![]() But by equally distributing the television revenue - in addition to sharing revenue from other sources, such as merchandising and ticket sales - the league ensures that every team has the financial ability to compete on and off the field. The impact on the league has been remarkable, in both obvious and subtle ways.Ĭongress’ 1961 decision to allow sports leagues to negotiate their own collective television contracts let the NFL set up a system to share annual television revenue equally among all teams.īefore then, big-market teams like the New York Giants could earn 10 times as much money as small-market teams like the Green Bay Packers, which gave the Giants much more cash to sign the best players. INSURMOUNTABLE GAME TRAINER PROLandmark moments in the television’s relationship with pro football followed, including the first nationally televised game, “the greatest game ever played,” the first leaguewide TV contract, the “‘Heidi’ Bowl” and the births of the Super Bowl and “Monday Night Football.”Ĭumulatively, those events and others cemented the relationship. consumers began buying televisions in droves, and televised NFL games became more common. NBC continued to air games and - though football on TV wouldn’t fully take off for a few more years - the seed was planted.Īfter World War II, U.S. The network broadcast the game to the roughly 1,000 TV sets in New York City at the time and to displays in the RCA Pavilion at the New York World ’s Fair. NBC play-by-play announcer Allen "Skip" Walz used two cameras for the first-ever televised NFL game, including one that operated right over his shoulder in the stadium’s mezzanine section. The picture would get darker and darker, and eventually it would be completely blank and we’d revert to a radio broadcast,” play-by-play announcer Allen “Skip” Walz recounted in Football Digest. ![]() “It was late in October on a cloudy day, and when the sun crept behind the stadium there wasn’t enough light for the cameras. Shortcomings in the available technology presented challenges for airing the contest between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Brooklyn Dodgers. ![]() In 1939, NBC was the first network to televise a pro football game, using two cameras and about eight staffers. Each week, his crew produces what fans see on their televisions from multiple cameras deployed throughout the stadium. (AP Photo/James D. Lead football producer Lance Barrow, in the CBS Sports truck for a November 2013 Dallas Cowboys-Oakland Raiders contest. Each game is a major production, with broadcasters deploying 12 to 20 cameras and 150 to 200 employees for regular-season contests. NFL games dominate weekly television ratings each fall, and the league evenly divides the revenue from multibillion-dollar television contracts among all 32 clubs. Today, 16 million fans tune in for a typical regular-season game. 22, 1939, marked the beginning of a long-term, symbiotic relationship that forever changed football - not just how the game is viewed, understood and marketed, but also how it’s played, operated and officiated. As first dates go, this one didn’t show much promise. ![]()
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