I can understand Atlanta/Seattle as they've only lost twice between them so far this season (just like GB/Dal). Yes I'd prefer Green Bay/Dallas (and think its the far better matchup) but I don't think it is a slam dunk decision.

I'm far more surprised at no New England. You'd guess many people want to see Tom Brady. Obviously in Week 7 with NE @ Pitt that'll be picked in the late window so maybe they didn't want NE two weeks on the spin.

Flexible Schedule change for Week 8, GB/ATL is now in the 9:25 slot with ARZ/CAR moving to 6pm

https://nflcommunications.com/Pages/...le-Change.aspx

The NFL Show is moving from Saturdays to Fridays 'for the next five weeks' according to an NFL UK email, which surely defeats the entire purpose of the programme existing in the first place.

Will be interesting to see if 'one million people' are watching because they leave the tv channel or stream running after MOTD or whether they genuinely hunt out this programme.

The same could be said for a lot of programmes on the BBC. They just watch it because its "on". BBC ONE could broadcast a blank screen for half an hour and it would still get six figure viewing figures.

Indeed. If there are 5,100 BARB homes, each one is supposed to represent 12,745 UK viewers. So, you just need 80 of them with the telly left on BBC1 for five mins after MOTD, and there's the NFL's "million viewers".

Oddly when I had a BARB box 'tele shopping' on after the Live WWE events on Sky Sports did surprising well.. once it even got into the top 10 most watched on Sky Sports 3!!

How? It's highlights of the Thursday game, some additional punditry on the previous week's games and some previews of the weekend games. What possible difference can it make whether it's shown the day before the Sunday games or the day before the day before?

A case happened some years ago in Australia where a programme on a minor channel had ratings that noticeably seemed to bob up and down on alternate weeks. When this was investigated it turned out to be due to one person who worked shifts who only watched it in the week he wasn't working in the morning.

I see that NFL ratings have ripped a fair bit in the US this season. Tv ratings generally in the US have been falling quite substantially but the NFL has avoided this downturn until now.

It was created specifically for the post-MOTD slot to try and attract people watching that. Moving it to post Graham Norton on a Friday doesn't do that.

Interesting article about plummeting NFL tv ratings this season here

https://theringer.com/nfl-tv-ratings...53a#.j7odfox8z

Not sure how great a critique that article is, seems to want to come from an argument intentionally critical of the NFL.


Yes NFL viewings figures are down, but as has been talked about before on this thread viewing figures across the board for sports generally are down.

The election is definitely a factor, cable news network figures are up massively on previous years, it might not be the only factor, but how can the article be so sure it isn't that big of a one until after the election has finished?

Yes, overall baseball postseason figures are up, but it's for one reason only, the Cubs. The story as to whether they will finally break the curse or fall flat on their faces again is drawing big numbers. FS1 had it's biggest ever viewing numbers on Sunday night (whilst SNF was on) for Game 2 of the Cubs/Dodgers series.

The problem for MLB is figures for the other non-Cubs series through the playoffs have been down (as much as 50%) at times.

The one thing that'll reassure the NFL is that whilst down the figures are still killing everything around it. TNF last week (supposedly part of the dilution problem) had almost twice the viewing figures of the next best programme

Ha ha, US media have noticed that NFLUK make up shit about ratings

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...re-overstated/

LA Rams fans have an early 6.30am start to watch their team tomorrow! NFL network is showing this game in the US, rather than CBS or FOX.

The local CBS station will be showing the game in New York and LA too.

and the bbc took the CBS feed

The feed the BBC took is one that was simulcast on the NFL Network and the CBS affiliates.

NFL network games are taken by CBS or NBC and the ESPN games by ABC for the local markets; all cable games are done this way.

I’m no NFL fan (although I do enjoy watching it a bit here and there), but why did all the on-screen graphics on the NFL Network/CBS/BBC coverage say ‘Thursday Night Football’ or ‘Thursday Night Special’ when the game was taking place on a Sunday?

Was it technically a ‘Thursday Night Football’ fixture but was taking place on Sunday because it was hosed in the UK?

I’m sure a lot of BBC viewers were more than a little confused...!

It's branding.

Apparently they have Thursday Night Football: Saturday Edition

I don't know why they couldn't have used "International Series" branding

It was a curious one. Essentially there are 20 games in the 'Thursday Night Football' package this season, but only 14 weeks to fit these games in to (week 1 and Thanksgiving count as part of the 'Sunday night' package, and everyone plays on the Sunday in week 17). To make the numbers up, a few random time slots around Christmas, and this one are part of the Thursday package and branded as 'Thursday Night Special'. It must make sense to someone, somewhere, but that's the quirks of US sport, before you even get in to the odd CBS/NBC/NFL Network simulcast nature of these games!

Not just UK viewers, lots of confusion and mocking of the NFL from Americans over the TNF 'branding'.

I’m glad it’s not just me that was bemused by the ‘Thursday Night Football’ graphics then!
There must have been a lot of novice BBC viewers simply thinking it was some sort of mistake with the graphics.

Seems unlikely. They've been doing it for years.

Just reporting what I've seen Americans tweeting, not sure why you think I'd make it up

I know it has happened with TNF branding on Saturday games (to the same confusion/mockery) but I believe it was the first time the London game has had the TNF branding.