BornonJune8: Attribution: content in this section was copied from NFL on NBC, NFL on CBS, NFL on DuMont, National Football League on television, History of the National Football League on television on August 7, 2019. Please see the history of that page for full attribution
The NFL, along with [[boxing]] and [[professional wrestling]] (before the latter [[Kayfabe|publicly became known as a staged sport]]), was a pioneer of [[Broadcasting of sports events|sports broadcasting]] during a time when [[baseball]] and [[college football]] were more popular than professional football. Due to the NFL understanding television at an earlier time, they were able to surpass [[Major League Baseball]] in the 1960s as the most popular sport in the United States.
NBC's coverage of the National Football League (which has aired under numerous program titles and formats) actually goes back to the beginnings of the network's relationship with the league in [[1939 NFL season|1939]], when its New York City [[flagship (broadcasting)|flagship station]], then known as W2XBS (now [[WNBC]]) aired the first televised professional football game<ref></ref> between the [[1939 Philadelphia Eagles season|Philadelphia Eagles]] and the now-defunct [[1939 Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL) season|Brooklyn Dodgers]] football team. Even before this, in [[1934 NFL season|1934]], [[NFL on NBC Radio|NBC Radio]]'s [[Blue Network]] had carried the [[1934 Detroit Lions season|Detroit Lions]]' inaugural [[NFL on Thanksgiving Day|Thanksgiving game]] nationwide.
Regular broadcasts of games began after World War II and the first NFL championship to be televised was the 1948 match between the Eagles and Cardinals.
==Year-by-year breakdown==
===[[1950 NFL season|1950]]===
In 1950, the [[Los Angeles Rams]] and the [[Washington Redskins]] became the first NFL teams to have all of their games—home and away—televised. In the same year, other teams made deals to have selected games telecast. The [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont Network]] then paid a rights fee of US$75,000 to broadcast the 1951 NFL Championship Game across the entire nation.
===[[1951 NFL season|1951]]===
Locally and regionally televised games were broadcast as early as 1939, but on December 23, 1951, DuMont televised the first ever live, [[West Coast of the United States|coast]]-to-[[East Coast of the United States|coast]] professional football game, the [[NFL Championship Game, 1951|NFL Championship Game]] between the [[1951 Los Angeles Rams season|Los Angeles Rams]] and [[1951 Cleveland Browns season|Cleveland Browns]]. DuMont paid [[United States dollar|$]]75,000 for the rights to broadcast the game.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref>
From the [[1951 NFL season|1951]] thru the [[1964 NFL season|1964 seasons]], the Pro Bowl television rightsholders were the [[:Category:Newspapers published in the Greater Los Angeles Area|Los Angeles Newspaper Charities]], as opposed to the [[National Football League]]. Since the [[1965 NFL season|1965 season]], the NFL has owned the telecast rights.
===[[1952 NFL season|1952]]===
In [[1952 NFL season|1952]], DuMont only aired [[1952 New York Giants season|New York Giants]] games before moving to a more national scope the following season.
===[[1953 NFL season|1953]]===
During the [[1953 NFL season|1953]]<ref>[https://ift.tt/31rbmBf Telecasts of complete professional games would not appear until 1953 on DuMont. NFL football on television, as we know it today, would have to wait for a decade, and the arrival of television-minded NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, before it made an impact on network television.]</ref> and [[1954 NFL season|1954 seasons]], DuMont broadcast Saturday night NFL games. It was the first time that National Football League games were televised [[Live television|live]], coast-to-coast, in [[prime time]], for the entire season. This predated ''[[Monday Night Football]]'' on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] by 17 years.<ref>[https://ift.tt/2KknazE ABC wasn't the first network to try football in prime time. In the early 1950s, the now-defunct DuMont network broadcast pro football on Saturday nights, but a lack of affiliates and interest killed the concept (not to mention DuMont).] </ref> Several of the games in 1953 and 1954 originated in [[Polo Grounds|New York]] ([[New York Giants|Giants]]), [[Forbes Field|Pittsburgh]] ([[Pittsburgh Steelers|Steelers]]), or [[Griffith Stadium|Washington]] ([[Washington Redskins|Redskins]]). (All three of these cities had [[Owned-and-operated television stations in the United States#DuMont Television Network|DuMont]] [[Owned-and-operated station|O&O]]s.)<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref>
In 1953, DuMont televised a [[NFL on Thanksgiving Day|Thanksgiving NFL game]] between the [[1953 Detroit Lions season|Detroit Lions]] and the [[1953 Green Bay Packers season|Green Bay Packers]].
