As Always, NFL Dominates TV Ratings

Never mind the competition, the fact that it was only Week 1 or even the looming probability of labor strife, the NFL again drew record ratings for several games this past weekend.

It was an especially good week for NBC Sports, which had the season-opening Vikings-Saints game last Thursday and a TV friendly Cowboys-Redskins game on Sunday night.

Specifically, the Vikings-Saints drew 27.5 million viewers -- making it the network's most-watched, regular-season game ever. On Sunday night, 25.3 million people watched the Cowboys-Redskins matchup. In addtion, ratings for the Sunday night game were up 24 percent from the first Sunday night game of last season (Bears-Packers).

Fox Sports enjoyed increased viewership as well. It's late Sunday afternoon game (Packers-Eagles) had a 14 percent higher rating than the game in that timeslot last year (Redskins-Giants).

Football itself does not guarantee ratings success, though. Several college football games drew ratings lower than matchups in similar timeslots last year. Those down included Penn State-Alabama on ESPN (down 36 percent from USC-Ohio State in 2009) and Michigan-Notre Dame on NBC (down 20 percent from when they met on the same weekend in 2009, then on ABC).

Clearly, and not surprisingly, the NFL remains the almost always successful TV sports king. The sport plays quickly and well on TV. It can be enjoyed when viewed casually and as background noise or when watched from the opening coin toss to the final second. Plus, it regularly provides known personalities, teams and traditions.

NFL: TV Drives Potential Preseason Change

For more than a year now, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has set the groundwork (through overall planning and public interviews) for an eventual schedule change -- increasing the regular season to 18 games by cutting the preseason from four games to two.

According to Goodell last week: "It's clear the fans don't want four preseason games."

Maybe that's true, but what's more obvious is that the possible solution -- simply making two current preseason games regular season games -- provides the easiest possibly way for the NFL and its owners to increase their income (on site at stadiums and from TV partners) without significantly altering the format of the league's schedule.

If ESPN Radio were to run Goodell's comments from last week through it's "BSPN Translator," a nice gimmick used every so often that helps "interpret" what people really mean when they talk, what the fans want would not be the primary reason for a possible preseason change.

No, it would come down to TV revenue. So a more appropriate answer might emerge from Goodell as: "It's the easiest way for us to make more money. We just cut the preseason from four to two games and everybody makes more."

It is a wonderfully simplistic solution. It creates more "inventory" for TV partners and, by making the already scheduled games more important, it creates more revenue for owners because fans will attend meaningful regular season games in bigger numbers as opposed to seemingly less important preseason games.

Downsides to the move include the dillution of the regular season schedule because with 18 games each one becomes a little less important than when there were 16. In that sense regular season games would be a little less valuable to fans buying tickets.

In addition, the move would make divisional games less meaningful because they comprise a smaller portion of the schedule. Instead of division games being 38 percent of a team's schedule (6 of 16 games), they would be 33 percent.

For the league, owners and TV partners, two extra weeks of games would mean two more Sunday and Monday nights of games as well as two weeks of potential high-profile, made-for-TV matchups not possible with the current schedule of division rivals and teams playing opposite-conference foes from a specific division.

Ast the league addresses the schedule, its offseason approach must alter as well because teams will almost necessarily conduct more important personnel evaluations with two less games, which are major means of evaluation. That could be an interesting challenge -- especially because the league has punished a handful of teams this offseason for conducting organized team activities (OTAs) that were too organized or strenuous.

Here's one pretty fair bet, though. If the league shortens the preseason and finds a way for teams to conduct evalutions if the offseason, those evaluations and events will show up on TV in some form as well. And that's not BS.

Super Bowl Selection on NFL Network

The first selection show for a Super Bowl should include little drama Tuesday, when most league observers expect NFL owners to approve New Jersey (specifically New Meadowlands Stadium) as the site of the 2014 Super Bowl.

