‘Thursday Night Football’ to air on both CBS and NBC

The NFL Network, which will continue to simulcast the games, will also exclusively televise an eight-game schedule of regular season games, which will include Thursday Night Football, late-season games on Saturday, and additional offerings.

The deal puts 10 games on broadcast TV, up from eight the past two seasons. Each of the eight games shown on both CBS and the NFL Network in this current season was the most-watched program on TV on the night it ran, snaring a combined rating of between 14.8 million viewers and more than 21 million viewers. Both NBC and CBS will broadcast five Thursday Night Football games each, with a simulcast airing on NFL Network.

CBS, NBC and the National Football League announced the new partnership Monday, just days before Super Bowl 50, which will be televised by CBS.

The NFL remains in “active discussions” about streaming rights for Thursday night games, with a deal expected to be done soon. With the league already having 5-8 NFL games broadcasted on CBS every Sunday, NBC is now getting a bigger slice of the pie.

The rights will be roughly $450 million.

Goodell added that the league is looking “forward to expanding with a digital partner for what will be a unique tri-cast on broadcast, cable, and digital platforms”. CBS paid approximately $300 million for Thursday night games in 2015.

“The NFL has the most powerful programming on television, and we are delighted to expand our primetime schedule to 24 regular season games”, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke.

Even building a programming block around the football lineup and being able to move more programming to the second half of the year had little to no impact on increasing profitability for CBS, according to the note.