===[[1954 NFL season|1954]]===
DuMont was nominated for [[Emmy Awards]] for its coverage of the 1953 and 1954 seasons but did not win.<ref name="ATAS"></ref>
DuMont proved to be a less than ideal choice for a national broadcaster. The network had only eighteen primary affiliates in 1954, dwarfed by the 120 available to NBC (although a number of ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates that had DuMont "secondary" affiliations did carry some NFL games, mainly on Sunday afternoons). Coverage of Canadian football's "[[Canadian Football League East Division|Big Four]]" was more readily available on NBC than NFL games were in most markets on DuMont.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref>
===[[1955 NFL season|1955]]===
In January 1955, DuMont obtained rights from the Los Angeles Newspaper Charities to [[List of Pro Bowl broadcasters|cover]] the [[1955 Pro Bowl|Pro Bowl]] only one week before the game date. As they had trouble lining up [[List of former DuMont Television Network affiliates|affiliates]] to cover the game on such short notice, the telecast was cancelled.
By [[1955 in television|1955]], the DuMont network was beginning to [[DuMont Television Network#The end|crumble]]. For instance, in [[NFL Championship Game, 1955|1955]], [[NFL on NBC|NBC]] replaced DuMont as the network for the NFL Championship Game, paying a rights fee of [[United States Dollar|$]]100,000.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref> ABC acquired the rights to the Thanksgiving game. Meanwhile, most teams (sans the [[1955 New York Giants season|Giants]], [[1955 Philadelphia Eagles season|Eagles]] and [[1955 Pittsburgh Steelers season|Steelers]], who received regionalized coverage from DuMont) were left to fend for themselves in terms of TV coverage.
DuMont ceased most entertainment programs (and a [[DuMont Evening News|nightly newscast]]) in early April [[1955 in television|1955]]. DuMont still broadcast some sports events (a [[Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena|Monday-night boxing show]] and the [[1955 NFL season]]) until either August [[1956 in television|1956]],<ref name=wttg_history>[https://ift.tt/2KpBmaJ Aug 8, 1956 - On August 8, 1956, The DuMont network offered its final telecast: a boxing card. CBS inherits the rest of the Dumont/NFL football deal.] </ref> or Thanksgiving [[1957 in television|1957]].<ref>Tober, Steve (November 20, 2017).[https://ift.tt/2KkndLQ Thanksgiving football games a disappearing tradition]. ''NorthJersey.com''. Retrieved November 21, 2017. "The ’57 Thanksgiving game at Foley Field was televised live and in color (both rarities in those early TV days) on Channel 5 via the old Dumont Television Network, which was under the leadership of Dr. Dumont, who - by the way - was a Montclair resident. Also, the late, great Chris Schenkel did the play by play."</ref> Prior to the [[1956 NFL season]], DuMont sold its broadcast rights to [[NFL on CBS|CBS]];<ref name=wttg_history/> for DuMont's last broadcast in 1957, a high school football state championship, it borrowed [[Chris Schenkel]], CBS's announcer for New York Giants broadcasts at the time.
By [[1955 NFL season|1955]], NBC became the television home to the [[NFL Championship Game]], the precursor to the [[Super Bowl]], paying US$100,000 to the league for the rights. The network had taken over the broadcast rights from the [[NFL on DuMont|DuMont Television Network]], which (as previously mentioned) had struggled to give the league a national audience (NBC's coverage of proto-[[Canadian Football League]] games from [[1954 in Canadian football|the year prior]] was more widely available at the time) and was on the brink of failure; the NFL's associations with NBC (as well as with [[NFL on CBS|CBS]]) proved to be a boost to the league's popularity.
===[[1956 NFL season|1956]]===
In August 1956, the [[DuMont Television Network]], the NFL's primary television partner, ended network operations after years of decline. DuMont had already sold the rights to the NFL Championship to [[NFL on NBC|NBC]] in 1955, and when DuMont ended its regular season coverage, CBS acquired the rights.
