NFL Network Adds Five Thursday Games

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

The NFL Network will bump up its Thursday Night Football total to 13 games next year, which had been hinted at for the past few months.

The new Thursday slate now runs from weeks 2-15 (NBC will have the Thursday night game on Thanksfiving and the first Thursday night game kicking off the season) and will include at least one Saturday night version of TNF.

That means that all 32 teams will play at least one primetime game, the league said Friday. The NFL also announced a new Spanish-language version of its RedZone channel that provides look-ins on all the key scoring and would-be scoring plays around the league.

That also means five more NFL games moving from broadcast to cable, except in the team's home markets, where they will still be available over-the-air barring blackouts.

The Sports Fan Coalition has been calling for an end to the FCC's blackout rules and opining about the move of sports to cable.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.