With the Patriots – Steelers game being without question the NFL’s best game next weekend, most out of town Pats fans will once again be able to watch their favorite team on local television. As of right now this game is scheduled to be broadcast on 168 out of 202 CBS affiliates in the US. The only markets that won’t get this game are the ones that are tied to carrying the Bengals, Browns, 49ers and Seahwaks, plus Denver, as the Broncos are playing at home at the same time. CBS will utilize its top broadcast team of Jim Nanatz and Phil Simms for the Pats game.
For the second week in a row the slate of NFL games from top to bottom is relatively mediocre due to teams on a bye. This upcoming game between New England and Pittsburgh is the only one during that two week time span that features two teams both with winning records at the time of the contest. The next best games this week are 4-2 San Diego at 3-3 Kansas City, 3-3 Dallas at 2-4 Philadelphia, and 3-3 Washington at 4-2 Buffalo; nothing is close to the 5-1 Patriots at 5-2 Pittsburgh.
As for the other games on TV, New England and much of the rest of the country will get the Dolphins at Giants as the warmup for the early game on CBS. Interestingly an unusually high percentage of markets will get a late game on FOX even though they have the single game this week. The New England game will get Arizona at Baltimore early rather than New Orleans at St. Louis, but much of the nation will get either Detroit at Denver or the Redskins versus the Bills in Toronto, both of which are late games on at the same time as the Pats – Steelers.
Here is a listing of the markets that will not get the Pats game.
Browns at 49ers
California: Bakersfield, Chico, Eureka, Fresno, Monterey, Sacramento, Santa Maria
Nevada: Reno
Ohio: Cleveland, Lima, Toledo, Youngstown
Oregon: Medford
Bengals at Seahawks
Alaska: Fairbanks
Idaho: Boise, Idaho Falls, Lewiston, Twin Falls
Kentucky: Bowling Green, Hazard, Lexington, Louisville
Ohio: Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton
Oregon: Bend, Eugene, Portland
Washington: Kennewick, Seattle, Spokane, Yakima
Denver gets no CBS game due to NFL fan unfriendly rules.
Here is a list of the CBS television markets that will show the Pats game:
Alabama: Birmingham, Dothan, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery
Alaska: Anchorage
Arizona: Phoenix, Tucson, Yuma
Arkansas: Fort Smith, Little Rock
California: Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Diego
Colorado: Colorado Springs, Grand Junction
Connecticut: Hartford
DC: Washington
Florida: Fort Myers, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tallahassee, Tampa, West Palm Beach
Georgia: Albany, Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Savannah
Hawaii: Honolulu
Illinois: Champaign, Chicago, Peoria, Rock Island, Rockford
Indiana: Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lafayette, South Bend, Terre Haute
Iowa: Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Mason City, Sioux City
Kansas: Pittsburg, Topeka, Wichita
Louisiana: Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Monroe, New Orleans, Shreveport
Maine: Bangor, Portland, Presque Isle
Maryland: Baltimore, Salisbury
Massachusetts: Boston, Springfield
Michigan: Alpena, Detroit, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Marquette, Saginaw, Traverse City
Minnesota: Duluth, Mankato, Minneapolis
Mississippi: Columbus, Greenville, Hattiesburg, Jackson, Meridian
Missouri: Cape Girardeau, Hannibal, Jefferson City, Kansas City, Kirksville, Springfield, St. Louis
Montana: Billings, Butte, Glendive, Great Falls, Missoula
Nebraska: Grand Island, Lincoln, Omaha
Nevada: Las Vegas
New Mexico: Albuquerque
New York: Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Elmira, New York, Rochester, Syracuse, Watertown
North Carolina: Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington
North Dakota: Bismark, Fargo
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, Tulsa
Pennsylvania: Altoona, Erie, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Scranton
Rhode Island: Providence
South Carolina: Charleston, Columbia, Florence, Spartanburg
South Dakota: Rapid City, Sioux Falls
Tennessee: Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville, Tri-Cities
Texas: Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, Beaumont, Brownsville, Bryan, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, Laredo, Lubbock, Odessa, San Angelo, San Antonio, Sherman, Tyler, Victoria, Waco, Wichita Falls
Utah: Salt Lake City
Virginia: Charlottesville, Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke
Vermont: Burlington
West Virginia: Beckley, Huntington, Weston, Wheeling
Wisconsin: Green Bay, La Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee, Wausau
Wyoming: Casper, Cheyenne
Once the visual television maps are available, I will add a link here as well.