CBS' coverage began on September 30, [[1956 NFL season|1956]] (the first regular season broadcast was a game between the visiting [[1956 Washington Redskins season|Washington Redskins]] against the [[1956 Pittsburgh Steelers season|Pittsburgh Steelers]]), before the 1970 AFL–NFL merger. Prior to 1968, CBS had an assigned crew for each NFL team. As a result, CBS became the first network to broadcast some NFL regular season games to selected television markets across the country. From 1970 until the end of the 1993 season, when [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] won the broadcast television contract to that particular conference, CBS aired NFL games from the [[National Football Conference]]. Since 1975, game coverage has been preceded by [[pre-game show]] ''[[The NFL Today]]'', which features game previews, extensive analysis and interviews.
CBS's first attempts to broadcast the [[NFL on television]] were notable for there being no broadcasting contract with the league as a whole. Instead, CBS had to strike deals with individual teams to broadcast games into the teams' own markets, many of which CBS had purchased from the moribund [[NFL on DuMont|DuMont Television Network]]. Often the games would be broadcast with "split audio" – that is, a game between two franchises would have the same picture in both teams' "networks" (the visiting team's home city and [[network affiliate|affiliates]] of the home team's "network" beyond a 75-mile radius of the home team's television market). Each team's "network" had different announcers (usually those working in their home markets).
The [[New York Giants]] in particular were carried on the [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]] network, then CBS (airing locally on [[WCBS-TV]], channel 2) in the early days of the NFL of the league's television broadcasts, when home games were [[Blackout (broadcasting)|blacked out]] within a 75-mile radius of New York City. [[Chris Schenkel]] was their [[play-by-play|play-by-play announcer]] in that early era when each team was assigned its own network voice on its regional telecasts. At the time, there were few if any true national telecasts until the NFL championship game, which was carried by [[NFL on NBC|NBC]]. Schenkel was joined by [[Jim McKay]], later [[Johnny Lujack]] through the 1950s and the early 1960s. As Giants players retired to the broadcast booth in the early and 1960s, first [[Pat Summerall]], then [[Frank Gifford]] took the color analyst slot next to Schenkel. As the 1970 merger of the NFL and AFL approached, CBS moved to a more generic announcer approach while Schenkel left to join [[ESPN on ABC|ABC Sports]].
===[[1957 NFL season|1957]]===
Both [[NBC]] and [[CBS]] passed on the rights to the [[1957 Pro Bowl|1957 game]]. [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] apparently considered televising the game, but could not gain enough clearance of [[List of ABC television affiliates (by U.S. state)|affiliates]] to make a telecast feasible. So for the third straight year, there was no telecast.
===[[1958 NFL season|1958]]===
The [[1958 NFL Championship Game]], played at [[Yankee Stadium (1923)|Yankee Stadium]], between the [[1958 Baltimore Colts season|Baltimore Colts]] and the [[1958 New York Giants season|New York Giants]] went into sudden death overtime. This game, since known as the "Greatest Game Ever Played", was seen by many throughout the country and is credited with increasing the popularity of professional football in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
===[[1959 NFL season|1959]]===
From 1956 to [[1959 NFL season|1959]], the [[Baltimore Colts]], [[Pittsburgh Steelers]] and [[Philadelphia Eagles]] only had their away games telecast on CBS. When these three played at home, there was no need for the usage of split audio. Instead, the away team's telecasts were produced in a simple singular audio-video feed. In 1959, [[1960 NFL season|1960]] and 1961, NBC had the rights to televise Colts and Steelers home games. While the game broadcasts were blacked out (as per NFL policy) in those cities, they were available to other NBC-affiliated stations.
The [[Chicago Bears]] and [[Chicago Cardinals (NFL, 1920–59)|Chicago Cardinals]] only produced home telecasts for their vast network. Because of this, if the Bears played the Colts in [[Baltimore]] or the Cardinals visited [[Forbes Field]] to play the Steelers during this period, it was likely that the games were not televised by CBS (although from 1959 to 1961, they might have been shown by NBC). Meanwhile, the [[Cleveland Browns]] had their own network, part of [[Sports Network Incorporated]] (SNI) and [[Carling Beer]].
By 1959, big-market teams such as the Bears and Giants had all their games televised, but small-market ones like the Packers and 49ers still did not. Upon becoming NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle worked to ensure that every team got all its games on TV.
==References==
[[Category:History of National Football League broadcasting| ]]
[[Category:ABC Sports]]
[[Category:DuMont Sports]]
[[Category:CBS Sports]]
[[Category:NBC Sports]]
[[Category:1950 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1951 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1952 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1953 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1954 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1955 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1956 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1957 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1958 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1959 National Football League season| ]]
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