NFL Network will present the show at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Along with the sure-thing combined bid from the Giants and Jets, other finalists include Tampa Bay and South Florida.

Obviously, weather-related issues present the seemingly most formidable challenges for the New Jersey bid (the game will be played in Jersey and the teams housed there after flying into Newark, with only the media hotels and special events in NYC). Those issues and others would be ripe fodder for studio hosts discussing the competing bids on show like this, but it'll be interesting to see how NFL Network treats the show.

It's hard to expect any criticism of the Giants and Jets bid because of the league's generally accepted support for that site.

Still, the show could be interesting if hosts and guests had access and were able to ask about potential safety and weather scenarios that could play out at any site. The league has a team of event experts who could provide some interesting insights into putting together a Super Bowl.

Just because the owners will probably rubber-stamp the move for a cold weather Super Bowl does not mean NFL Network has to go through the motions, too.

Assuming and Pronouncing About the NFL

Sometimes even a portion of a show can make an impact or provide some interesting moments and that was certainly the case Tuesday with "NFL Live" on ESPN.

As part of a lead segment on the Pittsburgh Steelers, who were without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger during a series of spring practices, some insights from an ESPN analyst and former Steelers player seemed to overlook the obvious -- or at least prompt some questions.

Analyst Merril Hoge was brought into the show by phone to provide an update on a golf tournament his foundation had hosted and in which Roethlisberger had participated. According to Hoge, the suspended quarterback interacted well with fans during the event and was making steps toward being more accountable.

Hoge said the quarterback knows he's in trouble because of his own actions and only his subsequent actions can change the perceptions of fans.

Still, while the ever-positive Hoge set the stage for an eventual return to acceptance of Roethlisberger by fans, the overlooked aspect was whether or not Big Ben actually is a good person. After all, not every professional athlete gets that message or practices that approach. From Hoge's perspective, though, it was a foregone conclusion that the quarterback would change his ways.

Meanwhile, Roethlisberger's actual actions/motives/personality remains in question -- and those are not things that can be proven because some former player believes that's the case.

'NFL Full Contact' tru-ly Worth Watching

"Monday Night Football" ended weeks ago, but the NFL continues to provide some of the best-sports related programming on TV at the start of the work week.

With "NFL Full Contact," which airs on at 10 p.m. Mondays on tru TV, the league provides a controlled behind-the-scenes look at some of the season's biggest events. The series opened two weeks ago with a look back at the season-opening concert, game and related activities in Pittsburgh. Last week, the first NFL game at Cowboys Stadium was the focus.

This week, the show chronicles the annual American Bowl in London between the Patriots and Buccaneers.

Sure, the shows are old news, but they're not news programs. Thanks to the talent of NFL Films storytellers, the games just provide a backdrop for what happens around them -- everything from the mundane to the outrageous.

By investing an hour of time, fans can come away with a better appreciation for all aspects of the NFL and what it does. Because the show does that, it also reaches its ultimate goal -- further spreading the gospel of pro football through the controlled lenses of the league.

NFL Network Adds Arena League Games

After a hiatus in 2009 because its financial model failed, the Arena Football League announced an agreement last week with NFL Network to return in 2010.

Weekly Friday night games begin April 2 on NFL Network, which gets football programming at minimal cost and does not have to sell advertising as part of the deal. It will provide on-air talent for the games.

The league -- with a 15-team lineup that does not include the AFL's last champion (Philadelphia Soul, 2008) -- represents a combination of what was the AFL and af2, a group of indoor teams in smaller markets across the United States.

Arena Football One purchased all AFL and af2 assets (team names, logos, records, film and video libraries and more) last fall. Now, with a league model similar to that of Major League Soccer, where all coaches and players are considered employees of the league, the Arena Football League plans to return. The TV deal provides necessary exposure, albeit on the NFL Network, which provides high-quality programming but does not reach nearly as many homes as former AFL partners such as ESPN and NBC.

