This weekend, the Green Bay Packers’ game will be televised on an impressively small number of local stations around the United States. Their Week 9 matchup with the Carolina Panthers is up against a few unfortunate factors: First, it is not a premier opponent, nor is this game even a divisional matchup; second, it is in the early time slot; and third, it’s on a network that does not have a doubleheader.
That means that many markets that might otherwise see Packers-Panthers are choosing — or are forced by network rules — to air a different game instead. 506sports.com has the early broadcast map ready, and it’s a pretty brutal one for fans outside of the two teams’ home states.
Just take a look at the map below, noting that Packers-Panthers will only be on local FOX affiliates in the areas shown in green:
That’s a rough go for anyone outside of Wisconsin, the Carolinas, the upper Mississippi River area, or Utah. Why is Utah getting Packers-Panthers? Our best guess at APC is that Packers quarterback Jordan Love played college football at Utah State. Neither of these teams has any other star players with strong connections to the more significant football programs in the state, so that rationale is anyone’s guess.
FOX has five different games this week, three kicking off at 12 noon Central Time and two at 3:05 PM. The game with the biggest footprint, shown in red, is an NFC North matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions. Then there’s that blue swath through Texas and up the Rocky Mountains which represents Broncos vs. Texans. Both of those games are in the early slot, with Saints-Rams (yellow) and Jaguars-Raiders (orange) later in the afternoon.
Most of the isolated pockets of orange for that Jags-Raiders game are the home markets of teams whose games are on CBS in the early window. Those local FOX affiliates have picked out the one AFC game in the late slot in order to avoid competing with their home teams’ games. The same is true for Chicago with the NFC game, as the Bears play early on CBS and are therefore getting Saints-Rams in the late time slot.
This Sunday’s biggest game, however, is on CBS at 3:25 PM Central. That will be a rematch of last year’s AFC Championship Game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, a game that could end up being a major tiebreaking factor in playoff seeding in the AFC. With no other games on CBS at that time, this contest will be a fully national broadcast on every CBS affiliate in the USA.
For Packers fans living in areas where the game is not on locally, remember that the NFL’s rules allow for out-of-market broadcasts via NFL Sunday Ticket, which now has a monthly subscription option.
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