Report: NFL Mulls Sunday-Afternoon TV Shake-Up

The NFL and some of the media companies that broadcast some of its most-watched matches have considered the idea of shaking up the Sunday-afternoon packages that regularly air on CBS and Fox, according to Variety citing two people familiar with the matter.

Under one idea broached, the two networks could get to air packages that include games from both the NFC and AFC, as opposed to the current system, which keeps the NFC on Fox and the AFC on CBS. The talks are extremely preliminary, one of these people cautions, and may not come to fruition.

Spokespersons for the NFL, CBS Sports and Fox Sports declined to comment.

ESPN’s rights to air “Monday Night Football” last until 2021, and Sunday packages for Fox, CBS and NBC extend through the following year. Yet that isn’t keeping the media industry from focusing on the future of football, which provides the majority of TV’s highest-rated broadcasts and will be essential to the health of the media business as streaming-video options lure millions of couch potatoes away from traditional TV watching.

There is speculation that Walt Disney could offer to put ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” on ABC, which hasn’t aired the property since 2005. A spokesman for ESPN, which produces Disney’s sports programs, declined to comment. And AT&T may want to get in on the business.

Formal talks about football rights have yet to commence.