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Press Pass | The Ins and Outs of the NFL Schedule With Mike North · Press Pass

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  Speaker 1: The twenty twenty six NFL schedule has been released. Of course,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the Jaguars schedule out there as well. JP Shadwick with you,
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  Speaker 1: Mike North, NFL VP of Broadcast Planning. With us has
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  Speaker 1: become an annual tradition. Mike, your heavy workload is now
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  Speaker 1: completely You're a busy man all year. However, the schedule
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  Speaker 1: releases is kind of the grand part of your schedule.
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  Speaker 2: I'm jessing it is. I mean, it's fourteen weeks of
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  Speaker 2: all day, every day and really nothing else. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: something like this deserves that level of attention. This is important.
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  Speaker 2: This is important to our fans, it's important to our
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  Speaker 2: players and our teams. It's important to the entire media industry.
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  Speaker 2: I love the anticipation and the leaks and the predictions,
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  Speaker 2: and you know this is important. You can see how
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  Speaker 2: all the broadcast partners kind of lead with it in
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  Speaker 2: their upfronts. I mean, this is new ground for us,
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  Speaker 2: and it is imperative that we continue to do the
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  Speaker 2: best job we can be as responsible as we can.
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  Speaker 2: It's a interesting mathematical exercise knowing there's no right answer
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  Speaker 2: and knowing that it's a zero sum game. Right, Anything
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  Speaker 2: that's good for the Jaguars is bad for the Texans.
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  Speaker 2: Anything that's good for NBC is probably bad for ESPN.
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  Speaker 2: So narrow needle to thread, really trying to find that
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  Speaker 2: balance and make everybody, if not happy, kind of equally
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  Speaker 2: minimally disappointed.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's a great goal to have, Mike. We appreciate
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  Speaker 1: that the Jaguars this year have five standalone window games,
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  Speaker 1: including three primetime games at night one on Thursday night,
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  Speaker 1: Week nine, Monday night game against the Steelers, Week fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: Sunday night Week sixteen in Dallas against Cowboys, on top
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  Speaker 1: of the two morning London games. Why now the Jaguars
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  Speaker 1: getting more and more of these primetime slots.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they've earned it. I mean, there's really no other
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  Speaker 2: answer to that question. You win division titles, your perennial
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  Speaker 2: playoff contenders, you have one of the superstars in this
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  Speaker 2: league league at quarterback, you're going to be on the
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  Speaker 2: prime time schedule, and you know you play your way
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  Speaker 2: into those slots, and the Jaguars have done that. The
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  Speaker 2: nine to thirty am Eastern time games have been a
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  Speaker 2: staple for a while obviously, but I think you also
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  Speaker 2: see us kind of leaning into the potential for what
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  Speaker 2: those matchups can do now on NFL Network, and you
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  Speaker 2: see maybe an uptick in the quality of opponent. That
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  Speaker 2: Eagles Jaguars game, you know, in London could have easily
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  Speaker 2: been a Sunday night football game, a Monday night football game,
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  Speaker 2: a Thursday night football game, a Fox doubleheader at four
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  Speaker 2: twenty five, like those are your twenty twenty five thirty
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  Speaker 2: million viewer windows, and that's the type of matchup that
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  Speaker 2: absolutely could have held down any one of those spots.
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  Speaker 2: The fact that we're using it at nine thirty in
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  Speaker 2: the morning kind of shows you a renewed commitment, if
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  Speaker 2: you will, to the quality of those windows as well.
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  Speaker 2: Any standalone national game is just that it's the whole
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  Speaker 2: league watching, it's every fan watching.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: The lifelood of this league is still some days at
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  Speaker 2: one o'clock and you might have eight, nine, ten games
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  Speaker 2: going on at a time, but there's no substitute for
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  Speaker 2: these standalone national windows. And primetime is one thing, obviously,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, the holidays and these Sunday mornings they're
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  Speaker 2: special too.
