Fox pays $60 million per game for TNF

[bwgood77]

The FOX deal for Thursday night football. In the last contract, NBC and CBS paid $45 million per game, and though both were interested in getting the games back, neither was gaga to re-up. FOX paid $60 million per game—11 games, $660 million per year, for a five-season term—at a time when ratings are declining. Two points to make. The NFL is still master of its domain in the TV world; 33 of the top 50 television programs in 2017 were NFL broadcasts. But it’s amazing to see the NFL get a 33 percent increase in rights fees after ratings went down 8 percent in 2016 and another 9.7 percent in 2017. It must be worth it to FOX to win 11 Thursday nights in the ratings, which will happen.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/02/05/super-bowl-52-eagles-patriots-peter-king-mmqb

[hermes]

seems like a lot, especially since they are usually not great games

[bluejerseyjinx]

I wish they would get rid of Thursday night football and instead have 2 Monday night games. The product and injuries on Thursday nights is too much to stomach as evident by this year's ratings.

[Cactus Jack]

I wish they would get rid of Thursday night football and instead have 2 Monday night games. The product and injuries on Thursday nights is too much to stomach as evident by this year's ratings.

Just give teams a bye before they play on Thursday. Make it a requirement. Each team having an extra bye would really benefit everyone.

Also, having two Monday night games is a bad idea. Too early for those on the west coast (Early game). Too late for those staying up on the East coast (Late game). Assuming the games don't overlap one another.

[bluejerseyjinx]

Come on Jack. You know as well as I the Thursday night games suck.

[Cactus Jack]

Come on Jack. You know as well as I the Thursday night games suck.

Yeah, because they have 3 days to prepare. Giving teams a Bye week before, would fix that problem.

[RavenMad31]

Thursday Night is my new MNF. It seems these games are getting a bad rap. I've heard stats quoted where the rate of injury has actually been lower on Thursday night, so that's not a legit excuse to get rid of them. The games this year were much better than that one season when they seemed to get a lot of blow outs. I enjoy the mid-week treat of NFL football. Where I used to love MNF, they no longer get pick of the litter matchups and after watching three games on Sunday, I'm too burned out for a second or third rate game. One thing I can do without are the awful color rush jerseys.

[Pharmcat]

thats a bad deal

[Ugly0598]

Yuck. I can stand Jim Nantz & Tony Romo or Al Michaels & Cris Collinsworth, but Buck & Aikman are terrible.

Wish they'd give a bye week before each team plays a Thursday game. I don't see how that's a big issue considering there's not even a Thursday Game during Week 17 and Week 1 is kickoff so you wouldn't need a bye for that.

[bwgood77]

I wish they would get rid of Thursday night football and instead have 2 Monday night games. The product and injuries on Thursday nights is too much to stomach as evident by this year's ratings.

Just give teams a bye before they play on Thursday. Make it a requirement. Each team having an extra bye would really benefit everyone.

Also, having two Monday night games is a bad idea. Too early for those on the west coast (Early game). Too late for those staying up on the East coast (Late game). Assuming the games don't overlap one another.

Yeah, I hate two Monday Night games. The Chargers usually play the late one in the first week and even in the central time zone I have to stay up until like 1 am to watch the finish.

I agree about the bye week...never understood why they couldn't figure this out. They may not be able to do it every time given they don't have bye weeks in the first few weeks, or the last few, but for most of them you can.

[Otis Driftwood]

League - Let's do away with TNF...

Fox - here's $600M...

League - Suck it fans!



The End.

[Otis Driftwood]

Yuck. I can stand Jim Nantz & Tony Romo or Al Michaels & Cris Collinsworth, but Buck & Aikman are terrible.

Wish they'd give a bye week before each team plays a Thursday game. I don't see how that's a big issue considering there's not even a Thursday Game during Week 17 and Week 1 is kickoff so you wouldn't need a bye for that.

You have no worries. Part of the deal is that Fox will designate a Thursday Night crew. It won't be Buck and Aikman.

[Ugly0598]

Yuck. I can stand Jim Nantz & Tony Romo or Al Michaels & Cris Collinsworth, but Buck & Aikman are terrible.

Wish they'd give a bye week before each team plays a Thursday game. I don't see how that's a big issue considering there's not even a Thursday Game during Week 17 and Week 1 is kickoff so you wouldn't need a bye for that.

You have no worries. Part of the deal is that Fox will designate a Thursday Night crew. It won't be Buck and Aikman.

I just read that. That's much better.

[Otis Driftwood]

Yuck. I can stand Jim Nantz & Tony Romo or Al Michaels & Cris Collinsworth, but Buck & Aikman are terrible.

Wish they'd give a bye week before each team plays a Thursday game. I don't see how that's a big issue considering there's not even a Thursday Game during Week 17 and Week 1 is kickoff so you wouldn't need a bye for that.

You have no worries. Part of the deal is that Fox will designate a Thursday Night crew. It won't be Buck and Aikman.

I just read that. That's much better.

Let's wait and see... I would be less than enthusiastic if they tossed the artistic stylings of Dick Stockton and Mark Schlereth out there for me to suffer through.

[Dominator83]

The players get half that money. So they can't complain THAT much.

Another thing that people ignore is, while yes their week going in is short, they get more rest on the back end! If I was a player, I would love Thursday games, cause I get the weekend off

[Repeat 3-peat]

Fox will also be showing the draft. NFL trying to get it's viewers up.

[Otis Driftwood]

The players get half that money. So they can't complain THAT much.

Another thing that people ignore is, while yes their week going in is short, they get more rest on the back end! If I was a player, I would love Thursday games, cause I get the weekend off

And in the end - that's all that should matter to the players. If they aren't digging Thursday night football, then I'm sure they will return some of their salaries...

(BTW - it's Dennis Smith Jr. )

[Otis Driftwood]

Fox will also be showing the draft. NFL trying to get it's viewers up.

Simulcasting NFLN... which means viewers get to enjoy the fine work of Mike Mayock. Which means no Mel Kiper.

We all win here.

[RavenMad31]

That's a little rich for my blood if I'm a network looking at ratings trends, but, then again, they wouldn't pay if enough eyes weren't on the screen, right?
I've also been a pretty staunch backer of the Thursday night game. I watch them more religiously than MNF these days because I've had a couple days to recover from the three game marathon on Sunday. So I did some homework and in the 2017 season, there were 15 TNF games. 18 of the 30 teams scheduled were 8-8 or better, meaning we were generally getting nice matchups. Arguably the worst TNF game of the year was Denver vs. Indy and you can forgive the schedule makers for thinking they were going to show us Andrew Luck vs. one of the league's best defenses. Brock Osweiler would have been either a Texan or Brown at the time, so there was seemingly no danger of having to see that. Also, 8 of the 15 games ended with a victory margin of one TD or less. One that didn't was Baltimore beating down Miami 40-0 which I personally found to be the highlight of my season. So that also wasn't too shabby.
I'd bet a ten spot that that stacks up pretty favorably against the 2017 slate of games as a whole.

[Repeat 3-peat]

Fox will also be showing the draft. NFL trying to get it's viewers up.

Simulcasting NFLN... which means viewers get to enjoy the fine work of Mike Mayock. Which means no Mel Kiper.

We all win here.

100% agreed.

Mayock and Daniel Jeremiah are the best in the business.