The NFL today announced it has exercised its one-year option with CBS, meaning the “Thursday Night Football” package will remain split between CBS and NFL Network. Sources said the deal terms are the same as last year’s, with CBS paying $275M for the rights and 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 '16-17 season. Just like last 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.
