Creating the NFL Schedule | NFL Football Operations
GAME TIMES AND BROADCAST PARTNERS
The league’s six broadcast partners (CBS, Fox, NBC, NFL Network, ESPN and Prime Video) all want each week’s best matchups to air on their networks so they can attract the largest audiences. (AP/ Aaron M. Sprecher)
The NFL’s marquee matchups often are scheduled to air during the week’s premier time slots — Thursday, Sunday or Monday nights or the late game on Sunday afternoons. The league typically schedules the Super Bowl champion at home for the Thursday night game that kicks off the new season.
This season, the league also scheduled six Saturday games – two each during Weeks 16, 17, and 18.
Most NFL games are played on Sunday afternoons, with early games starting at 1:00 p.m. ET and the late games starting at either 4:05 p.m. ET or 4:25 p.m. ET, depending on whether the game is part of a network doubleheader.
The Sunday afternoon games are broadcast on CBS and FOX; for the third straight year, games do not have a predetermined network assignment based on conference affiliation of participating teams. This allows the scheduling team more flexibility to build Sunday afternoon windows across CBS and FOX.
The schedule will feature two double-doubleheaders on CBS and FOX and every market will see four Sunday afternoon games in Weeks 15 and 18. Over Weeks 1–14, 16-17, FOX and CBS will each have eight doubleheaders. In those weeks, one network will show games in both Sunday afternoon time slots, while the other will air only one game in either of the two time slots. Doubleheader weeks generally alternate between networks, but not always. It is possible for one network to have doubleheaders on consecutive weeks, but not three weeks in a row.
Doubleheader weeks generally alternate between networks, but not always. It is possible for one network to have doubleheaders on consecutive weeks, but not three weeks in a row.
NBC will televise all Sunday night games in Weeks 1-18, as well the Thursday night Kickoff game in Philadelphia in Week 1 and a Cincinnati at Baltimore Thanksgiving night matchup (8:20 p.m. ET).
Thursday Night Football will air exclusively on Prime Video, kicking off its slate in Week 2. Prime Video will broadcast 15 Thursday Night Football games between Weeks 2-17 (excluding Thanksgiving night and including Christmas) and exclusively stream the third annual NFL Black Friday game. ESPN or ABC will air all Monday night games in Weeks 1-17.