League play includes 16 games leading to the playoffs and an eventual championship game the weekend of Aug. 20-23.

For the NFL Network, the indoor games begin after coverage of the NFL Scouting Combine and before the NFL Draft. They then continue until NFL preseason games begin. Along with filling a hole for some summer programming and giving the NFL more of a monopoly on pro football (in any form), the games provide the network with a chance to utilized high-definition technology and test techniques and access opportunities that might be able to be transferred to NFL games.

"We embrace football at all levels," said Charles Coplin, NFL Network's vice president of programming. "The AFL deal gives us exciting live football games on Friday nights from a league that has produced NFL players in the past, including Kurt Warner."

The AFL's 15-team league includes the Chicago Rush, Dallas Vigilantes, Tampa Bay Storm, Orlando Predators, Arizona Rattlers (Phoenix), Cleveland Gladiators, Utah Blaze (Salt Lake City) and the new Jacksonville Sharks, Alabama Vipers (Huntsville), Bossier-City/Shreveport Battlewings, Iowa Barnstormers, Milwaukee Iron, Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz, Spokane Shock and Tulsa Talons.

Super Bowl Media Day Available on TV, Web

Wet weather in South Florida prompted a second day of actual news during Super Bowl week, as the annual Media Day was moved from the field at Sun Life Stadium to the club level of the facility.

While Dwight Freeney's ankle injury drove much of the news cycle on TV and radio Monday, the two-hour media session with team members at the stadium -- one hour for the Colts and one for the Saints -- takes center state Tuesday.

The typical media frenzy might be more subdued because of the move. Most years the event takes on a circus-like atmosphere, with pro football beat writers, sports columnits and on-air types from across the nation rubbing elbows with all manner of pseudo-reporters and people with microphones in hand from entertainment shows or completing whimsical assignments.

While that allows sports types to pooh-pooh the process, it also enables the NFL to promote its product for free to many traditional and non-traditional platforms and outlets at the same time.

NFL officials do not expect the location change to impact what happens on Media Day.

"This should not be a major problem," NFL spokesman Michael Signora told The Associated Press. "It just will look different."

Activities begin at 10 a.m. with the Colts facing the media for an hour. After an hour-long break (to feed the media and for NFL Network and other analysts and media types to interview each other), the Saints get all the attention from noon to 1 p.m.

It might be the most-hyped two hours of any non-event on an annual basis in the world.

Along with live updates from national sports-talk radio networks and ESPN, the NFL Network and NFL.com provide additional access to the league-owned event.

Specifically, visitors to nfl.com/superbowl may find live streaming video of each of the 12 podiums used during media day. (Twelve players from each team are situated at a personal podium while all other players and coaches are available at the session as well.)

Throughout the week the site will provide live streams of other events as well. Those include the commissioner's State of the League Address on Friday and the announcement of the Pro Football Hall of Fame class on Saturday.

Planning, Location Key for ESPN Radio

The more than 55 hours of Super Bowl programming on ESPN Radio, set to originate from South Florida this week, sounds like a lot of work -- but that's only part of the story.

Planning for the numerous shows that will originate from Lummus Park on Miami Beach started months ago, when ESPN's operations team began working with the NFL regarding set location. That location makes ESPN different from most other national sports talk programming throughout Super Bowl week because those other shows typically originate from "Radio Row," table after table of sports stations from across that nation and world that often get set up in the same room of an a nearby convention center.

Even with the planning, live, on-location radio provides challenges.

It means less technology on hand and fewer staff personnel just a few steps away to solve problems. It also means potential distractions with weather (rain the early part of this week) and people watching the live radio shows.

Still, that atmosphere helps -- especially shows like "Mike and Mike in the Morning," with Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic working their 11th Super Bowl week together, and "The Herd with Colin Cowherd." Both shows have talent who can play well off an audience.

"You get a real sense of atmosphere," explained ESPN producer Amanda Gifford about on-site shows. "Colin is usually on his game with an audience. You can feed off the energy of the crowd."

