Originally Posted by Ads:
“I agree that Sky should pick the best games. I would argue that the US networks don't always pick the best match up for their main games though - matches involving Green Bay, the Pats and especially Dallas seem to get the big game treatment, simply due to the size of their fanbases.”
I completely agree that there is no guarantee that the 'big' games equal the 'best' games, and I agree that Green Bay, Dallas, New England and to a lesser extent NY Giants get alot of late afternoon FOX 'Game of the Week' slots due to their appeal and their guarantee of better TV ratings.
But, alot of those decisions are made by the networks and the NFL before Week 1, and we do see games flexed late in the season to allow for games that may have seemed less important move up into the better time slots for TV.
It's like the Premier League, when Sky will pick games 2 months in advance not really knowing if certain teams will be near the top, and so alot of the big clubs get plum TV spots regardless of whether they're actually playing that well. If we had similar rules to the ones the US networks have then we'd see the likes of Leicester get more of their games moved to Sunday Sky slots to reflect their success so far.
So, at least in the US they can move games around a little bit to reflect changes in teams fortunes, but I think more often than not they get it right in determining which games are the biggest, will attract the most viewers and are the most anticipated by the most people. A few weeks ago Philly at NE was supposed to be the FOX 'Game of the Week', but they moved Buck and Aikman to Carolina at New Orleans instead, reflecting Carolina's importance when arguably Philly-NE would still have rated higher with two huge East coast market teams.
I can't remember too many games this season which Buck and Aikman have done on FOX and thought they should have been at another game. Maybe a couple of Dallas games, but looking back at the games available on those weeks they were still the logical choice from a weak bunch of games IMO. Logically, I would like to think Sky would look at which games FOX and CBS assign their No.1 announcing crews to, and pick those games most weeks unless they clash, if it's a Wembley game week, or on the odd occasion if it's a particularly uninspiring week and they see the benefit of another game.