NEW YORK: The National Football League is expanding Thursday Night Football in 2016 and 2017, continuing its partnership with CBS while also adding NBC as a partner.<\/p>\n
Both CBS and NBC will broadcast five Thursday Night Football games, growing the package to ten broadcast games in 2016 and 2017 from eight in 2014 and 2015. All Thursday Night Football broadcast games will continue to be simulcast on NFL Network. NFL Network will also exclusively televise an eight-game schedule of regular season games comprised of Thursday Night Football, late-season games on Saturday, and additional games to be determined. Both CBS and NBC will produce Thursday Night Football with their lead broadcasters and production teams, and both will contribute to the production of Thursday Night Football exclusively on NFL Network. CBS and NFL Network will air the first half of the Thursday Night Football schedule with NBC and NFL Network televising the second half.<\/p>\n
The NFL is in discussions with prospective digital partners for OTT streaming rights for Thursday Night Football, with a deal expected in the near future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are continuing to make Thursday Night Football bigger and better. CBS has played an integral role over the last two seasons in helping build Thursdays as a night for NFL football, and we’re excited to have them on board again,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. \u201cAt the same time, we’re thrilled to add NBC to the Thursday Night Football mix, a trusted partner with a proven track record of success broadcasting NFL football in prime time, and look forward to expanding with a digital partner for what will be a unique tri-cast on broadcast, cable, and digital platforms.”<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mission when we first put games on Thursday nights in 2006 was to work strategically to make Thursdays a night for NFL football in the mold of what Monday and Sunday nights mean to millions of fans across the country,” added Robert Kraft, the chairman of the NFL\u2019s broadcast committee. \u201cWe\u2019ve made great strides since that point, and growing the base of games with CBS, now with NBC, and soon with digital streaming will only help us solidify this night in the consciousness of NFL fans here and globally.”<\/p>\n
“The CBS Corporation and the CBS Television Network are extremely pleased to continue our successful partnership with the NFL on Thursday nights,\u201d said Leslie Moonves, the president and CEO of CBS Corp. \u201cThursday Night Football has provided extremely valuable programming and a powerful promotional platform to help launch CBS’s prime-time schedule, contributing to our standing as the perennial number one and most-watched network. Broadcasting the first half of the Thursday Night Football schedule is a terrific way to jump-start the 2016-17 television season. We look forward to another great year of the NFL on CBS on both Thursdays and Sundays.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NFL has the most powerful programming on television, and we are delighted to expand our prime-time schedule to 24 regular season games,\u201d said Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal. \u201cThursday Night Football is an important addition to NBC\u2019s number one ranked prime-time lineup, and the perfect complement to our award-winning Sunday Night Football broadcast. The NFL is a terrific partner, and we could not be more pleased about expanding our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK: The National Football League is expanding Thursday Night Football in 2016 and 2017, continuing its partnership with CBS while also adding NBC as a partner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[239,241,224,242,243],"class_list":["post-6754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-top-stories","tag-cbs","tag-national-football-league","tag-nbc","tag-nfl","tag-thursday-night-football"],"yoast_head":"\n