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  Speaker 1: Mike north With is from the National Football League VP
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  Speaker 1: of Broadcast Planning. You know, when obviously another London game,
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  Speaker 1: the Texans game Division rivalry. Those two teams went down
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  Speaker 1: to the wire last year. That'll be another one to watch,
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  Speaker 1: certainly at Wembley. But when two of the eight home
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  Speaker 1: games where the Jaguars are in London, that means there's
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  Speaker 1: not many home games left in Jacksonville and there's only
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  Speaker 1: what three of the last ten weeks the Jags are
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  Speaker 1: at home. You're running out of inventory at that point, right,
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  Speaker 1: And how do you balance that as a schedule maker.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we had a lot of conversations with the team,
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  Speaker 2: with mister Lamping, with Chad Johnson, and of course with
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  Speaker 2: Tony Bacelli. We knew the challenges that the Jaguars face
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  Speaker 2: this year with the stadium renovation going on. It really
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  Speaker 2: came down to the two London games, and what the
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  Speaker 2: team was looking for was like a what they called
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  Speaker 2: a donut a four week donut hole where they could
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  Speaker 2: really get a lot of construction done and you know,
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  Speaker 2: pray for good weather. Got a lot of ground to
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  Speaker 2: cover and a lot of work to do, but any
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  Speaker 2: four week stretch out of your buildings a lot. So
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  Speaker 2: once you knew you were gonna have that four week gap,
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  Speaker 2: now you're talking about the weeks before and the weeks after,
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  Speaker 2: and the weeks before we could have done two away
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  Speaker 2: and two home. We could have done one home and
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  Speaker 2: three away. You do one home and three away, and
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  Speaker 2: then you do the four week construction donut hole. Now
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  Speaker 2: you're talking about only one game in Jacksonville in the
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  Speaker 2: first seven weeks of the season. I'm not sure that's
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  Speaker 2: the right thing for the fan. I'm not sure that's
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  Speaker 2: the right thing for the team quite frankly. So once
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  Speaker 2: you make a commitment and you make a joint decision,
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  Speaker 2: all right, we should probably do two home and two
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  Speaker 2: road to start. Then the four week donut hole. Then
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  Speaker 2: to your point, that only leaves three homes over the
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  Speaker 2: last ten however you sequence them. Yes, the Jags caught
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  Speaker 2: a three game road trip. I'm not sure it's the
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  Speaker 2: worst three game road trip, just in terms of travel
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  Speaker 2: and the fact that the first one's on a Thursday,
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  Speaker 2: so you get that kind of ten day mini bi
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  Speaker 2: So maybe it is a three game road trip, but
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  Speaker 2: it's really more like a Thursday, a ten day and
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  Speaker 2: then a two week home, two week away, home, two
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  Speaker 2: week away. It was just the nature of the beast.
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  Speaker 2: We'll see how they handle it. I think we'll learn
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  Speaker 2: a lot, because I think this is something that we're
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  Speaker 2: probably gonna have to deal with as we head into
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven as well. It's a balancing act between
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  Speaker 2: doing right by the fan, doing right by the construction
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  Speaker 2: that is necessary for the stadium of the future, and
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  Speaker 2: also doing right by the football team. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: we want them on the road the last five weeks
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  Speaker 2: of the season, or on the road the first four
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  Speaker 2: weeks of the season, So trying to sprinkle out what's
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  Speaker 2: left of the home inventory fairly and strategically so that
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  Speaker 2: the season doesn't look too out of whack.
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  Speaker 1: How long ago do those conversations happen before the schedule
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  Speaker 1: comes out?
