NFL Network Exclusive Game Series

Last updated
NFL Network Exclusive Game Series
NFL Network Special Logo.png
The current NFL Network logo for its exclusive package of games as of the 2022 season.
Also known as
  • Saturday Night Football (2006–2008)
  • Thursday Night Special (2016)
  • Thursday Night Football: Saturday Edition (2014–2015)
  • NFL Network Special (2016–2022)
Genre NFL football telecasts
Presented by List of NFL Network Exclusive Game Series broadcasters
Opening theme NFL GameDay theme
Ending themeSame as open
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes4 per season
Production
Production locations Various NFL stadiums
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time180 minutes or until game ends (inc. adverts)
Production company
Original release
Network NFL Network
ReleaseDecember 16, 2006 (2006-12-16) –
present
Related

NFL Network Exclusive Game Series (formerly called NFL Network Special) is the branding currently used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games aired by NFL Network. Prior to the 2022 NFL season, the NFL Network Special branding was only used on Thursday Night Football (TNF) games not played on Thursdays (from 2022 on it is used for all games); as of 2022, this arrangement has included at least one NFL London Game played in a Sunday morning (U.S. time) window, and one or more late-season games on Saturdays.

Contents

After having briefly used Saturday Night Football to brand the games (alongside the overall blanket title Run to the Playoffs), from 2008 through 2016 the games were branded as "special editions" of Thursday Night Football or a variant thereof (such as Thursday Night Special), and later NFL Network Special. The branding NFL Christmas Special has also been used for Christmas Day games in the TNF package, some of which having fallen into this segment of the package).

In the 2022 season, Thursday Night Football moved exclusively to Amazon Prime Video. NFL Network will still carry a package of exclusive games, consisting mainly of international games and late-season Saturday games, with the Thursday Night Football-centric branding having been dropped and replaced by individual brands for each game (such as Saturday Showdown for the late-season tripleheader).

As with all league games carried by a cable network or streaming provider, each game is syndicated to a local broadcast station (or two stations in some cases) in the markets of the two teams, per NFL broadcast rules.

Background

Prior to 2017

NFL Network debuted Thursday Night Football on November 23, 2006, with the Kansas City Chiefs handing the visiting Denver Broncos a 19–10 Thanksgiving defeat. As part of this package, three games aired on Saturday nights, which were accordingly branded as Saturday Night Football (not to be confused with ESPN/ABC's college football telecasts of the same name, which ESPN holds a trademark in relation to), [1] with the package as a whole being promoted as the Run to the Playoffs. This format carried over to the 2007 season. Saturday games can only occur in the final weeks of the season, as the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, requires blackouts of professional football games—held on Friday evenings or Saturdays from mid-September through mid-December—on television stations within 75 miles (121 km) of the venue of a college or high school football game. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Starting in 2008, NFL Network eliminated all but one of the Saturday night games and started their Thursday night package three weeks earlier. In the following season, all references to Saturday Night Football were dropped, with the entire package now being branded as Thursday Night Football, and non-Thursday games being referred to as a "special edition" of Thursday Night Football.

Beginning in 2014, the Thursday Night Football package was sub-licensed to one or more of the NFL's broadcast partners, who produced all games on behalf of NFL Network, and could simulcast selected games in the package on broadcast television. [6] [7] These, by extension, included the non-Thursday games of the package, which were in turn produced by CBS (with some later produced by NBC beginning in 2016). [8] These games are intended to satisfy NFL Network's carriage agreements, which require that a quota of exclusive games be broadcast by the channel each season, while still allowing some of the games to be simulcast on network television as well. [2] [4]

In 2014, CBS used the branding Thursday Night Football: Saturday Edition for these games—a branding scheme that was especially considered a misnomer when used for a game aired on a Saturday afternoon. [9] [10] [11] [12] By 2016, the games had begun to carry the on-air branding Thursday Night Special (albeit with some fleeting references to Thursday Night Football or TNF still present in on-air graphics), [10] with Christmas Day games assigned to the Thursday Night Football package accordingly using the branding NFL Christmas Special. [13]

2017–2021

By the 2017 season, the branding NFL Network Special was adopted for non-Thursday TNF games exclusive to NFL Network. The games continued to have similar productions to games aired under the Thursday Night Football title, but with their on-air graphics only containing NFL Network branding (rather than being co-branded with the logos of both NFL Network and the host broadcaster).