Looking ahead to next week I would anticipate about a 50/50 split on coverage for the Pats – Giants game. Even though it is a late start for an east coast game – generally a strong indicator that the matchup will get extensive television coverage – CBS is also carrying the Packers – Chargers at the same time. That is one of only two times that CBS gets to show the defending Super Bowl champions, so at the minimum I would expect it to be shown throughout the west coast, all AFC West markets and all NFC north markets. I am guessing that most of the east coast will get the Pats – Giants and everything west of the Mississippi will be seeing the Packers – Chargers.
Edit: the week 8 TV maps are up now; you can see them here.
|
|
| |||||||
What exactly are: “NFL fan unfriendly rules” ??????
The NFL does not allow for any other games to be broadcast within 75 miles of the stadium of a team that has sold out its game. In this case Denver is playing at home, so no other games can be on TV on any Denver television station while the Broncos are at home on TV. Essentially it’s a second blackout rule: your local team gets blacked out if you don’t sell out; on top of that all other games get blacked out if you do sell out.
To me if the NFL was fan-friendly they wouldn’t have this blackout rule. The home team selling out isn’t good enough for the NFL? Come on Goodell …
Are the CBS affiliates in Louisville KY being forced by the NFL to show the Bengals or is it their choice? Even though Louisville is roughly 90 miles from Cincinnati I would put the Begnals at best third in popularity in the city behind the Colts and Steelers.
To the best of my knowledge the only secondary markets that are obligated to carry the Bengals are Dayton and Lexington. CBS (as well as FOX) makes the initial determination of which games each station will carry; the individual stations can then appeal for a change if they so desire, which is typically granted.
So the bottom line in this case is that both CBS and the Louisville station have both agreed to show what to them is the local team, which would be the Bengals game. I would presume both are convinced that the Bengals game will get higher ratings in Louisville than the (relatively close) Steelers vs the well-known Pats.
How do you see things in Louisville? Lots of Bengals fans? Lots of Steelers fans? A mixture with no one favorite? What game do you think would get the highest ratings there?
My own opinion (full confession — I’m a Steelers fan) is that there are some bandwagon Bengals fans (and for that matter Colts fans) in Louisville but I don’t know how that translates into viewers. You are more likely to see someone wearing Steelers stuff as you are either of those teams.
FYI — here’s the response I got to an email to the General Manger of the local CBS station about the game:
Thanks for your feedback. Games to be broadcast in Louisville are assigned to WLKY by the network according to pre-established guidelines from the NFL. We get a notice from the network 12 days in advance of the airdate, and can then request a different game if we have valid local rationale for the request. If our request is approved, we get an approval 6 days in advance of the airdate.
Because the Colts and Bengals are considered “adjacent” market teams for the Louisville area, the NFL and the network deem us a priority market for these teams. If we request a game other than a Colts or Bengals games, we have to present a compelling locally-based rationale for the change in game assignment. Typically, the appeal of a “marquee” game like the Steelers-Patriots has not been sufficient “locally-based” rationale to override the existing game assignment.
The network looks at the ratings for the Colts and Bengals games, which continue to be very high, and is very protective of the fan base of teams from adjacent markets. If we see a decline in audience ratings for our adjacent market teams, we have a stronger case to get a marquee game; but, so far this year, the Colts and Bengals continue to get high ratings.
By the way, I’d like to see the Steelers-Patriots game myself.
Dwight – very interesting; thank you very much for sharing that.
I think yours is not the only television market where stations are stuck in an outdated adjacent-market model. That GM’s response is somewhat similar to head coaches who play to not lose, rather than playing to win. As long as there’s no decline he’s not going to change his strategy, but what are the chances of NFL ratings declining? I would say slim and none.
On the other hand if he ‘played to win’ and tried something new (i.e., broadcast the Steelers game) he very well could see a ratings increase. But unless he tries that he’ll never know – and the majority of NFL fans in your area are forced to either watch a game they’re not interested in, go out to a sports bar, subscribe to the Sunday Ticket, or watch a choppy, spyware infested illegal stream of the game on the internet.
His decision making shows a decided lack of leadership in my opinion. At bare minimum he should go with one non-Bengals game so he can make an informed decision as to which games get better ratings.