Report: 'Thursday Night Football' is heading to Fox next season
If you’re eager to watch the start of the Pat Mahomes era with the Kansas City Chiefs next season, you might want to make sure you have the right channel. “Thursday Night Football” is reportedly moving to Fox in 2018, according to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal.
Ourand reported Fox had outbid both CBS and NBC to take over “Thursday Night Football” last week. The company apparently closed in on that deal Tuesday.
Sources: Fox will have 11 Thursday Night NFL games, sharing with NFL Network and a digital partner. Fox will have expanded mobile rights. The TNF digital package (ie, Amazon's) still is up for sale.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) January 31, 2018
As in recent years, Fox will have to share some of the rights for “Thursday Night Football.” NFL Network will still be allowed to broadcast games, and a separate digital partner will also be involved. As Ourand said in his tweet, Amazon ran the digital package last year, but those rights are still undetermined for 2018. Another company could outbid them.
While it’s still early in the process, Ourand also said Fox’s top broadcast duo, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, were likely not going to do “Thursday Night Football.”
As of right now, it does not look like Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will do the Thursday night games. Full story coming tomorrow in SBD's Morning Buzz.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) January 31, 2018
If that’s the case, the duo would most likely remain in their normal Sunday spot, which is almost always a nationally broadcast contest.
After starting out exclusively on CBS, “Thursday Night Football” was split between both CBS and NBC the past two seasons. With the Fox news, neither station will host the program in 2018.
– – – – – – –
Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
More from Yahoo Sports:
• MLB star was ‘inspired’ after Trump’s State of the Union
• S.C. coach blamed for fans spitting, using racial slurs
• In the Cousins sweepstakes, one team is an early favorite
• Timberlake urged to keep kids ‘safe’ during Super Bowl