For behind-the-scenes folks such as Gifford (who coordinated planning but did not make the trip to Miami for this week's Super Bowl shows), getting guests to the set on time provides a daily challenge during remote shows, and she prefers to leave nothing to chance.

"Everything is pretty calculated," she said. "I'd rather have everything planned, but I've learned that sometimes you get some great things on the fly and you have to be able to adjust."

Determining which guests are used on a program provides a show's biggest challenge during the week. With all of the activity and media attention, many former players (with guiding publicists) show up at the Super Bowl site to pitch their cause, charity or product.

While smaller shows on Radio Row might take any and all such guests, ESPN Radio shows can be a bit more selective. They have major markets to serve and less time to waste on borderline guests.

"We get a lot of A-listers through Super Bowl week, and we get pitches for a lot of people who aren't considered A-listers," Gifford said. "We make determinations by when they're available, if we're on the air at that time, and if they make sense for our biggest affiliates." For Cowherd, those affiliates are in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and Dallas.

Typically, ESPN's name and the talent and reputation of the hosts produce a potent combination -- with good guests wanting to appear on the shows and the on-air talent making the visits entertaining. The combination produces one of the best weeks of sports talk radio of the year.

Ratings up for Many Sports, Not Just NFL

Record ratings for the NFC Championship Game between the Vikings and Saints -- the game was the most-watched show on TV since 1998 (excluding Super Bowl games) -- appropriately prompted abundant reaction.

Anytime an average audience of 57.9 million viewers tune in for anything, it's news.

The rating reflects the power of the NFL, the never-ending interest in Brett Favre and the wonderful New Orleans storyline. It also reflects a trend for many sporting events over the weekend.

Whether it's the economy, ticket prices, the weather or a variety of other factors, viewers certainly found an interest in sports this past weekend.

Specifically, the first PBA Tour event won by a female posted a 100 percent ratings increase over similar coverage in 2009 on ESPN. On CBS, college basketball with top-ranked Texas at UConn was up 38 percent from Arizona-UCLA last year.

Pre-Olympic news was good for NBC as well. Its coverage of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships increased 33 percent over last year.

Super Bowl Buildup a Terrific Two Weeks

We're in the midst of the two best weeks of the NFL season -- the buildup to the Super Bowl.

Some fans might lament the time between games, but they would be wrong.

For TV storytellers, two weeks provides a good timeline to focus on the Xs and Ox as well as the Willies and Joes, providing a nice mix of technical and human interest stories. For all the things that surround the game (commercials, concerts, marketing), making it an annual holiday, two weeks provides just the right amount of time to stoke casual interest.

Honestly, this two-week buildup and sudden-death overtime might be two of the things the NFL does best.

Yes, overtime works. While some talk-show types and others who should have better things to analyze and rail against (especially Dick Vitale) spent a good part of Monday complaining about the NFL's overtime format, their bluster should be ignored.

The NFL has issues to address -- notably, as always, replay -- but overtime is not among them. Through the years the NFL has done a decent job of responding to fan complaints and not taking a knee-jerk approach when reacting to other problems.

Despite some complaints in the hours after the Saints victory, the league should do the same in regard to overtime. After all, that record viewership peaked during overtime, so people were clearly getting what they wanted.

And for so many reasons, from player safety to TV windows (the time available for games to air), sudden-death overtime works. It makes great TV, and it keeps football meaningful with an emphasis on special teams and defense.

Worried that the Vikings did not get the ball in OT? Well, maybe if their kick coverage had not allowed such a long return things would've been different. Or, maybe if their defense would've made a stop things would've been different.

Most important, maybe if a pass interference penalty had not been called, or if Brett Favre had not thrown an interception at the end of regulation ... all the ifs could go on forever. What should remain unchanged, though, should be the rule on overtime. It works, and it especially works on TV.