How The NFL May Deflate TV's Upfront Season

For the past two years the NFL has partnered with CBS

for an exclusive slate of Thursday night games that was also simulcast on the NFL Network; however it was only for a trial period. That period is now over and the games are back up for grabs…and the NFL wants its payday. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the NFL is looking to double its pleasure for the 2016 fall games by expanding its eight-game Thursday night slate by two and then splitting it evenly among a pair of networks. While on paper that doesn't seem like an industry changing deal, it could be a huge disruptor to the traditional model. Usually every May the major networks hold an upfront presentation, a event where executives present to advertisers and the media its new fall schedules. If the NFL has its way then for two of those networks those schedules may get spiked. Under the rumored plan the NFL would split the games between NBC

and CBS, but the twist that is driving analysts crazy is the games would alternate every week. For example, NBC will get its season opening night game (as stipulated in its overall contract) but then CBS would get the next game and it would alternate back and forth as such for 10 weeks. For NBC and CBS this arrangement would severely undercuts its ability to program a key night of the week. Not only would this make launching a new series on Thursday nights impossible for the networks, but viewers would likely become incredibly upset (and confused) to find their favorite returning shows were now running new episodes every other week. Many have also questioned why the NFL would do this to its own audience and make them search for the games, but that's where the NFL Network simulcast comes into play. The NFL would be able to boast that no matter what all the games are on the NFL Network, so in turn the confusion factors benefits the league. It's a roundabout strategy designed to help the ratings of its network, but could actually make little impact or possibly even backfire. To recap, under the terms reported the NFL would essentially be getting two high profile networks to voluntarily crater a key night of programming, share a franchise with a big rival and confuse its loyal audiences all while paying upwards of $300 million to $600 million for the "privilege." Regardless of the mega-watt ratings brought in by the NFL, that's a hard pill to ask investors in those networks to swallow. NBC is the current reigning leader in the 18-49 demographic and CBS is the current reigning leader in total viewers but agreeing to this arrangement could significantly alter those rankings. Yet if either CBS or NBC balk, then the NFL can bring Fox

into the mix or even ABC

, which hasn't had a regular season football game air on its network in over a decade but sees the value. The bottom line is that the NFL is in the cat-bird seat here and can dictate any stipulations it wants to name…including making the networks agree to a separate deal that allows for a streaming partner (with that money going to the NFL). The question becomes when does enough become enough. The upfronts are big business and essentially the lifeblood to the major networks. With the rise of streaming services the networks are facing an uphill battle just for survival and this deal could easily hurt the networks involved more than it helps. It is expected the NFL wants to iron out a final deal prior to next month's Super Bowl, so investors will know the end result shortly, but they may want to brace themselves because they could be the ones getting sacked.