NBC has acquired NFL THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. Commented Mark Lazarus, Chairman, NBC Sports Group, "Thursday Night Football is the perfect complement to Sunday Night Football, America's #1 primetime television program. We are incredibly excited to add this important property to our #1 ranked primetime schedule."
NBC will become the first network to present multiple primetime NFL packages in the same season.
NBC Sports Group's Thursday Night Football package - a two-year agreement -- features five new Thursday night games on NBC, which will be simulcast on NFL Network.
NBC Sports Group - the home of Sunday Night Football, which is on pace to be television's No. 1 primetime show for a historic fifth consecutive year - will debut its Thursday Night Football package in Week 11 (Nov. 17, 2016) on NBC, one week prior to NBC's traditional Thanksgiving night NFL telecast.
NBC will now air seven primetime NFL games on Thursday nights - five in the new TNF package plus the Thursday night "NFL Kickoff" game on Sept. 8 and the Thanksgiving night NFL game (Nov. 24).
NBC, which produced the first-ever NFL broadcast on Oct. 22, 1939 (Philadelphia Eagles-Brooklyn Dodgers from Ebbets Field), will televise a total of 28 games in 2016: 19 primetime games in the
SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL package, including the "NFL Kickoff" game and the Thanksgiving night primetime game, five primetime TNF games, a 2016 NFL Wild Card Playoff game (in Jan. 2017), a 2016 NFL Divisional Playoff game (in Jan. 2017), and two NFL preseason games.
Similar to Sunday Night Football,
NBC Sports Digital will live stream NBC's Thursday Night Football games.
NBC Sports' "TV Everywhere" live streaming product,
NBC Sports Live Extra, will stream the
NBC TNF games to desktops, tablets and connected TVs. The full HD-quality video stream will come directly from NBC's broadcast of TNF. For desktops,
NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra. The
NBC Sports Live Extra app is available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. (NOTE:
NBC Sports Digital does not have
NFL LIVE streaming rights to mobile devices.)
Last month,
SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL completed its 10th season on
NBC averaging 22.5 million viewers, which is the best ever for SNF on
NBC and the highest viewership for the NFL's premier primetime package in 19 years. The record-setting season puts
SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL on pace to be primetime's #1 show for the fifth consecutive full TV season - a feat accomplished by only three other TV shows since 1950. SNF has ranked No. 1 among Adults 18-49 for eight consecutive fall TV seasons.
