three consecutive weeks of doubleheaders. Fox insists on having a doubleheader on the Sunday it airs a World Series game (typically Game 5), and uses the featured 4:25 game as a lead in for the baseball playoffs (though in 2014, Fox did not have a doubleheader on the day it broadcast Game 5 of the 2014 World Series, for the first time since 2005).

During Week 17, both networks are given doubleheaders; this has been the case since 2006.^[13]^[14]

Doubleheader allotments were often assigned with restrictions because of other network commitments. This happened during Finals Sunday of the U.S. Open tennis championships (September) (Week 1, for CBS 1975–1993, 1998–2014), or Major League Baseball playoffs in October (NBC, typically during League Championship Series from 1976 to 1989, and again in 1996 and 1997, World Series 1978 to 1984, when Sunday games were afternoon games, and CBS, League Championship Series, 1990 to 1993). During the restricted zones, the AFC West and NFC West (depending on the network with the restriction) teams in the Mountain and Pacific time zones could not play at home during the weekend in question, unless they either hosted an interconference game, or were scheduled in prime time (regardless of opponent). The rule was effectively eliminated by the new cross-flex rule in 2014, meaning the NFL could apply the new rule and assign games that would be on the restricted network to the other network. In 1991 and 1995, NBC did not allow their games to be played in the early slot (1:00 p.m. ET) in order to cover the final day of matches in golf's Ryder Cup. However, conference regulations such as those used in the past no longer apply as the NFL can apply cross-flexing rules to allow games where the NFC team is the visiting team to air on CBS at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Restrictions on number of games aired[edit]

The NFL rules (up till the 2019 season) prohibited other NFL games from being shown on local television stations while a local team is playing a sold out, locally televised home game (there were exceptions to this rule: during Week 17, during London games, and if two local teams are playing at the same time). This rule was eliminated for the 2019 season. The rule was designed to encourage ticket-holders to show up at the stadium instead of watching another game on television. However, each network was guaranteed to have at least one game broadcast in every market, so some exceptions are granted to this rule. The exceptions are usually when one of the two Sunday game networks has a 1 PM or 4:30 PM event, which has been used for golf, tennis and baseball in the past.

Prior to the 2000 season, doubleheader rules were much more restrictive. Pre-2000, only one game from each network could be aired in a market where a home game was played, even if the home game was on the doubleheader network. Therefore, markets with two teams (such as New York) rarely got more than two games, since odds were that one of the two teams would be at home on any given Sunday.^[15]

During Week 17, both networks may air doubleheaders. Games assigned for local markets may involve playoff implications for the local team.

National games[edit]

National broadcasts of marquee matches occur on Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights. NBC has broadcast rights to Sunday night games. These are televised under a special "flexible schedule" that allows Sunday afternoon games to be moved to prime-time beginning with Week 5 of the season. NBC also has broadcast rights to the opening night kickoff game.

Other regular season nationally televised games include those on Thanksgiving. Until the 2014 cross-flexing regulations, afternoon Thanksgiving games mirrored the aforementioned AFC and NFC packages, with AFC away games carried on the AFC network (CBS since 1998) and NFC away games carried on the NFC network (Fox since 1994). Since the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys — the traditional hosts of Thanksgiving Day games — are both NFC teams, one of the two games was an intra-conference game, and the other an interconference game. This setup provides one game each for Fox and CBS. From 2006 to 2011, a third game (no fixed teams) was established on the NFL Network. Starting in 2012, the third game is an NBC game. In the future, the NFL may use flexible scheduling to allow the Lions or Cowboys to host a prime-time game, provided an Eastern time zone team is given the early (12:30 p.m.) slot.

