Fox close to deal to land NFL’s Thursday Night Football next season

Bloomberg

Bloomberg reports that Fox submitted a bid that was $45 million more than the combined $450 million CBS and NBC paid for the 2017 season. As part of the deal, Fox will air 11 Thursday Night Football games, sharing with NFL Network, according to Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand. CBS and NBC combined for 10 games last season. Ourand reports that the No. 1 Fox NFL team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman aren’t expected to work the Thursday games. Fox's expected Thursday Night Football deal comes three months after 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch complained that Thursday Night Football has watered down the NFL product, saying: "There’s a question mark for the NFL, which is just to think hard about how they’re licensing. So I do think the proliferation of Thursday availability—and the proliferation of football generally—does mean that you’re asking a lot from customers to watch Thursday."