The NFL is looking to offload around half of their 13 Thursday night football games on the schedule next season in a plan to generate more revenue and ratings for the games and TV networks like CBS, Fox, NBC or ESPN as well as TNT could be in the mix to get those matchups.
According to Pro Football Talk and the NY Times, the NFL is looking to take six to eight of their 13 games that appear on the NFL Network and package them to the other networks. The report says that the games would be part of the earlier season schedule and comes after the league had 13 games on the schedule last season. In 2013, the NFL Network aired games from Weeks 2-12 and then skipped for Thanksgiving before the Week 14 and Week 15 games, which ended with the Chargers defeating the Broncos on the road.
The NFL Network will still continue to hold onto games during the season and the league is looking to extend the games to current broadcast partners, although TNT could get into the mix as well as a new one. The league wants to continue growing its Thursday schedule and this is one way to do it and while the NFL Network has done a solid job of airing the games, the league feels that higher ratings and more revenue would come from a bigger network taking it on, especially someone like ESPN.
According to the New York Times, the league thought about selling eight games back in 2006 for around $400 million and now the amount of games likely would cost the network that gets the bid even more. CLICK here for more on the Thursday schedule.
