From The Executive Editor: Why one NFL schedule is not like the others

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t’s clear that ESPN has the weakest of the NFL’s three prime-time schedules for the upcoming season. But is that a payback from its relentless editorial coverage of the league’s tumultuous past 12 months? I’m not convinced that’s the case when one considers the exposure and viewership around the league’s prime-time lineup.

It shouldn’t be any surprise to see NBC get the best schedule. The league has placed an emphasis on “Sunday Night Football’s” prime-time broadcast window for years, which is why it has the season’s most anticipated matchups. Go through game by game and there’s hardly a mismatch on the list. There’s a replay of both of last year’s conference championships; there are marquee quarterback match-ups (Packers/Rodgers-Broncos/Manning, Patriots/Brady-Broncos/Manning, Colts/Luck-Steelers/Roethlisberger) as well as intense, natural divisional rivalries (Giants-Cowboys, Eagles-Cowboys, Bears-Packers, Steelers-Ravens). That’s a schedule worthy of a window that averaged 21.3 million viewers last year, tops among the league’s prime-time partners though trailing both the Fox and CBS late windows.

But what surprised me is the strength of “Thursday Night Football,” which is entering its second year on CBS. The CBS portion of the schedule clearly is better than ESPN’s. It seems the league is putting a greater focus on the matchups on Thursday night as it looks to build the value of that package before it hits the open market when CBS’s deal ends after this coming season. That makes sense, and the early-season games are impressive, with divisional matchups that are natural draws, like Broncos-Chiefs, Ravens-Steelers and Seahawks-49ers. When the games shift over to NFL Network, there are still a few compelling games like Bills-Jets, but, predictably, the NFL Network portion has the less exciting matchups like Browns-Bengals, Titans-Jaguars, Buccaneers-Rams and the ratings-challenged Christmas Eve window of Chargers-Raiders.

So where does this leave ESPN and the historic “Monday Night Football” package? I’ve been focused on the relationship between the league and ESPN since last fall, after ESPN talent was so vocal in criticizing the league and Commissioner Roger Goodell. That did not go unnoticed at NFL offices, and I wondered if the league would tweak ESPN with a substandard “MNF” schedule. To be fair, the league didn’t fill it with a heavy dose of the Bucs, Jaguars or Titans, as some expected. ESPN has some solid divisional draws like Giants-Eagles, Bills-Patriots and Cowboys-Redskins. But it is mostly a mid-level schedule, an odd mash-up of games featuring few natural rivalries. Many of the nontraditional, out-of-conference games could draw well, but they aren’t attracting buzz in April — games like Chiefs-Packers, Ravens-Cardinals, Bears-Chargers and Giants-Dolphins. The NFL has always said that ESPN gets the cable package, which is never going to be as good as NBC’s. Now it’s evident that the NFL is determined to enhance the appeal of Thursday night in order to cash in next year.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that ESPN pays more than any other league media partner. For $1.9 billion per year, you’d expect “Monday Night Football” to be at least as good as CBS’s portion of “Thursday Night Football.” After all, CBS “only” pays the NFL $300 million for it. The NFL, as evident by its scheduling, obviously feels differently.

Abraham D. Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.