The NFL’s schedule came out and FOX is very happy with the slate of games for its America’s Game of the Week package. With four games scheduled for both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys, the NFC East will be well represented as usual.
“As promised, FOX NFL is still very clearly an NFC package,” Michael Mulvihill, the network’s EVP, Head of Strategy and Analytics said in a tweet. “Why do we care so much about this when the AFC has so many good QBs?”
Appropriately, Mulvihill’s answer explained that FOX’s strategy is about the numbers.
He listed three reasons the network prioritizes the NFC:
- There are 30 million more people in NFC markets
- There is a $2 trillion-plus gap in local economic activity between NFC and AFC markets
- Fox owns its affiliates in 14 of the 16 NFC markets
The only two FOX affiliates in NFC markets that are not owned by the network are WJZY in Charlotte and WVUE in New Orleans, which are owned by NexStar and Gray Television respectively.
The NFL divided its Sunday afternoon games into conference-specific television packages in 1970. FOX has been the rights holder to the NFC package since 1994.
