Will NFL punish Fox with weak schedule after Murdoch pressure campaign?

More immediately, however, the NFL could slap Fox on the wrist by watering down its 2026-27 schedule. It’s a tactic the NFL has used in the past. Remember how poor some of the Monday Night Football schedules got in the late 2010s? It wasn’t a coincidence. It was because the NFL wasn’t happy that ESPN was doing extensive reporting on issues that were tricky for the league: concussions, players staging social justice protests, Roger Goodell’s salary, etc. That period also coincided with one of the worst lead NFL broadcast booths in recent memory: Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten, and Booger McFarland.

The NFL gave Monday Night Football horrible schedules until ESPN fell in line. The network went out and got Joe Buck and Troy Aikman from Fox. Programs like Outside the Line were canceled, leaving fewer avenues for ESPN to air negative coverage of the NFL. And all of a sudden, Monday Night Football began getting better games.

Will the NFL deploy a similar playbook for Fox? The network, of course, doesn’t have the same broadcaster problem as ESPN did circa 2018. But it has certainly done enough damage to the NFL with its political gambit to warrant retribution.

So far, there’s little indication Fox’s schedule will be tangibly hurt by its behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch announced today that the network will get two additional NFL regular-season games this year: the first a Week 10 international game from Munich, the second a Saturday game in Week 15.

Further, there’s only so much the league can do if it wants to water down Fox’s schedule. Fox is in line to air the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, which automatically gives the network one of the largest audiences of the year, no matter what team the Cowboys play. Additionally, reports indicate that Fox will get a primetime Christmas Day game following Netflix’s doubleheader this season, which is sure to capture another huge audience.

Where Fox could feel the pain, however, is during its run-of-the-mill Sunday-afternoon slates. Networks typically submit “wish lists” to the NFL of which games they covet the most, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see those highly coveted games go to other networks this season. And now, with the AFC and NFC designations for CBS and Fox less stringent than in years past, there is more flexibility for the NFL to favor one network over another if it chooses to do so.

That’s not to say the NFL will take the vindictive route. Murdoch told investors on Monday there was “no tension” between the league and the network, though some reporters would beg to differ.

Regardless, the league wants to do everything in its power to maximize viewership; it won’t make inefficient scheduling decisions just to spite Fox. But Fox’s schedule will be the story to watch on Thursday. The network has lost the Sunday afternoon ratings battle with CBS for three consecutive seasons, something that was unthinkable for many years, given the market and brand dominance of the NFC. No doubt, Fox wants to take back the Sunday afternoon throne. But the NFL could make that effort more difficult than it would have been if it weren’t for Fox’s backroom dealings. The only question now is if the NFL will choose to do so.

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