New Television Deals Allow NFL To Move Towards 17-Game Schedule

For the first time since 1978, the NFL will be expanding the number of games played in the regular season. Team owners will vote later this month in a league meeting to implement the 17-game schedule for the 2021 season. It is almost certain that team owners would vote in favor of expanding the regular-season schedule. A 17-game season will lead to the reduction of preseason games from four to three.

The league’s decision to move towards a 17-game schedule comes amidst new television and streaming deals that the NFL has secured. The new agreements will bring over $110 billion over the next 11 years. Securing new television deals was essential to the league changing the regular season schedule. Had the deals not been financially favorable, then the possibility of team owners agreeing to a change would have been slim.

As part of the new deals, Amazon will become the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football. Amazon Prime will host 15 Thursday night games on its streaming service. Allowing Amazon to stream games to its users continues the league’s efforts to get more involved in the streaming world.

The new television deal will run from the 2023 season through the 2033 season. As it currently stands, CBS will retain its usual Sunday afternoon AFC games, and Fox will keep the Sunday afternoon NFC games. NBC will retain Sunday night football games and both ABC and ESPN will continue to air Monday Night Football. The deal will bring ABC and ESPN into the rotation of broadcasting future Super Bowl games.

In 1978, the NFL adopted the current regular-season schedule. Prior to that, the league used to only have 14 regular-season games played.