And, they’re off!
No, we’re not talking about Saturday’s Preakness Stakes. It’s that time on the calendar when NFL teams and media partners have their own spring holiday with the schedule release. As this newsletter lands, teams are jockeying for the best social media unveils (check out more on what resonated in Friday’s editions of Morning Buzz and the Daily).
But from a media perspective, the feeling across the board is that the NFL gave a thoughtful, balanced schedule to partners. That, of course, comes with the usual-suspect platitudes of “pleased” or “excited” or “pumped” or “thrilled” or “couldn’t have gone better” from network execs (which looks to be true, given the hard work of Mike North’s scheduling team at the NFL league office).
How the league feels
There seemed to be more moving parts than in recent years, with additional games out in the market and new partner priorities. That created a ton of late maneuvers to add or shift inventory — with some partners like Sunday Ticket rights holder YouTube getting shut out.
“Not everybody can win every opportunity, but we’re incredibly excited to have a very big partnership with YouTube around ‘Sunday Ticket’ that’s going to go for a number of more years,” said NFL EVP/Media Distribution Hans Schroeder.
There also was the backdrop of an FCC inquiry into the NFL, but Schroeder noted the league didn’t see that as a distraction in creating the schedule. “I don’t think we felt any pressure, to be honest,” Schroeder said, regarding pressure on keeping more games on broadcast TV. “Our focus is always, ‘How do we find the most reach? How do we serve our fans in the best possible way that we can?’”
Schroeder noted the league was keen on expanding the distribution of its “tentpole moments.” This included creating a tripleheader for Fox in one day (featuring a morning game), selling three games to Netflix (two of which are the first Australia and Thanksgiving Eve games), giving NBC and Peacock a Saturday doubleheader and more.
Also new for Netflix this year: a weekly NFL show. “We’ve got to figure out exactly what the content and programming angle is, but think about a weekly, topical, highlight news, entertainment-type show that’s engaging the Netflix audience on a weekly basis,” noted Schroeder.
For Amazon and Fox, there is going to be a lot of holiday cheer this season. Amazon gets “TNF” games on Black Friday, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, while Fox has a Thanksgiving game.
Where do things go with YouTube?
Schroeder also noted the NFL will likely have three regular-season games to work with in the market heading into the next campaign. Could YouTube re-enter such conversations given how negotiations broke down this season?
“It’s a great relationship,” Schroeder said. “They mentioned in one of their earnings calls that we’ve reached the highest number of subscribers of ‘Sunday Ticket’ ever. They’ve done a great job continuing to build that product. We couldn’t be happier with it.”
CBS pleased with NFL slate
Dan Weinberg, CBS Sports’ EVP/programming, called this coming season “one of the best schedules that we’ve seen over the last several years.”
The network again put a focus on its Sunday 4:25pm ET national windows, which has been the NFL’s best window for three straight seasons. “The volume and the tonnage of games all season long is terrific,” Weinberg said.
CBS will again lean into being the home of the AFC, and that includes four games with the Chiefs as QB Patrick Mahomes comes back from an injury. Those Chiefs games are spread over CBS’ schedule. “As far as we’re concerned, the more of the Chiefs we can get, the better,” said Weinberg.
But while the AFC is a high priority, Weinberg also emphasized a “tremendous presence” of big NFC franchises, including the Cowboys twice.
CBS also has a Cowboys-Ravens game from Rio in the national window in Week 3, but don’t necessarily look for the network to be gung-ho in adding more international games. “It’s frankly not something that we think about too much. In this case, it lined up very well,” said Weinberg.
Prime (Video) time
Coming off a record season-long audience for its “TNF,” Prime Video will keep the momentum rolling when it starts Year 5. Amazon was able to land a coveted game as the Bills open the new Highmark Stadium in Buffalo against the Lions.
“A rare and special occasion,” said Jeff Kaiser, Amazon’s head of sports programming. “The first regular-season game from a new stadium, especially one from a storied NFL city like Buffalo. We’re really thrilled that the NFL was providing Amazon with that opportunity. ... We have the added advantage of having Ryan Fitzpatrick as part of our shoulder programming crew, who I know is excited to celebrate this moment.”
Prime Video will have a game on New Year’s Eve for the first time, and it could offer fresh opportunities for the platform. “We’re talking through different ideas and plans right now with the production team,” said Kaiser.
