NFL Network
NFL Network is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by ESPN Inc. Dedicated to American football, the network features game telecasts from the NFL, as well as NFL-related content including analysis programs, specials and documentaries. The network is headquartered in the NFL Los Angeles building located next to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and broadcasts its worldwide feed from Encompass Digital Media in Atlanta, Georgia. The network has secondary East Coast facilities in the NFL Films building in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
As of June 2023, NFL Network was available in 51.5 million television households in the United States, which was down from approximately 71.1 million households as of February 2015, as cord cutting continues to affect the industry.
History
NFL Network was launched on November 4, 2003, only eight months after the owners of the league's 32 teams voted unanimously to approve its formation. Originally located in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City, California, the league invested $100 million to fund the network's operations. NFL Films, which produces commercials, television programs, and feature films for the NFL, is a key supplier of NFL Network's programming, with more than 4,000 hours of footage available in its library. As a result, much of the network's highlights and recaps feature NFL Films' trademark style of slow-motion game action, sounds of the game, and sideline conversations between players and/or team staff. Both the network's site and app, were launched in 2004 and 2009, respectively.Beginning with the 2006 season, the network began to broadcast eight regular-season NFL games during Thursday prime time, branded as Thursday Night Football. In addition to live games, the network has provided coverage of the NFL draft since 2006; its coverage competes with that provided by ESPN and ESPN2. It was simulcast in a co-production with Fox Sports for the 2018 edition, though this was only a one-year agreement as exclusive over-the-air broadcast rights moved to ABC for the 2019 edition, which saw ESPN produce a different broadcast for 'casual' fans. In 2020, the network simulcast ESPN's coverage of that year's draft which was produced remotely from the basement of commissioner Roger Goodell’s home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On September 8, 2021, the network moved with the rest of NFL Media to a space on the campus of Hollywood Park, a development that also features SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. In addition to office and studio space, the facility also features NFL Media's first outdoor studio and space to host studio audiences.
Transition to ESPN
On August 5, 2025, the NFL announced an agreement with ESPN Inc. to acquire NFL Network, RedZone, and NFL Fantasy for an undisclosed amount, pending regulatory approval. Under the deal, the NFL would acquire a 10% equity stake in ESPN as part of the sale, and NFL Network and RedZone would be included in the forthcoming ESPN over-the-top streaming service. Selected games would also be transferred from ESPN's NFL package to NFL Network, which would continue to carry at least seven exclusive games per season. Disney has projected that the sale would be completed by late-2026 as a "best case" scenario.On January 31, 2026, government regulators approved the deal, with the agreement closing shortly thereafter. NFL employees were announced to officially become ESPN employees in April.
At the time of the deal, the NFL Network was available in roughly 44 million homes.
Programming
NFL game telecasts
NFL Network introduced original game broadcasts in the 2006 season via the Run to the Playoffs—a late-season package of Thursday- and Saturday-night games, branded as Thursday Night Football and Saturday Night Football respectively. After most Saturday games were dropped from the package beginning in the 2008 season, all of the games were branded as Thursday Night Football regardless of night beginning in 2009. Starting with the 2012 season, Thursday Night Football expanded to include a weekly game from Weeks 2 through 15, as well as one Saturday night game during Week 16. As a result, every NFL team now appears in at least one timeslot-exclusive nationally televised game per-season.As with the games broadcast by ESPN's Monday Night Football, the NFL Network telecasts are also aired on a designated broadcast television station in the primary markets of the participating teams, although prior to the suspension of blackout rules in 2015 stations in the home team's market only carried it if the televised game sold out all remaining available tickets 72 hours prior to the game's start time.
When Thursday Night Football premiered, veteran television announcer Bryant Gumbel served as play-by-play announcer, with former Fox and current NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth serving as color commentator for the broadcasts. Collinsworth won the Sports Emmy for best game analyst for his work on the NFL Network telecasts. Dick Vermeil replaced Collinsworth for two games in 2006; Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders replaced Collinsworth when needed in 2007.
In the 2014 NFL season, the NFL established a sub-licensing agreement with CBS to increase the prominence of the Thursday Night Football package, under which a portion of the package would air in simulcast on broadcast television, and CBS Sports would produce all games. Specific games would still be exclusive to NFL Network to comply with carriage agreements guaranteeing a minimum number of exclusive NFL broadcasts per-season. In 2016, NBC Sports also gained a portion of the package under a similar arrangement. Fox Sports took over the package from 2018 to 2022. With Amazon Prime Video taking over exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football beginning in the 2022 season, NFL Network switched to a package consisting primarily of Sunday morning NFL International Series games, and late-season Saturday games.