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  Speaker 2: I would say the team probably met with our international group,
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  Speaker 2: Mat Shapiro and Peter O' They were probably doing that
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  Speaker 2: end to last season, so probably November into December. Hey,
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  Speaker 2: as we look ahead to twenty six, we're looking at
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  Speaker 2: two games. Can we take one of our resolution obligation
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  Speaker 2: games and bring that up and then we'll do one
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  Speaker 2: of our own like we always do it Wembley. I
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  Speaker 2: think those conversations were probably happening end to last year,
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  Speaker 2: and then once the two hundred and seventy two matchups
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  Speaker 2: were known when the regular season ends, and we actually
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  Speaker 2: got into the process of, all, right, where are we
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  Speaker 2: going to find homes for all two hundred and seventy
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  Speaker 2: two of these, which one of them are already kind
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  Speaker 2: of earmarked for international, and who's got the interesting challenges
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  Speaker 2: from a stadium availability standpoint. Then it became a conversation
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  Speaker 2: with the team, probably throughout February, and I remember vividly
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  Speaker 2: talking to Tony Vecelli in Phoenix in March and if
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  Speaker 2: not giving him opponents, at least kind of laying out
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  Speaker 2: what we thought the home and away spacing might look like.
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  Speaker 2: And he kind of had his two options. You want
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  Speaker 2: the two home and two away at the top, or
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  Speaker 2: do you want to be light at the top, a
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  Speaker 2: little heavier at the bottom, but still only four home
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  Speaker 2: games over the last ten instead of three, And he
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  Speaker 2: sort of looked at the two options preferred this one.
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  Speaker 2: We made no promises. You never know, you got to
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  Speaker 2: break some eggs to make an omelet, and we did
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  Speaker 2: the best we could. I think it landed about where
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  Speaker 2: they expected, if not hoped. I'm sure wave a magic
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  Speaker 2: wand every team would love to change one or two
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  Speaker 2: games on their schedule. But I think for the most
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  Speaker 2: part this landed about how the team thought it was
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  Speaker 2: going to go.
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  Speaker 1: Mike North with us NFLVP of Broadcast Planning last couple
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  Speaker 1: monthes with you here, Mike, what's out there that you
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  Speaker 1: haven't tried yet as a scheduler, as a broadcast planner,
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  Speaker 1: You've tried the double bunday nights. That's not coming back
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  Speaker 1: this year. At least you got a bunch of Saturday
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  Speaker 1: December games the last few weeks of the season that
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  Speaker 1: pop out, obviously the holiday games, Black Friday, Thanksgiving Eve,
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  Speaker 1: if you will, what's next and what are you most
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  Speaker 1: looking forward to about the ones you have added this year.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question. I'll take your second question first.
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  Speaker 2: What I'm most looking forward to is kind of Thanksgiving
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  Speaker 2: and really into the following week. You know, Thanksgiving has
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  Speaker 2: become such a high watermark for us from our viewership standpoint.
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  Speaker 2: You see the records that we've been set in the
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  Speaker 2: last couple of years, and now you're talking about forty
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  Speaker 2: seven million watching Detroit and fifty seven million watching Dallas.
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  Speaker 2: You know, last year a good portion of audience stuck
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  Speaker 2: around for Bengals Ravens Thursday Night of Thanksgiving Night, and
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  Speaker 2: it wasn't, you know, the Bengals season that they wanted.
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  Speaker 2: I think Joe was just coming back, Burrow was just
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  Speaker 2: coming back from injury, and the game wasn't actually super competitive,
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  Speaker 2: but still did twenty eight million viewers on Thanksgiving Night.
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  Speaker 2: So I think you see us kind of leaning in
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  Speaker 2: now to Thanksgiving Night with a Casey Buffalo. It's as
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  Speaker 2: big as we get, really, and let's see if there's
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  Speaker 2: even a higher ceiling for Thursday night. Those three games
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  Speaker 2: are going to be on the heels of Wednesday Night,
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  Speaker 2: which is going to be fun and interesting on a
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  Speaker 2: Packers Rams game on Netflix. Then you still have the
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  Speaker 2: venerable Black Fridays. We continue to grow that. That's Denver Pitt.
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  Speaker 2: So those what five games, those ten teams Wednesday, Thursday
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  Speaker 2: Friday of Thanksgiving, And I think I have this right.
