For the first time since NBC carried the AFC package, the Peacock will carry an NFL Divisional Playoff Game. It means the great Wild Card Saturday doubleheader on NBC will be a thing of the past.
It does mean NBC’s NFL postseason portfolio will consist of one NFL wild Card Playoff game and one Divisional Playoff game every season, and the Super Bowl every third season.
It’s part of the new nine-year contract signed by NBC that begins with the 2014 season and goes through the 2022 season.
So Wild Card Weekend will have CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC all airing one game (until the playoffs expand in 2015, then that will change).
Divisional Weekend will have CBS and Fox airing one to two games and NBC with one. CBS and Fox will alternate each season airing two Divisional games.
Here’s the official announcement.
NBC SPORTS ADDS NFL DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF GAME TO POSTSEASON SCHEDULE
NBC to Broadcast Super Bowl XLIX from Arizona, Divisional Playoff & Wild Card Game in 2014 Postseason
STAMFORD, Conn. – April 22, 2014 – For the first time since acquiring the Sunday Night Football package in 2006, NBC will televise an NFL Divisional Playoff game this upcoming season and each season thereafter through 2022, per NBC Sports Group’s nine-year extension with the NFL which begins this season.
NBC will broadcast three 2014 postseason games – Super Bowl XLIX from Arizona on Sunday, February 1, 2015, a Divisional Playoff game on the weekend of January 10-11, and a Wild Card Playoff game on the January 3-4 weekend.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football averaged 21.7 million viewers in 2013 putting it on pace to rank as the No. 1 show for the entire primetime television season (September-May, based on Nielsen live plus same day data) for the third consecutive year.
That’s it.
