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Key information: CBS has already redistributed games to markets, which account for 16% of the country, which would have noticed the Titans-Steelers game.
While the industry was ready for an NFL season like no other before last month’s start, many had assumed that at some point in the year, the schedule would be interrupted after league players, coaches or covid-19’s positive result.
While the first three weeks of the season went smoothly, the league officially delayed its first game due to the pandemic. The fourth game between the Tennessee Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled for Sunday, was postponed to “later this season” after several Titans players and tested positive, the NFL said today.
Four Titans players and five team workers tested positive this week, resulting in the closure of the team’s facilities as a component of the league’s security protocols. The league had originally planned to delay the Titans-Steelers game until Monday or Tuesday. “to allow more time for additional Covid-19 testing. “
But after more positive tests for the Titans (a player and a staff member), the game was officially postponed. “An announcement of the game’s new date will be made shortly,” the NFL said in a statement.
No member of the Minnesota Vikings, who faced the Titans last Sunday, is positive.
The Titans-Steelers setting is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p. m. on CBS, where 16% of the country may have noticed this game, depending on the network. CBS redistributed another thirteen hours, games in those markets; you’ll get the Baltimore Ravens-Washington Football Team or Los Angeles Chargers-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game instead.
While the suffering networks hailed the return of the NFL last year and the $ 5 billion in advertising revenue it brought them, top executives and marketers expected some kind of programming disruption. connected to Covid at some point in the season.
But they also knew that the NFL would have fewer traps that resulted in the postponement of several MLB games due to positive Covid-19 tests. NFL groups will only play one game consistent with the week, meaning less and less threat of prospective exposure to coronavirus. .
“We are convinced that while there are interruptions, the NFL is fully committed to betting on a season. And with his ability to adjust the schedule, and even if there are games that want to be canceled, they will have enough games to fill a weekend, the TV windows that probably won’t be lost,” David Campanelli, co-investment director of Horizon Media, told Adweek last month.
All NFL game network paintings had emphasized flexibility in their negotiations with consumers in cases where games were canceled or postponed. “If the games were cancelled, we would work with consumers to agree to mutually reexpress dollars elsewhere in the CBS portfolio. “John Bogusz, executive vice president of sales and sports marketing at cbs netpaintings, told Adweek, “But if games are canceled, they have the right to get their dollars back. “
Several media corporations whose monetary effects were decimated by the pandemic, in a giant component due to the lack of live sports, are counting on the NFL to help them recover at the end of the year.
After all, last season the NFL generated about $4. 6 billion in commercial profits on national television, according to Kantar Media: $3. 3 billion in the normal season and another $1. 3 billion in the playoffs. and the Super Bowl. This is more than double the commercial profits of national television last season from the NBA, MLB and NHL combined ($2 billion).