Report: ABC wants NFL's Thursday night games -- what would happen to "Scandal"?

[TMC]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/D...01/16/TNF.aspx

The NFL is shopping six to eight Thursday Night Football games, and ABC is planning to make a bid, according to Sports Business Daily. ABC hasn't aired the NFL since the 2006 Super Bowl, and the Thursday package would shake up that night's primetime lineup, including hit shows "Scandal" and "Grey's Anatomy."
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#1fi3KAroIiVHjMRD.99

[TMC]

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2014/...night-nfl.html

The NFL made headlines last week with its intention to obtain a 1-year contract for Thursday Night Football on one of the major networks (CBS, Fox, NBC, and ABC through ESPN) that would involve some sort of simulcasting deal for NFL Network, and might not even contain the entire season's worth of Thursday night game.

Some people have wondered - why would certain networks do this? Why would CBS -- which populates its Thursdays with the number one comedy on television, The Big Bang Theory -- be interested? Why would ABC blow up its female-skewing Thursday night block of Grey's Anatomy and Scandal? Why don't Fox or NBC overbid to get these games onto their fledgling cable sports networks?

There's certainly a lot of worthwhile questions, and it might be a good idea to go over the answers, aside from "It's the NFL, duh" that might get this bidding frenzy into the hundreds of millions when it's all done.

[James28]

For the Fall of 2014, 6 to 8 NFL Thursday Night Games may be coming to either ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC or Turner Sports. If one of these outlets got the game package, this means some established shows (Grey's Anatomy and Scandal on ABC, Big Bang Theory and Elementary on CBS, and Parks & Recreation, Community, and Parenthood on NBC) will have to find other nights to air original episodes, or they may get their season orders reduced. Plus, this could probably hurt the viewership for all of these shows, especially Big Bang Theory, or worse, doom the shows to cancellation. Because of this, I am really hesitant about the Thursday Night Package.

If I had to choose which of the outlets could get the NFL Thursday Package, it would probably be FOX. It could really help there if The X-Factor got reduced to one night a week from two, or gets cancelled outright.

[TMC]

http://www.adweek.com/news/televisio...package-155206

Could NBC upend its Thursday lineup by showing six to eight NFL games in the fall?
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#kYDTMlqxjqYDSZuh.99

[dlemond]

Grey's Anatomy is still on TV?

[James28]

^^Yeah, it's still in original episodes, because of The Simpsons, and their refusal to to retire.

[TMC]

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...tv/gfAtPN3EROY

How CBS Blitzed NBC and Fox for Thursday Night Football
by Marisa Guthrie

In the context of stratospheric NFL television rights costs, the
nearly $300 million CBS will pay for the privilege of airing eight
Thursday night games during the 2014 season is pocket change. Overall,
the league will collect more than $2 billion in annual rights fees
next season through deals with CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN.

How did the No. 1 broadcast network -- one with a stable Thursday
night thanks to the monster success of comedy The Big Bang Theory --
outmaneuver needier rivals to land TV's top audience draw? "It wasn't
just about the money," CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus tells THR. "It
was about the promotional and branding opportunities that are so much
better at CBS than anywhere else."

For the NFL, which averaged 8 million viewers airing Thursday games on
its subscription NFL Network during the 2013 season, the goal is to
build Thursday Night Football into a franchise as storied -- and
lucrative -- as Monday Night Football. In presenting their bid to the
league, CBS executives emphasized the network's No. 1 status and
willingness to pull out the stops on the promotional front (even as
the games will be simulcast on NFL Network). It is a long-term play
for the league. Tellingly, the deal includes an NFL option for a
second year. In a Feb. 5 statement, commissioner Roger Goodell noted
that the league's goal "is to bring these games to more fans on
broadcast television with unprecedented promotion and visibility."

ESPN, which has Monday Night Football, bid on the Thursday package for
its sibling ABC, but CBS' chief rivals were Fox and NBC. Sources say
top executives at both networks met with the NFL in last-ditch efforts
to press their cases as late as the day before the CBS deal was
announced.

For NBC, Thursday football would have ameliorated ratings problems on
the night, at least temporarily. NBC Entertainment chairman Bob
Greenblatt admitted during January's winter press tour that the
network would "love to have more NFL games," adding, "Thursday night
games might be really interesting to us."

They likely would have been interesting to NBC's audience as well;
more than 21 million viewers a week watched the network's Sunday Night
Football in 2013, making it TV's No. 1 show. Meanwhile, NBC's attempt
to launch Thursday comedies fronted by sitcom stalwarts Michael J. Fox
and Sean Hayes has been a failure. Hayes' Sean Saves the World has
been canceled, and Fox's show, which received a full-season order
before it shot a pilot, has been pulled from the Thursday schedule.

Adds McManus, "As dominant as we are on Thursday nights, the thought
of having somebody else program NFL football against our schedule was
not very appealing."

[TMC]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...ey-exec-687567

ABC is positioning itself as increasingly women-focused. Can a broadcast network successfully skew toward one gender?

Sweeney: Actually, more women watch television than men. So one of the things that Paul Lee realized when he took the job was that we had a very, very strong, loyal group of women who were ABC viewers to the core. I think he paid a lot of attention to that.

Iger: I’m kind of a fan of choosing the best shows and not being burdened by a so-called brand or by one demo. I think audiences today are sophisticated. And so I like to think that we are more expansive in our thinking about what we develop and what we program.

You did go after NFL Thursday 
night rights that went to CBS. 
What happened?

Sweeney: We didn’t get them. (Laughs.) Honestly, I don’t know why. Whatever deal was struck was a deal they wanted more than ours.

How big will sports be for ABC in the coming years?

Iger: Not very. The sports brand for us is ESPN. That was the decision I made years back, maybe to some extent at the expense of ABC from a male demo perspective. But ABC did just fine. In the years I had Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, for instance, we were perfectly happy with essentially programming a nonsports network. ESPN does program football [on ABC] Saturdays in the fall, and I watched a great basketball game on ABC today that was produced by ESPN. The Lakers beat Oklahoma City.

[MrCleveland]

ABC will be seeing their station being bought-out the way things are going, they may have less ratings than the CW.

I just wish ABC gets NFL...it hasn't been the same at ABC since!

[irehtman]

I think Thursday Night Football should be aired in ABC, CBS is not a good choice, because they are greedy and they do air NFL on Thanksgiving Days.

[TMC]

http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/cbs-...-matchups.html

It’s a peculiar arrangement, and one that could get even more peculiar with the most recent news from John Ourand in Sports Business Journal. In trying to build up the significance and sizzle of the new CBS Thursday night games, the NFL is willing to place some of its A-level matchups in the package and put it on par with NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

[TMC]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/07/17/cb...ight-football/

“You’ll get to see some NFL-themed programs within our own entertainment shows, where you’ll see players, coaches, even potentially owners who are not camera shy starring in some of our TV shows,” says CBS boss Les Moonves. “The entire company is behind NFL on Thursday night at CBS.”
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#gM4WIU5AJYgJ1y2L.99