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Making the NFL schedule for a season requires a massive effort that up to six NFL executives work on every offseason. Those decision-makers undoubtedly take the fans, the league's broadcast partners, and many other considerations into account when creating the schedule that covers the entire 18-week NFL season and features the top matchups in the league.
The NFL's biggest games are frequently aired at the prime times of the week, which are Thursday, Sunday, or Monday nights, or the late game on Sunday afternoons. The league usually books the defending Super Bowl champion to play at home on a Thursday night to begin the new season.
Let's examine how the league determines which networks will carry each game as it creates its schedule.
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How is the NFL TV schedule decided?
The NFL's television broadcasting rights are among the most lucrative and costly of any sports league in the world. Throughout the season, TV stations receive numerous texts and phone calls requesting them to explain why they are not airing a specific NFL game on their networks. For context, the majority of local television affiliates have little control over which games they air.
National television networks have televised every NFL game in the United States for more than 50 years. The NFL ultimately selects which games will air on which network, working with ABC, CBS, ESPN, FOX, NBC and the NFL Network.
Contracts determine which NFL games are broadcast on which network. The NFC and AFC Sunday-day games are televised by Fox and CBS, respectively; the broadcaster of an inter-conference game is often determined by the conference of the visiting club. Games not on Sundays are also usually governed by agreements with NBC, ESPN, and Amazon.
Regular-season games that are broadcast nationally and are slated to get underway on Sunday and Monday nights have been broadcast on NBC and ESPN, respectively, for nearly 20 years. Additionally, ABC and ESPN have co-broadcast a few regular-season games in recent years.
Monday Night Football games have had a flexible schedule since last season. NBC and ESPN/ABC air between two and three games each during the postseason, while CBS and Fox broadcast the remaining AFC and NFC games, respectively.