Beginning in 2018, most NFL Network Special games became Fox productions as part of its new rights to Thursday Night Football. An exception was an NFL London Game on October 10, 2021, which was instead produced by CBS.

2022–present

Amazon Prime Video holds rights to Thursday Night Football beginning in the 2022 NFL season. There will still be a package of exclusive games on NFL Network, generally consisting of international games airing at 9:30 a.m. ET, and late-season Saturday games. [14] NFL Network now markets the broadcasts as its "exclusive game series", [15] branding the late-season Saturday games with distinct titles such as Saturday Showdown (Late Season Saturday games), [16] and the Holiday Classic (Christmas Eve/Day games). Production of the games was taken back in-house, and a new graphics package by Two Fresh Creative replaced the Thursday Night Football-centric branding used prior. [17] [18]

In Week 16 of 2023, NFL Network added a Sunday night game on Christmas Eve in lieu of usual broadcaster NBC (which is airing a afternoon game that Saturday before on December 23), due to the latter producing a Peacock-exclusive game later that same day.

Coverage

Announcers

Play-by-play

Color

Reporters

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NFL Network</span> American sports-oriented pay television network

NFL Network is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League NTP and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NFL RedZone. Dedicated to American football, the network features game telecasts from the NFL, as well as NFL-related content including analysis programs, specials and documentaries. The network is headquartered in the NFL Los Angeles building located next to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and broadcasts its worldwide feed from Encompass Digital Media in Atlanta, Georgia. The network has secondary East Coast facilities in the NFL Films building in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

The NFL on CBS is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts since 1956. From 2014 to 2017, CBS also broadcast Thursday Night Football games during the first half of the NFL season, through a production partnership with NFL Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NFL on American television</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NBC Sports</span> Division of American broadcast network NBC

NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its dedicated national sports cable channels. Formerly operating as "a service of NBC News", it broadcasts a diverse array of sports events, including the Premier League, the IndyCar Series, NASCAR, the National Football League (NFL), the NBA, Notre Dame football, Big Ten football and basketball, the Olympic Games, professional golf, the Tour de France, Thoroughbred racing, and the WNBA among others. Other programming from outside producers – such as coverage of the Ironman Triathlon – is also presented on the network through NBC Sports. With Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, its own cable sports networks were aligned with NBC Sports into a part of the division known as the NBC Sports Group.

<i>NFL on Fox</i> Television series

The NFL on Fox is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox broadcast network. Game coverage is usually preceded by Fox NFL Kickoff and Fox NFL Sunday and is followed on weeks when the network airs a Doubleheader by The OT. The latter two shows feature the same studio hosts and analysts for both programs, who also contribute to the former. In weeks when Fox airs a doubleheader, the late broadcast airs under the brand America's Game of the Week.

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<i>Thursday Night Football</i> Branding for NFL games usually broadcast on Thursdays

Thursday Night Football is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time.

<i>ESPN College Football</i> Television franchise series

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College Football on NBC Sports is the de facto title used for broadcasts of NCAA college football games produced by NBC Sports.

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Until the broadcast contract ended in 2013, the terrestrial television networks CBS, NBC, and Fox, as well as cable television's ESPN, paid a combined total of US$20.4 billion to broadcast NFL games. From 2014 to 2022, the same networks will pay $39.6 billion for exactly the same broadcast rights. The NFL thus holds broadcast contracts with four companies that control a combined vast majority of the country's television product. League-owned NFL Network, on cable television, also broadcasts a selected number of games nationally. In 2017, the NFL games attracted the top three rates for a 30-second advertisement: $699,602 for NBC Sunday Night Football, $550,709 for Thursday Night Football (NBC), and $549,791 for Thursday Night Football (CBS).

