Fox will this season offer “NFL GameDay Prime” Sundays at 11:30 p.m. to its affiliates, according to Variety citing two people familiar with the situation.
The weekly “wrap” show is produced by NFL Network, which will air it simultaneously. In a unique twist, the NFL will sell the national advertising surrounding the program, these people said; affiliates will have their own ad opportunities. The league views the agreement as an “opportunistic” move, one of these people said, and is not necessarily looking to get into the business of selling commercial time for broadcasts of its games on Fox, CBS, NBC or ESPN.
Many local stations offer a late-Sunday sports highlights program, often a collection of clips curated by a familiar sports anchor. This notion would add new elements to the concept, because it is produced and sold by one of the leagues whose games are often the basis for those highlights.
Fox and the NFL have been in business for years – Fox’s Sunday-afternoon football broadcasts are among the most-viewed properties on TV – but their relationship expanded in January when the entertainment conglomerate, controlled by the Murdoch family, struck a five-year deal with the NFL to air “Thursday Night Football,” an 11-game series that had previously been split among NBC and CBS. The deal is said to be valued at more than $650 million per year.
Fox will rely more heavily on sports and live programming after the completion of the sale to Disney, slated to take place in 2019.
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