The NFL's anti-siphoning regulations affect both Monday Night Football on ESPN and NFL Network games. In the markets of the participating teams, the respective cable channel is blacked out. ESPN games air via broadcast syndication to an over-the-air station. Typically, the team's flagship station for the preseason games will hold such rights, as teams will usually sell the preseason, local ESPN, and if the CBS affiliate in that market declines the option, the NFL Network games as one package. Only over-the-air stations in the market of the participating teams (with the Green Bay Packers having two such markets) may bid on this syndicated package. Starting in 2014, CBS affiliates in the primary markets in question have the primary option to NFL Network-only games; if the local affiliate declines the option (as was in Cincinnati), the NFL will implement the same syndicated package rule. In 2016 and 2017, with the TNF package split between CBS and NBC, this depended on which network produces the game for NFL Network. With Fox taking over the TNF package in 2018, Fox affiliates will have the primary option of simulcasting NFL Network games.

This led to controversy in 2007, when the New England Patriots were scheduled to play the New York Giants at Giants Stadium in their regular season finale on the NFL Network, in what was to be a chance to complete the first 16–0 regular season in NFL history. After the Senate Judiciary Committee threatened the NFL's antitrust exemption if it did not make the game available nationwide, the NFL relented and made the game the first in league history to be simulcast on three networks. The game aired on the NFL Network, as planned; on NBC, which would normally have the rights to prime time games; and, since the away team was an AFC team, on CBS.^[16] (WCVB in Boston holds the rights to the NFL's syndicated package for Patriots games, causing this game to be available on 3 over-the-air stations in the Boston TV market). This however, did not lead to the NFL offering this package to other channels; the games remain on the NFL Network as of 2019, although cable coverage of NFL Network has increased in the intervening period.

Since 2012, a Thursday night game went into effect during every week of the season with the exception of Week 17. Each game is aired on the NFL Network, with the exceptions of the Week 1 NFL Kickoff and Thanksgiving Day games, which are aired on NBC. The season-kickoff game for the 2012 season was moved up a day — to a Wednesday, in order to avoid conflict with President Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention. Since the NFL tries to avoid scheduling Thursday night games during the season which would require the visiting team to travel more than one time zone (excluding the Week 1 Kickoff),^[17] the five teams in the Pacific Time Zone — the Oakland Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks— would have more limited scheduling options in years that the AFC West and NFC West divisions don't face each other in interconference play. There have been some notable exceptions: the Kansas City Chiefs, who are based in the Central Time Zone, play against either the Raiders or Chargers; the Rams, who were based in St. Louis until 2015, played against the 49ers in 2013; though the Arizona Cardinals are based in the Mountain Time Zone, they effectively observe Pacific Daylight Time until the first weekend of November due to not observing Daylight saving time, and played at the St. Louis Rams early in the 2012 season; the Raiders played at the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving in 2013.

Until 2014, teams that played on Thanksgiving in a given year typically did not appear on the NFL Network package that season, with the exception of 2007, when the Cowboys played the Green Bay Packers on week after their traditional Thanksgiving game. The Cowboys and Detroit Lions were ineligible for appearing on the NFL Network, due to hosting Thanksgiving games every year. Each year since 2014, the Thursday Night game the week after Thanksgiving has featured two teams that played on Thanksgiving, effectively giving both teams a full week of practice rather than the short week that most teams have for a Thursday Night game.

In 2014, CBS had simulcast Thursday night games between Weeks 2–8 and televised one of two Saturday games in Week 16,^[18] and each Thursday night game was an intra-division game, except for the Packers–Seahawks Week 1 NBC kickoff and the Cowboys–Bears game in Week 14. The two Saturday games in Week 16 — Eagles–Redskins and Chargers–49ers — aired beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET. The 4:30 p.m. ET game was televised by the NFL Network, while the other began shortly after 8:00 p.m. ET, and aired on CBS.

NFL Sunday Ticket[edit]

Satellite broadcast company DirecTV offers NFL Sunday Ticket, a subscription-based package that allows all Sunday afternoon regional games to be watched. The only exception is that Sunday Ticket is subject to the same blackout rules as broadcast networks.^[19]^[20]This package is exclusive to DirecTV in the US. In Canada, NFL Sunday Ticket is available on a per-provider distribution deal on both cable and satellite, because Canadian law generally prevents one provider from offering a package on an exclusive basis.

