NFL On Television - Sunday Regional Games

Sunday Regional Games

Under the current contracts, the regional Sunday afternoon games (1 p.m. "early" and 4 pm "late" games Eastern time) are broadcast on CBS and Fox. CBS holds what is generally called the "AFC package", and Fox holds what is referred to as the "NFC package." These packages consist mostly of Sunday afternoon games, though each year CBS and Fox get a game on Thanksgiving, which is covered in detail later in the article.

The "AFC package" for CBS is summarized as the following:

• All afternoon games in which the visiting team is from the AFC
• If there are not enough games to broadcast, then a game in which the home team is from the AFC will be played (against the NFC); this has never happened.

The "NFC package" for Fox is summarized as the following:

• All afternoon games in which the visiting team is from the NFC
• If there are not enough games to broadcast, then a game in which the home team is from the NFC will be played (against the AFC); this has happened only once (Denver Broncos–Minnesota Vikings during Week 13 the 2011 NFL season). The NFL permitted the game's move from CBS to Fox due to the fact that Fox initially had just two games in the early (1pm/ET) time slot under the NFL's flex schedule scenario.

In 1970, when the NFL and AFL merged, and home blackouts were put into place for AFC games (some AFL teams had lifted these during its run; as an example, most New York Jets home games in 1968 and 1969 were telecast on WNBC-TV New York), this assured that all Sunday afternoon away games would be seen on the same network. The current package allows both CBS and Fox access to every stadium/market in the league for at least two games per season (unless an interconference game is chosen as a prime time national game). In 2003, both of Miami's home games against NFC teams were televised in prime time, a rare occurrence that prevented Fox from airing a game from Pro Player Stadium that season. This had also happened in 1997, though Fox was scheduled to broadcast the Chicago Bears game from Miami until it was moved to Monday night due to its coverage of the World Series; ESPN was already planning to cover the Detroit Lions at Miami later on. In 2005 the Baltimore Ravens also had both of what would have been their Fox games aired in primetime instead, with the game against the Green Bay Packers on ABC and the contest against the Minnesota Vikings on ESPN.