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  Speaker 2: Of those ten teams, nine of them were in the
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  Speaker 2: playoffs last year and the only one that wasn't was
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  Speaker 2: Kansas City. So clearly we're leaning into the Thanksgiving holiday Wednesday,
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  Speaker 2: Thursday Friday, and then having the luxury of between those
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  Speaker 2: ten teams getting to pick two of them and bring
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  Speaker 2: them back against each other the following week on full
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  Speaker 2: week rest, so it's not another short week and we're
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  Speaker 2: gonna do Chiefs Rams there. So that's what I'm most
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  Speaker 2: looking forward to for this season as far as what
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  Speaker 2: else there is to do. You know, Commissioner has been
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  Speaker 2: pretty clear he wants more international games, and he tends
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  Speaker 2: to get what he wants. So as we wander towards
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  Speaker 2: twelve and fourteen and sixteen international games in a year,
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  Speaker 2: that's gonna be an interesting needle to thread. A challenge
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  Speaker 2: obviously from a scheduling standpoint, but also, like we're talking
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  Speaker 2: about here, more national windows, more standalone games for our
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  Speaker 2: fans to see teams. Yes, you got the venerable national
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  Speaker 2: brands that are on primetime every week, but also a
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  Speaker 2: chance for teams like the Jaguars to play themselves into
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  Speaker 2: bigger windows. If I had a magic wand if I
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  Speaker 2: had a wish, it's probably untenable and lesser until we
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  Speaker 2: actually expand the season. If we ever do go to
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  Speaker 2: eighteen games over twenty weeks and we start around the
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  Speaker 2: same time, we're going to push back a little farther
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  Speaker 2: into January with our regular season. All those Saturdays come
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  Speaker 2: into play, all those Fridays maybe come into play. And
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  Speaker 2: again this is probably a bridge too far, but I'd
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  Speaker 2: love to see, let's say, the last three weeks of
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  Speaker 2: the season, for instance, all division games and all TBD,
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  Speaker 2: no networks, no dates, no times, because what do any
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  Speaker 2: of us know? It's May. We're looking into a crystal ball.
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  Speaker 2: These are live sporting events that aren't going to happen
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  Speaker 2: for four or five, six, eight more months, Like what
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  Speaker 2: do any of us know? So I'd love the flexibility
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  Speaker 2: to be able to react in season, maybe even more
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  Speaker 2: than we do now. We don't flex that much, you know,
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  Speaker 2: one Sunday last year, one Monday the year before, Thursday
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  Speaker 2: of the year before. But it's gonna get harder, and
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  Speaker 2: as the season gets longer, it's gonna be even harder
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  Speaker 2: to predict who's playing for what down the stretch. So
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  Speaker 2: to me, more tbds, more optionality, more of an opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to react to the end season storylines instead of counting
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  Speaker 2: on the big brands in May. That's what I'd love
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  Speaker 2: to see.
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  Speaker 1: Someday, Mike, you're sitting at Park Avenue. You know better
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  Speaker 1: than most there's no bridge too far for the NFL.
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  Speaker 2: This is anything possible. Come on, I mean, I thought
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  Speaker 2: where you were gonna go. Honestly, it was about flexible
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  Speaker 2: scheduling for the holidays, because that's gotten a lot of
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  Speaker 2: conversation the last few years. Would we ever flex a
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  Speaker 2: Thanksgiving game? Would we ever flex a Christmas game? And
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  Speaker 2: you know, kind of to your point, never say never. COVID.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: The COVID year taught us a lot. We could play
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  Speaker 2: on Tuesdays, we can play on Wednesday afternoons. We can
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  Speaker 2: get around and work around a lot of challenges. So
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  Speaker 2: in an effort to get the right games in the
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  Speaker 2: right windows, Yeah, you're right, never say never, but maybe
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  Speaker 2: not today.
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  Speaker 1: Mike North, NFLV of Broadcast Planning, Always a pleasure. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: for the insight.
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  Speaker 2: As always, good to see it. JP. Take care,