Television policies[edit]

The NFL imposes several television and blackout policies to maximize ratings and optimize stadium attendances.

Sunday regional coverage[edit]

Regular season Sunday afternoon games (1:00 p.m. "early" and 4:00 p.m. "late") aired on CBS and Fox are distributed to affiliates by means of regional coverage. Each individual game is only broadcast to selected media markets.^[11]

Several factors determine which games are carried in each market. Each of the 32 NFL teams is assigned a "primary market" which is the metropolitan area where the club is located. Most teams also have a selected number of secondary markets. Secondary markets - which are almost exclusively non-NFL cities and towns - can be of any size, and are typically defined by an area where any part of the market falls within 75 miles of an NFL stadium. Small markets that have no clubs tend to strongly associate with geographically nearby or particularly relevant teams, but may fall outside of a 100-mile radius, are not necessarily an officially designated secondary markets by the NFL. Generally, games are aired in the primary and secondary markets as follows:

All away games are aired in the primary and secondary markets. This is a gesture to old policies based on the ability for fans to attend games. Away games were looked upon as too difficult to travel to and attend.
All sold out home games are aired in the primary market. Games that do not sell out at least 72 hours prior to kickoff are subject to local blackout in the primary and all secondary markets. (see below)

Mid-game switches[edit]

During the afternoon games, CBS and Fox may switch a market's game to a more competitive one mid-game, particularly when a game becomes one-sided. For this to occur, one team must be ahead by at least 18 points in the second half.^[11]

Due to the "Heidi Game", a primary media market must show its local team's game in its entirety and secondary markets usually follow suit for away games. Also, secondary markets (for home games) or any others where one team's popularity stands out may request a constant feed of that game, and in that case will not be switched.^[11]

If the local team is scheduled for the late game of a doubleheader, it has importance over any early game.^[11] If 4:25 p.m. arrives, and the early game is ongoing, the primary affiliate (all games) and secondary affiliates (road games) are required to cut off the early game and switch to the start of the local team's game. Additional affiliates, including secondary affiliates for home games, may also request to cut off an early game for a nearby team's late start. This is common in Texas where many affiliates which are not considered secondary markets by the NFL still switch out of early games in order to get to the start of a 4:25 Dallas Cowboys game.

When a local team plays the early game of a doubleheader, that game holds importance over any late game. If the local team's early game runs beyond 4:25 p.m., the primary and secondary markets stay on until completion, and the late game is joined in-progress.

Shared media markets[edit]

For this reason, if two teams share a primary media market, their games are never scheduled on the same network on the same day (unless they play each other). Otherwise, the networks could theoretically have to cut away from one team's game to show the other. Currently, three pairs of teams are affected by this rule, and are subject to additional rules described below:

The New York Giants and New York Jets
The San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders
The Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers

49ers and Raiders[edit]

The 49ers and Raiders are usually not scheduled at the same time, though this can mean that one of those teams will play a road game at 10:00 a.m. PT. To alleviate the conflicts, both teams will be scheduled for at least one prime time game, regardless of their records during the previous season.^[21]

