Between Weeks 4 and 10 of the NFL season, the league will have six kickoffs at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Sunday’s Week 5 slate began in London, with the Jacksonville Jaguars “hosting” the Philadelphia Eagles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The game got off to a wacky start right from the jump, with two players being ejected during the opening kickoff, a play that required a lengthy review.
That trend would continue throughout the day, as penalties and reviews made for a game that approached four hours in real-time length. By the time Jaguars kicker Cam Little nailed an unlikely 57-yard field goal to win the game, it was 1:15 p.m. ET, and the early-afternoon games on Fox and CBS were already well underway.
With the NFL scheduling more international games than ever before this season, Fox and CBS might have to deal with the consequences from a viewership perspective. The two networks have long despised the early-morning kickoffs from Europe, but primarily because those games take away from their pregame shows, Fox NFL Sunday and The NFL Today, which typically give the networks a solid lead-in for regional NFL action. Rarely have 9:30 a.m. ET kickoffs extended into the 1 p.m. ET window.
That’s what happened on Sunday, however. And it’s fair to wonder how big of an impact the Eagles-Jags game running late will have on viewership for the early games on Fox and CBS.
The NFL’s two Sunday afternoon partners have bore the brunt of the league’s new-age scheduling practices. Beyond the additional international games, the league has continued to schedule new standalone national windows that have diluted the early-afternoon slate.
To be sure, Fox and CBS have added some solid inventory from these changes as well, with Fox specifically acquiring a 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff from Munich in Week 10, along with a Saturday game in Week 15, this season.
Nevertheless, it has to be frustrating for Fox and CBS to regularly compete with live NFL action for nearly one-third of the season.