We heard last week through ESPN's report on the proposed CBA that the owners and players were expected to agree to a package that would add a Thursday night football package to the full season schedule. Currently, NFL Network has the final eight games of the season on Thursday night.
According to Sports Business Journal, NFLN is expected to keep it's eight-game late season package but the league is shopping an eight-game early season package to other TV networks.
The two most "serious bidders" are Turner and Comcast. Turner had the Sunday night football package on TNT from 1990-97 and wants back in the game. They could potentially place it on TNT, TBS or TruTV. Comcast, meanwhile, could place NFL games on Versus.
I read the ESPN book that came out a few weeks ago and throughout the "oral history" of the four-letter network, Ted Turner seemed to always raise the price in bidding for football rights so my early guess would be Turner acquiring the rights.
Per SBJ, the rights could fetch as much as $700 million.
Personally, I love this idea. Time Warner customers in Kansas City can't get NFL Network so this would give those of us with Time Warner the ability to watch at least half a season's worth of Thursday night games. If the NFL makes this move to Thursday night full-time, it would be bad news for the rest of TV considering the NFL dominates most other shows every time it's on.