The following exceptions have been granted to this policy:
- During Week 15 of the 2009 season, the 49ers were originally scheduled to play at the Philadelphia Eagles in the early time slot, and the Raiders' game at the Denver Broncos was scheduled in the late time slot. However, a severe blizzard in the Philadelphiaarea forced the 49ers–Eagles game to be moved to the late time slot on only two days notice.^[22]
- In the 2011 season, the Raiders' Week 14 game at the Green Bay Packers was flexed from the early time slot to the late-afternoon time slot due to the fact that Green Bay was undefeated at the time and Oakland was in first place in the AFC West heading into the match-up, at the same time that the 49ers played at the Arizona Cardinals.^[23]
- Starting in 2012, there have been a number of times that the Raiders and 49ers have both played late games on Sunday, often during Week 17. Whenever this happens, the must-show rule trumps the exclusivity rule, resulting in both games being shown in the Bay Area at the same time.
  - 2012 Week 17 (December 30): 49ers hosted Arizona Cardinals, Raiders played at San Diego Chargers.
  - 2013 Week 17 (December 29): Raiders hosted Denver Broncos, 49ers played at Arizona.
  - 2014 Week 9 (November 2): 49ers hosted St. Louis Rams, Raiders played at Seattle Seahawks.
  - 2014 Week 17 (December 28): 49ers hosted Cardinals, Raiders played at Broncos.
  - 2015 Week 15 (December 20): 49ers hosted Cincinnati Bengals, Raiders hosted Green Bay Packers.
  - 2015 Week 17 (January 3): 49ers hosted Rams, Raiders played at Kansas City Chiefs.
  - 2016 Week 15 (December 18): 49ers played at Atlanta Falcons, Raiders played at San Diego Chargers.
  - 2016 Week 16 (December 24): 49ers played at Los Angeles Rams, Raiders hosted Indianapolis Colts.
  - 2016 Week 17 (January 1): 49ers hosted Seattle Seahawks, Raiders played at Broncos.
  - 2017 Week 2 (September 17): 49ers played at Seattle Seahawks, Raiders hosted New York Jets.
  - 2017 Week 4 (October 1): 49ers played at Arizona Cardinals, Raiders played at Denver Broncos.
  - 2017 Week 12 (November 26): 49ers hosted Seattle Seahawks, Raiders hosted Denver Broncos.
  - 2017 Week 17 (December 31): 49ers played at Los Angeles Rams, Raiders played at Los Angeles Chargers.
Under current television rules, and in order to circumvent television blackout policies, it is necessary for both teams to be given prime time games, regardless of the teams' performances in the previous season. Every season, both teams play at least ten games that cannot be played in the early time slot — eight home games for each team, plus road games against its western divisional opponents: the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers for the Raiders (for a total of ten games), and all NFC West teams for the 49ers (for a total of eleven). By scheduling a late game during the same week that the other team has an early game or a bye week, that leaves three weeks (four or five in years when the NFC West and AFC West play each other) where both Bay Area teams cannot be scheduled simultaneously in the late time slot, unless they're playing each other head-to-head, or if the aforementioned must-show/exclusivity rule occurs. So between the two teams, they must play at least three prime time games every season.
The 49ers' two interconference home games (with a visiting AFC team) are televised by CBS, and the Raiders' interconference home games (with a visiting NFC team) are on Fox, unless they are scheduled in prime time. These games must be late games, as they are played on the west coast. By rule, when one of the teams is playing an interconference home game, the other team cannot play a late game at the same time on the other network. Nor can they play an early game on said network, regardless of which network has the single game or the doubleheader.
- The only window that would be available for the Raiders in that situation would be an early game on Fox, likewise with the 49ers on CBS. However, the only two games where the Raiders are on Fox or the 49ers are on CBS are interconference home games. All home games in the Bay Area must be late games. Therefore, a conflict is found in both cases.
- One conflict can be solved by scheduling the 49ers' or Raiders' home game during the other team's bye week. The second conflict would have to be averted by scheduling one of the teams for national television (e.g. Thanksgiving Day, Thursday Night, Saturday Night, Sunday Night or on Monday Night Football).
  - In 2010, the 49ers hosted the Denver Broncos and the Oakland Raiders, while the Raiders hosted the St. Louis Rams and Seattle Seahawks. With the Broncos–49ers game being played in London, England during Week 8 of that season, the game occurred in the early time slot, something that would have been prohibited, had the game been played in San Francisco. The Raiders hosted the Seahawks on that day, marking the first time the 49ers played on CBS and the Raiders played on Fox on the same day, though the Raiders game was blacked out anyway.
  - In 2016, the Raiders hosted the Atlanta Falcons and the Carolina Panthers. Both games were cross-flexed to CBS in the late time slot while the 49ers were scheduled on the road in the early time slot, and televised by Fox. Conversely, the 49ers hosted the New England Patriots and the New York Jets. Both games occurred during weeks in which the Raiders either played on a Monday or a Thursday night. In addition, Oakland had its road game at the New Orleans Saints in Week 1 cross-flexed to Fox because the two Fox games aired on CBS.
If the 49ers or Raiders win the Super Bowl, the NFL may take advantage of the opportunity by scheduling an opponent from the opposite conference for the Kickoff Game at the beginning of the following season. If the 49ers host the Kickoff Game (on a Thursday night), the Raiders can possibly host a Week 1 season opener on Fox, unless the schedule of the Raiders' Major League Baseball counterparts, the Oakland Athletics, creates a conflict (the Raiders and Athletics share Oakland Alameda Coliseum).
Beginning in 2010, the NFL implemented intra-division scheduling only during Week 17 in order to discourage teams who have secured playoff berths from resting key players and phoning in games at the end of the season.^[24] All Week 17 games occur on Sunday, and the NBC Sunday Night flex-game for Week 17 is not determined until the final week of the season. Since the Kansas City Chiefs and the then-St. Louis Rams were the only western division teams not in the Mountain or Pacific time zones, this originally meant that one Bay Area team would have to end their season at the appropriate Missouri division rival in the early time slot, while the other team plays in the late time slot. It was suggested that each team would alternate every other year between ending their season at the appropriate Missouri rival and in the late time slot. If the 49ers or Raiders were to get flexed to NBC in the final week, the team not playing on NBC would have had its game moved to 4:25 p.m. EST visiting the appropriate Missouri team and playoff positioning is on the line. However, both Bay Area teams have been simultaneously scheduled in the late-afternoon time slot during Week 17 since 2012, and it has been suggested that the NFL will allow the teams to play simultaneously with one team hosting and the other team on the road during the final week given that the interest level is generally at the lowest during the final week of the season unless the team is battling for a playoff spot.
Beginning in 2014, a new flexible-scheduling policy was implemented to allow CBS and Fox to "cross-flex," in which games involving a visiting AFC team would be switched to Fox, and for Fox games with a visiting NFC team to be switched to CBS. This would allow for one Bay Area team to be scheduled on the road in the 1:00 p.m. ET slot, while the other Bay Area team hosts an inter-conference game in the 4:05 p.m. or 4:25 p.m. ET slot, which is the case with the aforementioned 2016 inter-conference matchups.

