{"id":75979,"date":"2014-10-14T15:14:07","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T15:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/tv-wp4\/?p=75979"},"modified":"2023-04-11T18:48:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T18:48:10","slug":"behind-mic-nfl-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/behind-mic-nfl-thursday\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Mic:  NFL Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NFL football is now available on Sunday afternoon (CBS and FOX), Sunday night (NBC), Monday night (ESPN) and Thursday night (CBS and NFL Network). It is estimated that income derived from those broadcasts by the NFL is $5,225,000,000. That\u2019s 5 billion, 225 million dollars!!<\/p>\n<p>CBS, along with their $1 billion per year contract for the Sunday afternoon games paid another $275 million for the Thursday night package. In addition, they, also, agreed to simulcast the games on the NFL Network. CBS sweetened the deal by supplying their top talent, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, to do the game. This contract gave CBS the right to do 8 games. Do the math. CBS pays $34,375,000 per game. The contract, believe it or not, was for one year only and the bidding war which occurred last February between CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, and Turner will commence again very shortly.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, it is the advertisers who must pay the bill. CBS reportedly asked for and is receiving $500,000 per 30 second commercial for the broadcast. That would mean they would need to sell 69 commercials per game to break even. Even though it appears that there are that many time stoppages for television, there are not nearly that many sold. In comparison, NBC gets $628,000 per 30 seconds for their NFL Sunday Night broadcast and ESPN garners $408,000 for Monday night. All the networks, technically, lose money on the broadcasts.<\/p>\n<p>So, with one half of the CBS Thursday night games already broadcast, how do you think the advertisers are feeling about their investment? The games so far have been:<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh 26 Baltimore 6<br \/>\nAtlanta 56 Tampa Bay 14<br \/>\nGiants 45 Washington 14<br \/>\nGreen Bay 42 Minnesota 10<\/p>\n<p>Despite the fact that the match-ups looked pretty good, they have pretty much all been \u201cblowouts\u201d. The winners have outscored the losers 169-44. For the most part (3of the 4 for sure), these games were over at halftime. And I\u2019m sure viewers were switching the channel or turning off their sets and heading to bed. If you happen to be a second half sponsor or the post-game sponsor, you probably have a huge headache and a big pain in your wallet right now. On the horizon, however, the match-ups do look much more enticing: Indianapolis (3-2) vs Houston (3-2); Jets (1-4) vs New England (3-2); San Diego (4-1); vs Denver (3-1); and, late in the season, San Diego vs San Francisco (3-2). There are no guarantees.<\/p>\n<p>But, no matter how badly teams fare on Thursday night, there does seem to be one sure bet. The sponsors will line up with their wallets open and they will pay the cost to bring their message to the largest possible audience television can offer them \u2013 NFL football. That\u2019s assuming, of course, the game warrants their interest, the viewers are willing to stay up late, and they can get through the Friday work day on less sleep.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n1. Everyone has now lost in the NFL. The Cardinals and the Bengals were the last to drop. Things appear to be returning to normal. I know I had my best week of picks in a long, long time (13-2) and my shoulder hurts from patting myself on the back.<\/p>\n<p>2. There are plenty of Jets fans in the Lehigh Valley (my color analyst, Mike Joseph, for one), but you probably won\u2019t hear from them for awhile. They are just pathetic. On Sunday, they lost 31-0 to the San Diego Chargers. QB Geno Smith seems to have no clue and Michael Vick did not help at all either in the second half. Did I say pathetic.<\/p>\n<p>3. This past Saturday, Jordan Zimmerman was one out away from a complete game shutout against the Giants and a 1-0 victory. Washington Nationals manager, Matt Williams, decided to pull his pitcher. You guessed it. The Giants tied the game which led to an eighteen inning 2-1 win by the Giants and a 2-0 lead in the best of five series. The game took over 6 hours and there was plenty of second-guessing. Rightfully so!<\/p>\n<p>4. Trust me, I\u2019ve been there. The CBS announcing crew that did the Lafayette-Fordham game last Friday were somewhat inexperienced. The play-by-play announcer was doing his second game. The analyst, London Fletcher of Rams, Bills, and Washington NFL fame, was doing his first game. They were nervous, needing four \u201ctakes\u201d to do the intro. And the Lafayette fans were not happy when they called the \u201cLeopards\u201d the \u201cCougars\u201d in the pre-game that was aired.<\/p>\n<p>5. RCN-TV has a terrific Friday night of high school football for you this week. First off, will be the Easton at Parkland game which will be LIVE at 7:00 followed by Sportstalk Friday and then the Freedom at Whitehall game. These are the four best EPC teams.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/207.172.11.197\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Garys-Picks.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-75825\" alt=\"Gary's Picks\" src=\"http:\/\/207.172.11.197\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Garys-Picks.jpg\" width=\"466\" height=\"241\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Last Week \u2013 13-2; Seasonal Record &#8211; 47-29: 62%)<br \/>\nINDIANAPOLIS<br \/>\nDENVER<br \/>\nPITTSBURGH<br \/>\nTENNESSEE<br \/>\nCHICAGO<br \/>\nGREEN BAY<br \/>\nDETROIT<br \/>\nCINCINNATI<br \/>\nNEW ENGLAND<br \/>\nBALTIMORE<br \/>\nSAN DIEGO<br \/>\nSEATTLE<br \/>\nARIZONA<br \/>\nPHILADELPHIA<br \/>\nSAN FRANCISCO<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NFL football is now available on Sunday afternoon (CBS and FOX), Sunday night (NBC), Monday night (ESPN) and Thursday night (CBS and NFL Network). It is estimated that income derived from those broadcasts by the NFL is $5,225,000,000. That\u2019s 5 billion, 225 million dollars!! CBS, along with their $1 billion per year contract for the&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic","category-featured","category-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Behind the Mic: NFL Thursday - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the Mic: NFL Thursday - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NFL football is now available on Sunday afternoon (CBS and FOX), Sunday night (NBC), Monday night (ESPN) and Thursday night (CBS and NFL Network). 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