The NFL Network has one, obvious job. Be the hub for NFL coverage. It’s in the name, it’s what it was founded on, and it’s why the league created the channel in November 2003. Today? It seems to be spiraling down into a channel of old reruns.
The Network took another hit this weekend when Gregg Rosenthal announced his acclaimed and long-standing Around the NFL podcast was being shuttered. Details over why are unknown but based on his farewell messages, it doesn’t sound like the decision was up to him.
The response wasn’t met with the shrug unpopular or shows that have run their course receive. There was an outpouring of surprise and sadness from media colleagues and fans. Rosenthal made clear he’s staying with the network but didn’t outline the nature or visibility of his role.
It’s hardly the first cut the network’s made in recent months. It laid off a slew of on-air talent, including reporters James Palmer and Melissa Stark and studio host Andrew Siciliano. The latter had been with the network since 2011.
Good Morning Football, the network’s flagship morning show, is also changing. On hiatus since March, one month before the draft, the show is moving from New York to Los Angeles. The reported reason was to save money on studio space rent, though Los Angeles real estate doesn’t seem to scream “cheap” to me. At least one host won’t make the trek, Jason McCourty announcing he’s left, while Peter Schrager’s status is unknown. Only two of the four, Kyle Brandt and Jamie Erdhal, have confirmed they’ll remain.
But how will the show work? It had been airing from 7-9 AM on the East Coast. To start at 7 AM out west, the show would need to begin at 4 AM. Keeping it a 7 AM local time start would put it at 10 AM out east. That could still work but the show would lose its flair of being the program fans wake up with as they get ready to work, now competing with ESPN’s slate of daily morning shows that air around that time.
And in May, NFL Total Access ended its run after 21 years, and it had been part of the network since its very first day. Sentimentally, that was a huge blow, and it had to have wrecked morale.
On top of all that, and perhaps worst of all, is the actual football the network has lost. Amazon now controls Thursday night football, staple programming of NFL Network for years. During the Sunday Ticket lawsuit, Roger Goodell testified he felt the broadcast product was below par on NFLN.
“I had my own opinion that our production was below standards that the networks [Fox and CBS] had set,” Goodell said during the trial vis MSN.com. “We had not met that standard.”
Maybe that’s fair. Maybe he’s right. But how does the NFL’s own network struggle to produce its own games? They have all the resources and support needed. They, in Goodell’s eyes, couldn’t do it.
What’s next? This is a road the network seems committed to going down. One logical reason for the cost cutting is the cord cutting. An August 2023 report noted that NFL Network has lost over 20 million subscribers the last 10 years. It’s a premium channel that doesn’t come in a basic cable package. Without any marquee events — the draft can be watched on ESPN, they don’t have Thursday nights cornered, and their own local programming is a shell of itself — what’s the reason to tune in? The league has even floated selling the channel’s rights to ESPN for a stake in Disney.
It’s a business and clearly, things aren’t booming at NFLN. These decisions to save their dollars might be the wisest thing they can do. But if that’s the case, the moves won’t improve the channel. The quality and the programming will only snowball. The worse it gets, the less people care, the lower the viewership, the more the network cuts. A dog chasing its tail.
Eventually, it might become the equivalent of ESPN Classic for football. Just reruns of NFL Films documentaries and games to serve as background noise in June when there’s nothing else on TV. Or perhaps the league will cut the cord on the network itself and shelve the channel entirely. The league’s recent lawsuit that could have it on the hook for over $14 billon won’t help its P&L statements, that’s for sure. That will lead to a depressing number of lost jobs. Not just of one-air talent but producers, directors, assistants, grips, camera operators, everyone who makes the network go. One estimate has 558 people working at NFL Network even after all their layoffs. How secure is their future?
It’ll be a bizarre world where the NFL, the most popular sport in America by a wide margin, doesn’t have its own dedicated channel or one that’s so lackluster it doesn’t register to fans. But at this point, I can’t see any other outcome than this sad end.
