The preseason has kicked off in earnest and the 2024-25 NFL season is upon us. Here’s a preview of the upcoming NFL season from a media perspective.
Fox shakes up announcing teams while other networks stay steady
Fox introduces Tom Brady as its lead analyst for the 2024 season in one of the most highly anticipated sports media acquisitions in history. The addition of Brady caused some shakeups in the rest of Fox’s broadcast roster, making the network unique among its peers who largely kept the same crews in place. Here are each network’s broadcast teams for the upcoming season.
Amazon:
Al Michaels, Kirk Herbsteit, Kaylee Hartung
CBS:
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Tracy Wolfson
Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, Evan Washburn
Kevin Harlan, Trent Green, Melanie Collins
Andrew Catalon, Tiki Barber, Jason McCourty, AJ Ross
Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta, Aditi Kinkhabwala
Tom McCarthy, Jay Feely, Ross Tucker
ESPN:
Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters
Chris Fowler, Louis Riddick, Dan Orlovsky, Laura Rutledge
Fox:
Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady, Erin Andrews
Joe Davis, Greg Olsen, Pam Oliver
Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma, Megan Olivi
Adam Amin, Mark Sanchez, Kristina Pink
Chris Myers, Mark Schlereth, Jen Hale
Kevin Kugler, Daryl Johnston, Laura Okmin
NBC:
Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark
Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge, Kathryn Tappen
Streaming exclusives become more prevalent
The NFL continues to find more inventory for streaming, even adding a new streaming partner this season with Netflix set to air two Christmas Day games. Of course, “Thursday Night Football” will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime for the third straight season while ESPN+ and Peacock will also air exclusive games. Here’s a list of every non-Thursday Night Football regular season streaming exclusive announced thus far.
Friday, September 6th — Packers-Eagles (NFL International Series, Brazil) (Peacock)
Monday, October 21st — Chargers-Cardinals (Monday Night Football doubleheader) (ESPN+)
Friday, November 29th — Raiders-Chiefs (Black Friday game) (Prime Video)
Wednesday, December 25th — Chiefs-Steelers (Christmas Day game) (Netflix)
Wednesday, December 25th — Ravens-Texans (Christmas Day game) (Netflix)
CBS studio show gets a refresh while Fox sticks with same crew
Fans of “The NFL Today” on CBS will see some new faces this season. CBS mainstays Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason depart while Matt Ryan steps in and brings some youth to the pregame show. James Brown will continue to host while Nate Burleson and Bill Cowher round out the fulltime cast, with J.J. Watt joining periodically. The trio of Ryan, Burleson, and Watt will give the show a decidedly younger feel — a stark contrast to its direct competitor “FOX NFL Sunday” who still features three original cast members from its 1994 debut.
The Fox NFL pregame show will again comprise of host Curt Menefee joined by analysts Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, and Michael Strahan — a core that has been untouched since 2008. Fox has little incentive to change the formula now as it has beaten its direct competition on CBS in viewership every year since its inception. As he did last season, Rob Gronkowski will join the show on a part-time basis.
NFL gets creative with scheduling
The NFL seemingly always finds ways to slot more games into standalone windows each season, and 2024-25 is no different. This year perhaps required more creativity than in the past.
The headline is, of course, how the NFL went about scheduling its Christmas Day games. With the holiday falling on a Wednesday this year, the league was presented with the unique challenge of maintaining competitive balance and player safety for the midweek contests. To resolve this, the NFL is having the four teams playing on Christmas Day play on Saturday the prior week, making for a “Thursday Night Football”-like turnaround. Notably, the Saturday games will compete against two opening round College Football Playoff games in the first year of that expanded format.
In the spirit of added national window games, the favorable calendar this year allowed the NFL to squeeze a Friday night game in during Week 1 — the Packers-Eagles International Series game from Brazil. Federal law prohibits the NFL from broadcasting games on Fridays and Saturdays during the majority of the season to protect high school and college football, but the Friday of Week 1 falls outside that period this season.
Another scheduling quirk new for 2024-25 is the addition of one more “Monday Night Football” doubleheader. Last year ESPN/ABC was given three weeks of doubleheaders, this year they will have four. Three of those will continue to split games between ESPN and ABC while one, the Week 7 doubleheader featuring Ravens-Buccaneers and Chargers-Cardinals, will see the latter on ESPN+.
The league’s international initiative will continue this season, with NFL Network broadcasting four 9:30 AM ET kickoffs from Europe. Those games will take place in Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, and Week 10.
View the full NFL schedule here.
Postseason changes headlined by Amazon’s Wild Card game
New to the postseason scene this season is Amazon, who will broadcast its first playoff game since buying exclusive rights to the “Thursday Night Football” package. Prime Video will air one game in the Wild Card round, which Amazon reportedly paid $150m for. This was the game that aired exclusively on Peacock last season.
CBS will receive an extra Wild Card game this season, meaning the network will air two games in the opening round. That leaves NBC, Fox, and ESPN/ABC with one Wild Card game a piece.
The rest of the postseason will remain pretty standard. CBS will broadcast the AFC Championship while Fox will air the NFC Championship. Fox is up in the Super Bowl rotation this season, meaning Tom Brady will call the big game in his first year as a broadcaster.
