This just announced by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell at his Super Bowl press conference in Indianapolis. Starting in 2012, Thursday Night Football on NFL Network will expand from 8 to 13 games. The schedule will span from Week 2 through Week 15. Goodell says this will allow every team to be in primetime.
This is a shot across the bow to the two major cable holdouts to NFL Network, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable. Both have held out due to NFL Network carrying 8 games. Both said the cost of NFL Network does not justify carrying just 8 games, but now with five more, NFL Network is saying, “We have more games, dare not to pick us up now.”
Cablevision has also wanted to carry NFL Sunday Ticket which is exclusive to DirecTV. With the added games, we’ll see where the standoff goes.
We’ll find out more about the expanded Thursday Night Football schedule in the days and weeks to come.
