The National Football League is looking to sell half of the Thursday Night Football package that currently airs on NFL Network. As it has for the last two seasons, NFL Network has aired 13 games. It appears that the amount of games on Thursdays will increase to 16. NFL Network and the winning bidder would split those games down the middle.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reports that there would not be a shortage of bidders for the package.
Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand tweets that this would be a one year deal that would be for the 2014 season.
Source: NFL is shopping a 1-year Thursday night deal to broadcast networks starting in September. Check out SBD Morning Buzz for detaila.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) January 13, 2014
An NFL spokesman confirmed to Fang’s Bites that the NFL is seeking a either a broadcast or cable partner for the games:
“We want to accelerate the growth, quality and promotion of Thursday night NFL football. Bringing on a partner can help us accelerate our success across all the games. NFL Network has done a tremendous job building Thursday night and will retain games, but we are in discussions to air a part of the package with existing and potentially new broadcast and cable partners.”
CBSSports.com’s Ryan Wilson quoting network insider Jason La Canfora writes that the NFL is seeking roughly $800 million for the package and would likely air the first half of the games with the NFL Network taking the second half of the season, although the winning bidder would likely want that portion.
The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir writes that the NFL would prefer to see the games on a broadcast network either one of its current partners, CBS, Fox or NBC, but would not rule out having them on cable, either on Fox Sports 1, NBCSN or even TNT should Turner Sports put forth a bid.
The NFL spokesman told Fang’s Bites that no postseason games would be part of the package so this bid would be strictly for the regular season.
Expect some heavy bidding for this package. NBC would love to win this to put the games on NBCSN and it would be full circle for the network formerly known as Versus. Back in 2006, the NFL almost had Thursday Night Football on Versus before deciding to air them on NFL Network.
More on this story as developments warrant.