<i>NFL on Prime Video</i> Branding for NFL games broadcast on Amazon Prime Video

NFL on Prime Video is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games on the subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service Amazon Prime Video and on sister service Twitch as part of Prime Video Sports. Amazon currently holds exclusive streaming rights for Thursday Night Football.

From 2014 to 2022, CBS, NBC, and Fox, as well as cable television's ESPN, paid a combined total of US$20.4 billion will pay $39.6 billion for exactly the same broadcast rights. The NFL thus holds broadcast contracts with four companies that control a combined vast majority of the country's television product. League-owned NFL Network, on cable television, also broadcasts a selected number of games nationally. In 2017, the NFL games attracted the top three rates for a 30-second advertisement: $699,602 for NBC Sunday Night Football, $550,709 for Thursday Night Football (NBC), and $549,791 for Thursday Night Football (CBS).

Noah Eagle is an American sportscaster. The son of sportscaster Ian Eagle, he is a play-by-play broadcaster for NBC Sports, calling primarily football games for the Big Ten Conference and National Football League, as well as basketball for the Big Ten and at the Summer Olympic Games. He is also a play-by-play announcer for the Tennis Channel, Brooklyn Nets, and NFL games airing on children's network Nickelodeon.

References

  1. ↑ Tue, Dec 23rd 2014 4:02am-Timothy Geigner (23 December 2014). "How ESPN's Purely Descriptive Trademark Turned A Saturday Into A Thursday". Techdirt. Retrieved 2021-11-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 Lucia, Joe (2021-03-03). "More Thursday Night Football games will reportedly be Amazon exclusive in new round of TV deals". Awful Announcing. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  3. ↑ Koerner, Brendan (2004-09-14). "Why you can't show the NFL on Saturday". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  4. 1 2 "NBC, CBS will share Thursday Night Football". NBC Sports Washington. 2016-02-01. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  5. ↑ "NFL aims to boost network with 'Thursday Night Football' bidding war". New York Post. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  6. ↑ "CBS to broadcast eight Thursday night football games in 2014". CBSSports.com . Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  7. ↑ "CBS to broadcast NFL games on Thursday in 2014". USA Today . Gannett Company . Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  8. ↑ "CBS & NBC To Share 'Thursday Night Football' With NFL Network; League Eyes "Tri-Cast" With Digital Partner". Deadline.com. February 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  9. ↑ "Thursday Night Football on Saturday is just so silly". Awful Announcing. 2014-12-15. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  10. 1 2 "People hated Thursday Night Football on Sunday". Awful Announcing. 2016-12-26. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  11. ↑ Sherman, Rodger (2014-12-20). ""Thursday Night Football: Saturday Edition" ?!?!??". SBNation.com. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  12. ↑ "NFL Network airs Thursday Night Football on a Saturday, confuses everyone". For The Win. 2014-12-20. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  13. ↑ "NFL Week 16: TNF Hits Season-High For Christmas Finale". Sports Media Watch. 2017-12-29. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  14. ↑ "NFL completes long-term media distribution agreements through 2033 season". NFL. March 18, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
  15. ↑ "NFL.com | Official Site of the National Football League". NFL.com. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  16. ↑ "BROADCAST TEAMS ANNOUNCED FOR NFL NETWORK'S WEEK 15 SATURDAY SHOWDOWN TRIPLEHEADER". nflcommunications.com. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
  17. ↑ Fang, Ken (2022-12-24). "TV and Streaming Viewing Picks for December 24, 2022: how to watch NFL Week 16 games". Awful Announcing. Retrieved 2022-12-25.
  18. ↑ "NFL Network Exclusive Games Series Motion Graphics Gallery". NewscastStudio. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
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