Atlanta Falcons, the Hawks are the basketball team.

Not that it in any way diminishes a good anecdote!

Great news announced over on the NFLUK forum there will be RedZone available during the early game tommorrow! Unfortunately it's described as a one off rather than a permanent policy change but at least it's a start.

at last we get it, even if it is a one off...

Has Colin Murray been quietly dropped as C4s live match host? 2 in a row now for Nat.

Haha, sorry, I knew it was some sort of bird!
Anyway, most eventful plane journey i've been on recently.

Did he go back to the studio after the game to host the overnight stuff?

Yes he did.

Peter King in his MMQB column says that the NFL made nearly $32 million in ticket sales alone from the three London games this season. He also notes that the Jaguars made $6.7 million more in ticket sales that they would have done if the game had been held in Jacksonville and sold out there.

Presumably this is largely due to the fact Wembley is a much bigger stadium than where Jacksonville play their home games. While the London games remain something of a novelty they will presumably continue to sell well. However, if e.g. the Jaguars moved here and remained as awful as they have been the past five or so years, I would not be very confident ticket sales would remain as high.

I get the impression the NFL are going to leave it more or less as it is for the foreseeable future. Judging by some of the comments I have read the teams and players seem to be less opposed to the London trip than they have been in the past. So long as it is the same for both teams, and they both get byes the week afterwards, it seems not too disruptive to the schedule. Apparently the league may increase the number of games in the 2016 season when there are no rugby world cup matches at Wembley. It will be interesting to see what condition the pitch is in this coming Saturday for the England football qualifier.

Larger capacity and massively higher average ticket price, over twice the average price for a real Jags home game according to King ($127 in London to $58 in Jax).

The people in Jacksonville are being charged what the on-field product is worth, while UK fans are being charged whatever novelty value still exists in an NFL game being played at Wembley, irrespective of quality. I don't fault the league, if fans here are willing to pay £80 to watch the Jags stink up the joint for three hours, then so be it.

Sounds like the pitch won't be in very good condition on Saturday either.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29992731

Fortunately it probably won't matter for purposes of England's chances of qualifying forn the Euros, but I'd add this to the list of reasons for people to hold off planning to celebrate the arrival of a London NFL franchise any time soon.

The Jags also get the benefit of not having to worry about a local market TV blackout for the Wembley game

While the UK fans have to suffer with every Jags Wembley game being broadcast on both Channel 4 and Sky (which has to rank amongst the top ten stupidest decisions in UK sports broadcasting every year), instead of one chosen because it features two decent NFL teams.

Appearances on television in the UK up to the end of Week 10.

Games shown - 52 (1 in each slot + 1 extra MNF in Week 1, + 1 Sunday morning international series match.)

7. Dallas
6. Denver, New York Giants,
5. Cincinnati, Green Bay, Indianapolis, New England, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle
4. Carolina, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh,
3. Atlanta, Arizona, Baltimore, New Orleans, San Diego, Washington.
2. Houston, Kansas, Miami, Minnesota, New York Jets, Oakland.
1. Cleveland, Jacksonville, St Louis, Tampa Bay,
0. Buffalo, Tennessee.

Note : Buffalo and Tennessee will feature in Week 11 on TNF and MNF respectively.

The appearances in Sunday early and late games chosen by Sky are as follows,
(Early Game/Late Game)

5. Dallas (2/3).
3. Cincinnati (3/0), Denver (0/3), Seattle (0/3).
2. Arizona (1/1), Detroit (2/0), Miami (2/0), New England (1/1), NY Giants (0/2), Philadelphia (0/2), San Francisco (0/2).
1. (Early)Atlanta, Arizona, Baltimore, Carolina, Chicago, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Minnesota, Oakland.
1. (Late) Kansas, NY Jets, San Diego.

No appearances for Buffalo, Cleveland, Houston, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Tampa Bay, Tennessee or Washington in the early or late games selected by Sky.

Note : The International Series game between Detroit @ Atlanta is not included in the above list. The other two International series games - Miami @ Oakland and Dallas @ Jacksonville are included in the list. Has these not been international series games it is questionable whether these matches would have been selected by Sky for coverage. If that were the case we would not have seen Jacksonville yet this season and probably wouldn't until TNF in Week 16!

'Deserve' probably isn't the right word, but Cleveland deserve a Sunday slot on Sky if possible. Good games in weeks 14 and 15.

Agreed, they're 6-3, only one of their losses was a bad one (a stinker at Jacksonville). Looking at the early games week 14 (Dec 7th), Indy @ Cleveland looks the best, although Pittsburgh @ Cincy and Baltimore @ Miami may also come into the reckoning.

Anyone know what Channel 4 might do next year with regards to renewing the NFL rights deal? I see the Head of Sport left the other week, wonder if that will affect anything?

Ratings for the live international series game always under perform the slot average (ave around 400,000) and show no sign of increasing but wonder if they're in it for the long haul or like the potential demographics despite the smaller numbers.

Commentary teams for Week 11.
Bills @ Dolphins - NFL Network - Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, Tracy Wolfson.
Seahawks @ Chiefs - Fox - Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa.
Eagles @ Packers - Fox - Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Erin Andrews.
Patriots @ Colts - NBC - Al Michaels, Chris Collingsworth, Michelle Tafoya.
Steelers @ Titans - ESPN - Mike Tirico, Jon Grudden, Lisa Salters.

Cincinnati don't deserve to be shown again after past few weeks!

Commentary teams for Week 12.

Raiders @ Chiefs - NFL Network - Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, Tracy Wolfson.
Lions @ Patriots - Fox - Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Erin Andrews.
Dolphins @ Broncos - CBS - Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, Tracy Wolfson.
Cowboys @ Giants - NBC - Al Michaels, Chris Collingsworth, Michelle Tafoya.
Ravens @ Saints - ESPN - Mike Tirico, Jon Grudden, Lisa Salters.

Obviously no news but even if the IS games are underperformaning then they could just keep SNF?

It would make more sense for Channel 4 and Sky to agree to alternate coverage of the Wembley games, it's fairly ridiculous that all three matches are currently shown on both channels.

C4 do a better job with SNF than Sky do with the earlier Sunday games (mainly due to the fact that Mike and Nat are a better combo than what Sky typically offer). It's just a shame the game is on so late. It remains a mystery why Sky don't just bring Carlson back. Too obvious?

I agree but it would be hard from a marketing point of view for either channel to promote their NFL coverage whilst ignoring the NFL game that comes over to the UK to show something else.


I don't think Sky need Mike Carlson. If anything I think they could loose Kevin Cadle and just stick with Neil Reynolds with Shawn Gayle. For me Kevin Cadle doesn't offer anything to Sky's coverage. Take this evenings pre game show and the Adrian Peterson affair. Neil was pretty strong in his criticism of Adrian Peterson at the start of the show tonight. I've never heard him so vocal before. Shawn countered with measured observations. Kevin should have pushed them both more. Instead his only offering was a short sentence stating that he didn't agree with a Neil's lifetime ban preference.

To be fair he may have been short of time but he should be aware of the duration of the breaks in the game to know how much time the pundits will need to answer his questions.

If every London game was in the early slot then that wouldn't be an issue because there would be no other games going on at that time.

More sense for who? Why would Sky give them up? That's not going to drive up subscriptions.

Carlson and Nat have built up a lot of repor from years of working together and make a great team, that said Mikes style simply isn't as professional as you need for Sky.