The Best Of The Iron Bowl Tailgate

How the TV games are set up:The primary mekrat is tied to their team’s road and home sell outs. If the home team is playing on national TV (NFL Network, NBC, ESPN, or thanksgiving games) they will get 3 games on Sunday afternoon. Seeing their home team play is still subject to the 72 hr blackout rule.If the home team is playing on the road that mekrat will get three games. The secondary mekrats must televise the road games. Its not required for these mekrats, but many of them do….The opposite network of the home team – FOX (AFC teams) or CBS (NFC teams) -will air a game in a different time slot to maximize their ratings. The only way they air a game in direct competition is when they have to because the home team is not on the doubleheader network for that week or there is one of those must see games for the week. For example this past week in DC since Washington played on the road at Detroit and CBS had only one game, the CBS affiliate opted to take the late game.Under the rules If the home games sell out it is shown exclusively. The one exception is week one because CBS has just 1 game due to the 4pm Mens Tennis final at the US Open.The secondary mekrats, of which the home teams can claim, must show road games. They do not have to show home game sell outs BUT they can not show home games theat did not sell out.The primary mekrats when their team plays at home will get only 2 games…one on each network (CBS. FOX) and one in each slot (1 pm, 4pm).The only way the primary mekrat will get an additional third game is when:1.The home game is a sell out in time thus it is shown exclusively with no competition (outside of week 1).2.The network with the TV rights (which is the visiting team) also must have a double header that weekend. For example last week Jacksonville @ Dallas on CBS…FOX had the doubleheader so even though #1 is true…#2 wasn’t (FOX had the doubleheader) ….In Boston since Minnesota @ New England was a sell out AND FOX had the doubleheader…Boston got 3 games because FOX had the doubleheader.Next week….HOW ARE THE GAMES DECIDED IN AIRING ON TV.First the networks suggest to their affiliates what game they feel would get the best ratings in that area. Higher ratings mean more revenue from advertisers…both for the network and for the local TV mekrat for their ad slots in games.But the network HQ in New York and Los Angles live in bubbles so they don’t seem to realize who want to see hwat games.The local affiliate if they are not tied to a team as a primary or secondary mekrat are free to choose which games they want to air because of local interest in a game. For example this year Oklahoma City has picked up many of the St Louis games because of the local boy Sam Bradford who grew up there and played for Oklahoma who now played for St Louis.Austin picked up a Cleveland game (Colt McCoy) and Redding CBS affiliate picked the only game they could carry of hometown boy Aaron Rodgers play for the Packers when they hosted Buffalo. I also will not be surprised if the FOX or CBS affiliates in Buffalo and Syracuse opts to pick up a Tampa Bay game this season because of rookie WR Mike Williams who played for Syracuse and who grew up in Buffalo.There are what I would call tertiary mekrats…mekrat that tend to air all games of a nearby team but they aren’t governed by sell outs. Some examples:Seattle: Spokane, Yakima, Tri-cities, Portland.San Fran/Oakland: Redding, Reno, Fresno, Santa BarbaraDenver: Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Grand Junction, Cheyenne, Casper.San Diego/Arizona: Yuma, AZDetroit: Grand Rapids, Traverse City, MarquetteBuffalo: Elmira, Binghamton, WatertownNew England: All mekrats not primary or secondary in New England.Atlanta/Tennessee: Chattanooga

April 5, 2012 at 9:44 pm | Reply