Fox gets its wish list
For Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports’ president of insights and analytics, there were five goals for the network heading into scheduling for this season, and he feels the top priorities were met by the NFL.
“Those guys are working on it literally around the clock in the last couple weeks and even prior to that, they put in just an incredible amount of work to make sure that all the partners are treated fairly,” he said.
The five things Fox wanted: 1) More windows than anyone else; 2) an emphasis on being the home of the NFC; 3) going big on holidays; 4) getting Tom Brady back to Foxborough for a game; and 5) building strength in 1pm regional windows leading into national windows.
“We love the fact that we have more NFL windows than anybody else,” said Mulvihill. “That was true last year, and it’s true this year. And that came together as late as this weekend when we were able to close the deal for the Germany game and for the Week 15 Saturday game.”
With around 130 NFC team appearances, goal No. 2 was met. “Just reaffirming our network as the home of the NFC at a time where the NFC is really reestablishing itself as the dominant conference, that was really important,” he said.
With Brady the No. 1 analyst for Fox, the network circled Packers-Patriots to get the GOAT back to his old stomping grounds. “Didn’t know it was going to end up necessarily in Week 9, but that feels like a good place for it.”
Perhaps the biggest push for Fox came around giving a boost to national windows. “We really wanted our strength at 1pm to be on doubleheader weeks and not singleheader weeks,” Mulvihill told SBJ. “We felt like there’s a real benefit to having good 1pm games leading into our 4:25s. It becomes a kind of insurance if your planned 4:25 game doesn’t come up as strong as you hope and you can move something from 1pm to 4:25.”
ESPN’s road to Super Bowl LXI
Before any schedule decisions were even made, ESPN had big changes afoot this season. That included programming the newly acquired NFL Network, as well as shaping a “MNF” slate that would not have any side-by-side matchups like in recent season.
“Single games on Monday night, Weeks 1-17, that actually was a big clarifier and also a way to be a little clearer and more specific about what we were looking for with the league,” said Tim Reed, ESPN’s VP/programming and acquisitions. “The other piece to that is we knew we were going to have 10 [ABC] simulcasts of those 17 weeks, and as far as it goes from priority perspective, we were looking to definitely try to figure out how to maximize those.”
Nine of those ABC simulcasts are locked in, with one more TBD.
All of this would be artfully crafted to build momentum and give ESPN the best path into what will be its first Super Bowl yet (and Disney’s first since 2006).
A dozen ManningCasts are in the works, and plans for any animated “MNF” alt-cast remain TBD. “We’re going to continue to explore the options there, so I would stay tuned on that one.”
As far as NFL Network, the channel expectedly will be heavy on international games again.
Sunday night fever
NBC is coming off a monster season that included record viewership for “SNF,” and it will come out of the gate with two big games in Week 1 — a Wednesday night Super Bowl rematch with Patriots-Seahawks and then Cowboys-Giants to open up the Sunday night slate.
“We always really want to focus on the beginning part of the season and how do we get out of the gate in a big way,” said Justin Byczek, NBC Sports’ EVP/programming and management. “With what the Giants have done in the offseason and the signing of coach [John] Harbaugh, the excitement that’s brewing in New York around the draft to kind of get a quick look at what that team is going to be and how they’re going to play under the new coach and certainly under the backdrop of the 40th anniversary of the 1986 Super Bowl team.”
That game will also see NBC honor the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
Byczek also noted that with Bills-Chiefs, the network will have its best Thanksgiving prime-time matchup since getting that window.
“It’s the rivalry of the decade, and the way that these two teams have played both in the regular season and the postseason, it’s kind of must-see TV,” he said. “Thanksgiving night is usually one of our highest nights of the year, and this year we’ll certainly live up to those expectations, and then some, with that matchup there. It’s something that if you’re a football fan, you just simply can’t miss.”
Wise words
After what was an arduous process, everyone in NFL media circles can take a breath and reflect on a job well done.
Perhaps folks can even enjoy this schedule-day anecdote from former longtime NFL PR chief Joe Browne, who tweeted, “When Pete Rozelle was Commish, we often would give clubs their sked in early AM, give media sked late AM, make certain it made AP wire & then Pete would take us out for Mexican food and, perhaps, a margarita. U think things have changed??”
