- ESPN’s new minimalist approach to Monday Night Football broadcasts is not just limited to the broadcast booth. Starting September 8, ESPN will debut the Monday Night Football Dashboard, “an area at the bottom of the screen that will not only house the miniboard and the clock and score and all the essential information to do a game, but … will also supply all your lower-third stats.” In an effort to “[give] the screen back to the viewer“, there will be no lower third graphics above the dashboard.
- The NFL Network will debut its “first-ever pregame show” this season. NFL Gameday Morningwill air from 10 AM-12 PM Sundays starting September 7, opposite ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown. The pregame show will be hosted by Spero Dedes, with analysts Warren Sapp, Marshall Faulk and Adam Schefter. NFL Network’s entire Sunday schedule will consist of various editions of NFL Gameday; NFL GameDay Red Zone will air at 1 PM, followed by NFL GameDay Scoreboard at 4 PM, just-plain NFL Gameday at 7:30 PM and finally, NFL GameDay Final at 11:30 PM.
- For the first time, CBS will be airing all of its NFL broadcasts in high definition, joining FOX, which made the decision to go all-HD earlier this year. While all games will be produced in HD, some games “may not actually be seen in their entirety in high definition.” CBS executive vice president of engineering Ken Aagaard explains the situation to HDSportsNews.com: “For example, in a double-header, a late game may start in 4?3 until we can free up distribution equipment from the earlier game to get the HD signal out.” Additionally, game highlights on CBS will still be shown in standard definition.
