The NFL has exercised its one-year option with CBS, meaning the “Thursday Night Football” package will remain split between CBS and NFL Network. CBS is paying around $300M for the rights, a 9% increase from the $275M it paid for the same package this season. Sources said the deal terms are the same as last year’s, with CBS handling production of the series -- complete with its top announcing and production team -- even when it moves over to NFL Network. The new deal also contains a one-year option that the NFL can exercise for the '16 season. CBS will carry the package’s first eight games, which will be simulcast on NFL Network. The final eight games will be carried by NFL Network exclusively. The package includes 14 Thursday and two late-season Saturday-night games. An added wrinkle of the deal will have the NFL and CBS develop new programming initiatives. Both CBS and NFL execs believe the net’s involvement in the series helped establish the NFL brand on Thursday nights. Through the season’s first eight games, when CBS carried "TNF" games and NFL Network simulcast them, the games averaged 16.67 million viewers, which to that point was the NFL’s second highest-rated primetime series to NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” CBS, partly because of several uncompetitive games, was forced to give a handful of make-goods to advertisers, when its 10.3 average rating fell short of its 12.0 ratings guarantee (John Ourand, Staff Writer). CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus said that the net had "told the league that it was willing to sign a longer-term deal but that the league had chosen to stay with a one-year contract." McManus: "What we wanted to do in terms of promotion and in terms of giving us another victory in prime time exceeded all our expectations. It was so successful from so many areas" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/19).
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES: In Boston, Chad Finn notes all "TNF" broadcasts "will continue to use" CBS' lead announce team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, who have "called 30 games this season" between their Thursday and Sunday duties. McManus: "We're not looking at any changes in front of the camera or behind the camera with the team." He added, "We went to the NFL and requested that we have eight games in a row at the beginning of the season. ... We just felt that it was better from CBS's standpoint that we have one more high-profile game within the television season. I also thought it was better from a continuity standpoint" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/19). In L.A., Meg James notes the NFL about 10 days ago told the network that it "would extend the deal," and the two sides "spent much of last week hammering out terms." Meanwhile, McManus said that the "lopsided games that CBS broadcast last fall did not factor into the renewal question." James writes CBS "might have gotten a few duds last fall ... but the NFL more than made up for it" by renewing the deal (L.A. TIMES, 1/19). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Joe Flint noted many of the "TNF" games this season "were blowouts and the audiences were lower than expected." RBC Capital Markets analyst David Banks said that the less-competitive games, coupled with a "soft advertising market, led RBC Capital to lower its fourth-quarter advertising growth projection for CBS" (WSJ.com, 1/18).
GOAL TO GO: SI.com's Richard Deitsch noted the NFL "had been clear about its goals" for the "TNF" package heading into '14. The league "wanted the games to be on a network and it wanted that network to treat those games with playoff-quality production." CBS "did its part through staffing as well as hyping up the package with Don King-like flair." McManus: "From our perspective we had a very specific set of goals that we outlined with the NFL this season and the goals involved promotion, marketing, production quality, branding. And we met or exceeded all of those goals." As for production tweaks for '15, McManus said that he "anticipated using more next-gen stats" on Thursday and Sunday coverage (SI.com, 1/18). On Long Island, Neil Best notes CBS "will carry Super Bowl L next year, another incentive to remain the NFL's outlet for additional games." McManus said that having Thursday night, Sunday afternoon and the Super Bowl to "sell together to advertisers will be a bonus for the network" (NEWSDAY, 1/19).
WHAT THE FUTURE MIGHT HOLD: The MMQB's Peter King notes fans could be a "decade away from real change in the way we watch football." NFL Exec VP/Media and NFL Network CEO Brian Rolapp said the league spends "a lot of time talking" to companies like Google and Facebook about "when will the Internet be ready to distribute live NFL games." Rolapp: "That’s always a question I get: ‘Well, when is Google going to carry a game package?’ I think the answer is once an Internet player can sustain 30 million users at the level and the quality that they expect to get on television." He said he expects that to be "sooner rather than later." Rolapp: "Some things still have to change. If you would have asked me if those guys could carry live games five years ago, I’d probably say no. Now I’d say it’s closer than we think. ... If you’re not looking around the corner, if you’re not trying to get smarter, if you’re not looking for the lessons learned in other industries, then you’re going to wake up and find you’re not so popular anymore” (MMQB.SI.com, 1/19).
