The NFL announced late Wednesday afternoon that Saturday’s historic Patriots-Giants game will be available on not one, not two but three different networks: CBS, NBC and the NFL Network, the league-owned entity which was originally slated to be the sole broadcaster of the game.
It’s the first time in history that an NFL game will be simulcast on three different networks. The game will also be seen on additional local stations in New England and New York. Basically, the game will be like a presidential speech, seemingly available on every station.
The decision comes in the wake of pressure from football-loving trolls across the country. The NFL Network is unavailable in millions of homes nationwide so New England’s quest to become the first 16-0 team in league history, and New York’s quest to stifle the historic accomplishment, would have been witnessed by a limited audience.
The Cold, Hard Football Facts consider it an obvious move that the league should have made long ago. Interest in New England's quest for perfection has been extremely high, as evidenced by the record ratings the team has generated this season, including the most watched cable broadcast in history, and by
the NFL Network's 65.5 hours of coverage devoted to the Patriots-Giants game this week.
Working out a deal to make the game available to the entire nation is a no-brainer move for the NFL in three major ways:
- It's a huge PR lift for a league that, despite its popularity, is often seen as cold and ruthless.
- It allows the league to advertise its young product, the NFL Network, for free to tens of millions of viewers who otherwise would not have seen the game, including viewers in the nation's No. 1 and No. 6 media markets. This opportunity will in all likelihood pay off in increased subscriptions to its network.
- The potential history-making game will only serve to elevate the NFL's on-field product in the eyes of nation already passionate about it.
“We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans,” NFL Cmmissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement released late Wednesday afternoon. “What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever.”
Here’s the rest of the statement from the NFL:
CBS and NBC will carry the NFL Network feed of the game with BRYANT GUMBEL and CRIS COLLINSWORTH in the broadcast booth. The game also will be televised by WCVB-ABC (Channel 5) in Boston, WMUR-ABC in Manchester, New Hampshire (Channel 9) and WWOR (Channel 9) in New York. The telecast begins at 8 p.m. ET with kickoff set at 8:15 p.m. ET.
This will be the first three-network simulcast in NFL history and the first simulcast of any kind of an NFL game since Super Bowl I in 1967 when CBS and NBC both televised the first meeting of the champions of the newly merged National Football League and American Football League. CBS was the network partner of the NFL at that time and NBC televised the AFL. In that first Super Bowl – in which the NFL Green Bay Packers beat the AFL Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on January 15, 1967 – Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker and Frank Gifford called the game for CBS while Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman broadcast the game on NBC.
Against the 10-5 playoff-bound Giants, the 15-0 Patriots on Saturday night will seek to become the first NFL team to complete an unbeaten regular season since the Miami Dolphins went 14-0 in 1972. The Dolphins proceeded to win three more games, including Super Bowl VII, to finish 17-0 for the only perfect season in NFL history. The NFL regular season was expanded to 16 games in 1978.
The Patriots also are aiming for their record 19th consecutive regular-season victory dating back to the 2006 season. With six points, they also will become the highest scoring team in one NFL season, breaking the Minnesota Vikings’ total of 556 in 1998. Individually, quarterback TOM BRADY (48) is in position to break PEYTON MANNING’s NFL record for most touchdown passes in a season (49 in 2004) and wide receiver RANDY MOSS (21) will set a new league mark if he catches two touchdown passes to surpass JERRY RICE’s 22 in 1987.
NFL Network is currently available on 240 cable systems, including Cox, plus satellite television providers DirecTV and Dish Network, and the telephone company TV services of AT&T U-VERSE and Verizon FiOS. But a few of the largest cable companies have refused to carry NFL Network on their most broadly distributed and affordable packages.
“NFL Network is a programming service of great interest to fans and should be broadly distributed by the cable industry,” said NFL Network President and CEO STEVE BORNSTEIN. “The only channel devoted 24/7 to America’s favorite sport is not programming that should be relegated to a poorly promoted, pay-extra sports tier that takes advantage of our fans’ passion for the NFL. A few of the biggest cable operators have refused to negotiate. We call on them to do what’s right for their consumers and negotiate agreements for NFL Network that make sense for everybody.”
NFL Network also will televise two college football bowl games over the next week. The Texas Bowl in Houston matches the University of Houston against TCU at 8 p.m. ET on Friday (December 28) and the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona will send Indiana University against Oklahoma State on Monday (December 31) at 6 p.m. ET.
