NFL on television in the 2010s

Main articles: National Football League on television, History of the National Football League on television, List of Super Bowl broadcasters, History of Monday Night Football, NBC Sunday Night Football results, NFL Network Thursday Night Football results (2006–present), and List of Monday Night Football results (1990–2009)

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 (ViacomCBS, 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.

  1. ^ "NFL Media Rights Deals For '07 Season". Sports Business Daily. Street & Smith's Sports Group. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
  2. ^ "NFL renews television deals". ESPN. Associated Press. December 14, 2011. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
  3. ^ Sun, Leo (October 31, 2017). "NFL games still command high ad prices". Florida Today. New York City. pp. 3B. Retrieved October 31, 2017.