With the new NFL TV contract, we’ve seen the crossflex of National Football Conference games to CBS and American Football Conference games to Fox which continues to confuse fans 13 weeks into the season. Despite the NFL’s best efforts to educate the American people on this new concept, viewers continue to wonder why CBS can air NFC games despite being the network of the AFC and vice versa for Fox. No matter the confusion, the crossflex will continue for the life of this contract as both CBS and Fox want more flexibility for games. You’ll catch on. Eventually. At least that’s what the NFL is hoping for.
The new contract will also bring a couple of new features to the NFL Postseason. We’re in the homestretch as we’re reaching the final turn and heading towards the the finish line of the regular season so let’s take a look at what you’ll see starting January 3 and ending with the Super Bowl on February 1, 2015.
So what’s new with the NFL Playoffs?
Where do we begin? First, ESPN will get its initial taste of the postseason since it began to air NFL games back in 1987. Beginning this season, the Worldwide Leader will air one Wild Card Playoff game. That means that Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden’s season no longer ends with Week 16 as it has in the past, it now extends into the postseason.
It also means that with ESPN’s first foray into playoff football, the beloved Wild Card Saturday Doubleheader that began with ABC in 1991 and continued with NBC through last season is no more. This means that all of the major NFL TV partners, CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC will each air one game during Wild Card Weekend.
NBC will still have two playoff games, but for the first time since 1998 when the Peacock had the AFC contract, it will enter the Divisional Round.
So we know Wild Card Weekend will be January 3 and 4, 2015. Do we know which timeslots will be assigned to each network?
No. Our thinking is that ESPN would get the first game of the weekend on Saturday, with either CBS or Fox getting the primetime game, then Fox or CBS getting the early game on Sunday and NBC getting the late game possibly in primetime. The NFL has not released the schedule and and in response to an e-mail, a league spokesman told Awful Announcing that kickoff times and networks should be known in a couple of weeks.
So with NBC getting a Divisional Playoff game, how would that work? Does that mean that CBS or Fox will only air one game that weekend?
Well, it means that we won’t have a second NBC announcing team on the playoffs and that Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Michele Tafoya will call both of NBC’s postseason games.
Yes, it signifies that one of the Sunday afternoon partners will lose a game during Divisional Weekend. From the schedules, it appears that CBS will lose one AFC playoff game and Fox gets to keep both of its NFC Divisional games. However, Fox will lose one game to NBC in the 2015 postseason.
How about streaming? Will all of the playoff games be made available online?
ESPN has told us that its Wild Card Playoff game will seen on the WatchESPN app for authenticated cable and satellite subscribers.
In the past, NBC has playoff games on its Live Extra tablet app and for desktop computers and was the first network to make its postseason games available online. It’s expected that NBC will stream both of its games once again.
Both CBS and Fox streamed their playoff games for the first time last year on computers and tablets and they are expected to resume that practice for this postseason.
Verizon has the mobile rights to all playoff games for its customers only.
What about the Super Bowl? Will that be online?
NBC, which will air Super Bowl XLIX has not made an official announcement about making the Big Game available, but since the last three games have been streamed and NBC was the first network to do so, expect to see the Super Bowl on your computer and tablet once again.
Just like the playoffs, Verizon will have the mobile rights to the Super Bowl.
You forgot about the Pro Bowl!
Oh, do we have to talk about the Pro Bowl? Well, if we must. ESPN has purchased the rights to the NFL’s All-Star Game and will air the game every year in this contract. Yes, Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden will call the game. ESPN last aired the game in 2010 after CBS sold its rights back to the NFL. It had the contract to air the Pro Bowl between 1987 and 1994 and then again between 2004 and 2006. Now for the life of this TV contract, ESPN will air the game through 2022.
In the last TV contract, CBS sold off the Pro Bowl twice in 2010 and 2013. NBC aired the game two years in a row in 2013 and 2014 marking the last time the game will be aired on broadcast television for at least eight seasons.
So to sum up, how does the network lineup look for this year’s Postseason?
Here’s how it all shakes out for January 2015 through the Super Bowl:
WILD CARD WEEKEND, JANUARY 3-4, 2015
CBS (AFC)
ESPN (AFC or NFC)
FOX (NFC)
NBC (AFC or NFC)
DIVISIONAL WEEKEND, JANUARY 10-11, 2015
CBS (AFC)
FOX (NFC)
NBC (AFC)
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2015
CBS (AFC Championship)
FOX (NFC Championship)
PRO BOWL, GLENDALE, AZ, JANUARY 25, 2015
ESPN, 6 p.m. ET
SUPER BOWL XLIX, GLENDALE, AZ, FEBRUARY 1, 2015
NBC, 6:30 p.m. ET
So that is how the 2014 NFL Playoffs will look on TV this season. When the schedules are finalized, we’ll provide you with the kickoff times and the networks that will air them.