Once again looking at significant tweaks to the most valuable programming asset in the pay-TV ecosystem, the NFL is looking to split its lucrative Thursday Night Football franchise among several networks, according to Sports Business Daily.
Thursday Night Football represents a bit of a juggling act for the league, which looks to secure huge rights payments from broadcasters while also seeking to maintain a certain minimum threshold of exclusive rights for its NFL Network cable channel.
According to the report, the league might consider splitting a package of 8-10 games among Fox, NBC and CBS, while preserving nine Thursday night games to run exclusively on the NFL Network. That is the minimum number of exclusive games required for the NFL Network to maintain its $1-per-month, per subscriber affiliate fee with pay-TV operators. Article