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ESPN To Broadcast NFL Wild Card Playoff Game, NBC Gets Divisional Round Matchup

ESPN will carry an NFL Wild Card playoff game this season, marking the first time an NFL postseason game will move off broadcast TV. ESPN has committed to pay $100M per season to carry the game, sources said. ESPN says the NFL exercised an option to move one Wild Card game to cable starting this season. The move is not without some risk for the NFL. Last season's least-viewed NFL Wild Card game averaged 27.6 million viewers (NBC's Chiefs-Colts on Saturday afternoon). That would be the most-viewed program in cable TV history, topping the '11 BCS Championship (Auburn-Oregon), which averaged 27.316 million viewers. The Wild Card playoff announcement is part of ESPN's NFL deal signed in '11 that put the channel "on the path" to carry a game that previously had been produced by NBC. Similar to its regular-season structure, ESPN's game will be simulcast on a local broadcast station in the participating teams' markets. It will also be available on WatchESPN. Meanwhile, NBC will pick up a Divisional playoff game from either CBS or Fox. Sources say NBC is not paying extra for its divisional playoff game; the deal it signed in '11 accounted for the Divisional playoff game. It will alternate between the AFC (CBS) and NFC (Fox) each season. It has not been determined which conference's game NBC will carry this season.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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