Preseason coverage
NFL Network televises all 65 preseason games each August. Some of the games air live on the network; however, a majority of these contests air on a tape-delayed basis and use the local broadcast of one of the teams involved. Live preseason game broadcasts on NFL Network are blacked out in the home markets of both participating teams, where the game is broadcast on a local station; in those affected areas, an alternate feed of NFL Network is shown instead with a different preseason game, documentary programming, or a previously aired game.Prior to 2014, NFL Network occasionally broadcast selected preseason games as special editions of Thursday Night Football, such as the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints in 2007.
Studio shows
On weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays during the off-season, Good Morning Football/Good Morning Football Weekend airs live from 7-10 am ET, followed by a repeat from 10 am-1 pm ET.On Sundays during the NFL season, the NFL GameDay Morning pre-game show airs from 9 am-1 pm ET, NFL GameDay Live from 1-7:30 pm ET, NFL GameDay Highlights from 7:30-8:30 ET, NFL GameDay Prime from 8:30 pm–11:30 pm ET and NFL GameDay Final from 11:30 pm–12:30 am ET.
On Thursdays, Mondays and anytime NFL Network airs a game, NFL GameDay Kickoff begins two hours prior to the game, with NFL GameDay Live airing during the game, or Live Game coverage, with NFL GameDay Final airing after the game.
Other football
Arena Football League
NFL Network held the broadcast rights to the revived Arena Football League from 2010 to 2012. Starting with the 2010 season, the network broadcast a weekly Friday Night Football game each week during the regular season and playoff games at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time from March to August, in addition to rights to playoff games and the ArenaBowl. The NFL stated that unlike when the NFL last showed interest in arena football, there would be no attempts to buy into the league. Broadcasters for the games included Kurt Warner, Tom Waddle, Paul Burmeister, Fran Charles, Charles Davis and Ari Wolfe.NFL Network ceased airing Arena Football League games partway through the 2012 season as a result of ongoing labor problems within the league. The season's remaining games were carried on a tape delay before the network terminated the league broadcast contract outright at the end of the season; the rights were then obtained by CBS Sports Network.
In March, 2024 the NFL announced they would broadcast 30 regular season games from the 2024 revival of the AFL on NFL Network. The league never carried any games, with West Texas Desert Hawks owner Zack Bugg accusing the network of malfeasance after he personally paid for one of his team's games to be televised only for the network never to carry it and claim they never received the money. Another league member, the Albany Firebirds, indicated that the network had refused to carry the games because the league had a number of small-market teams that "scared off." Oregon Blackbears president Patrick Johnson was among the league's franchisees who was against the NFL Network deal, noting the predatory structure required the league to pay the network a brokerage fee but did not allow the league to sell advertising nor share in any advertising sales the network sold.
College football
In 2006, NFL Network began a foray into televising college football bowl games, acquiring rights to the newly established Texas Bowl in Houston, the Insight Bowl, as well as two all-star events—the Senior Bowl and the Las Vegas All-American Classic. These games were intended to help make NFL Network more attractive to television providers. The 2006 Insight Bowl, played between Minnesota and Texas Tech, would also achieve notoriety for featuring the largest comeback victory in Division I FBS bowl game history, with Texas Tech coming back from a 38–7 third-quarter deficit to win 44–41 in overtime.On April 14, 2007, the network televised the Nebraska Cornhuskers' spring football game. The network again aired the Insight, Texas and Senior bowls in late 2007 and early 2008. In addition, it carried two games between historically black colleges and universities during the 2007 season, including the Circle City Classic at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana. Rights to the Insight and Texas Bowls were later acquired by ESPN.
In May 2019, NFL Network announced a four-year deal with Conference USA to air a weekly regular-season game on Saturday afternoons beginning in the 2019 season. NFL Network opted out of the agreement after one season.
Since 2019, NFL Network has annually carried the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic, a college football kickoff game that features a matchup of two historically black colleges and universities on the Sunday before Labor Day. The HBCU Legacy Bowl, a postseason all-star game involving draft-eligible HBCU players, also has broadcast rights held by NFL Network.
In the 2022 season, NFL Network returned to carrying regular college football games through a weekly sub-license agreement with ESPN.