Chargers and Rams[edit]

The Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams gained shared-marked status, after the Rams' returned to Los Angeles (from St. Louis) in 2016, followed by the Chargers (from San Diego) in 2017. The same West Coast television policies that apply to the 49ers and Raiders (see above) are expected to apply to both the Chargers and Rams.

When both teams share Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park beginning with the 2020 season, one team will either have to play in the 1:00 p.m. ET time slot or in prime-time, while the other team plays at home, forcing the NFL to schedule both teams for multiple prime-time games, regardless of the teams' records from the previous season. (With the Raiders moving to Las Vegas by this time, the extra night games they and the 49ers received as a result of sharing San Francisco Bay will likely go to the Rams and Chargers. However, stadium plans could affect a Raiders move still.)

For the 2017 season, the NFL arranged for Fox to carry both a Rams and Chargers game on two weeks when CBS held the rights to a doubleheader. Fox split coverage between its two Los Angeles stations, KTTV and MyNetworkTV affiliate KCOP-TV.^[25] Likewise, CBS received Rams/Chargers doubleheaders on two weeks of a scheduled Fox twin bill, split between KCBS-TV and sister station KCAL-TV. These instances required cross-flexing of one NFC game (the Rams hosted the Seattle Seahawks in Week 5 on CBS) and one AFC game (the Chargers hosted the Buffalo Bills on Fox in Week 11).

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goldendragon1971

Monday, September 2, 2019