NFL Network to Start Airing Games Next Season

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BlueDamsel

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

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.

http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/story/9193485/rss
 
Just heard that on the radio driving home.

Interesting. Woner how long it'll ber before more PPV games are available on a pay for what you watch basis?
 
Hmm...well the NFL network isn't really "PPV" - but I sure am glad that we signed atleast a 1 year contract to DirecTV! :D
 
Well dang, now they won't be able to say "everything BUT the game" anymore!! :p
 
It will be interesting if cable companies like Time Warner (my cable carrier in NJ) pick up the NFL Network. There is no question the NFL decided to package the games to their network in hopes that cable companies start picking up the fledgling network.
 
If the NFL starts becoming PPV.....to hell with it...I'm moving back to KC and just going to all the home games!! ;)
 
They won't take the NFL PPV. They have done the next best thing, and that's move some of their prime content (Monday Night Football) to cable only channels. And dragging games onto the NFL network is bound to ensure broader acceptance of it.
 
The Thursday and Saturday night games have had very little in the way of electricity, couldn't think of a better spot for really obsessed people to watch football.

Just don't put Sterling Sharpe on there...god he was awful both times I watched him last year, of course they were Raiders games that we sucked in, but I digress.
 
JC said:
The Thursday and Saturday night games have had very little in the way of electricity, couldn't think of a better spot for really obsessed people to watch football.

Just don't put Sterling Sharpe on there...god he was awful both times I watched him last year, of course they were Raiders games that we sucked in, but I digress.
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He totally sucked during the Chiefs/Raiders game, that's for sure!! :eek:
 
NFL will never go on Pay-Per-View. The only reason that the NFL will move to its network just so the cable companies can pick up their network. It's a negotiating ploy for sure and the league has leverage. Fans are going to want their football so this will have them call their cable companies to get something going. This is their tactic.
 
Well these days if you don't have cable, TV pretty much sucks!! :eek:
 
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