Sunday night's Chargers-Raiders game will air at 11:35pm ET on NFL Network, and because only about 60% of the market subscribes to the net, the NFL "put the game up for bid" for about $50,000, according to John Maffei of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. San Diego-based KFMB-CBS “secured the contest," and as a result, KFMB "gets three NFL games Sunday.” KFMB VP & GM Pat Nevin said, “This is the first time we’ll have three NFL games on our air. This is a huge win for us. It will likely do the biggest ratings in the history of the station.” Maffei notes viewers in the market will “miss the CBS Sunday prime-time shows" because of the game telecast. Nevin said, “The network allows its affiliates a certain number of prime-time exceptions. We had to get network approval to do this. We'll have those prime-time shows starting at midnight and viewers can also watch them On-demand. ... But we felt we had to have the Chargers on our air.” Maffei notes Chargers games “average about a 50 share of the audience in San Diego" (UTSANDIEGO.com, 10/4). CSNBAYAREA.com’s Scott Bair noted the Raiders organization "sold out its allotment of general tickets” for Sunday night's game, allowing the NFL “to lift the television blackout.” This marks the Raiders' third straight sellout, "a task made easier by an offseason decision to decrease Oakland Coliseum’s football capacity nearly 10,000 seats to 53,200,” the NFL’s “smallest stadium capacity” (CSNBAYAREA.com, 10/3).
GONE FISHIN': In Miami, Barry Jackson notes Dolphins games are "the highest-rating programming on local TV over the last month." But the jump in the average rating for Dolphins games over last season “isn’t dramatic (17.7 to 18.5).” Not counting two-team NFL markets -- N.Y. and the Bay Area -- the Dolphins’ local ratings this season “are the NFL’s second-lowest, ahead of only Rams ratings in St. Louis.” Monday’s Dolphins-Saints game on ESPN and WSFL-CW “drew a 17.1 local rating, extremely weak for an NFL Monday night game even factoring in the lopsided score” (MIAMI HERALD, 10/4).
