The NFL TV Deals and What They Mean for Fans
The NFL made its long-awaited announcement Thursday regarding its "media distribution agreements," and there will be some impact on fans.
The first one, which had been anticipated, is that the announcement sets the stage for NFL owners to implement a 17th regular season game when they meet at the end of the month.
If the league does add a 17th game, the AFC East teams will pick up a game against NFC East opponents that finished in the same position in the standings.
That will mean the New York Giants would come to Hard Rock Stadium.
The 2021 NFL schedule is expected to be announced in early May.
Another offshoot of the new TV deals, and that is certain to please fans, will be the introduction of a flex schedule involving Monday night games.
Up to now, only the Sunday night game could be flexed, which left some poor matchups in place late in the season with no means to switch them.
As usual, the Sunday night games again will be subject to flex scheduling.
Thursday night games now will be only streamed on Amazon.
CBS will continue to have AFC games and FOX having NFC games.
ESPN will continue broadcasting Monday Night Football, while ESPN+ will stream one International Series game on an exclusive national basis every season. ABC acquired the rights to two Super Bowls along with exclusive regular season games.
The new television agreements will start with the 2023 season and run through 2033.
Simply put, there will be more places to watch more NFL games over the next decade.
For those who care about which network televises the Super Bowl, here is the rundown:
2023: CBS
2024: FOX
2025: NBC
2026: ESPN/ABC
2027: CBS
2028: FOX
2029: NBC
2030: ESPN/ABC
2031: CBS
2032: FOX
2033: NBC
