The Perfect Bowl - NFL Lets NBC and CBS Show Game For Free - Profootballtalk.com

Leave it to Mike Florio to get the scoop on the deal allowing the Pats / Giants game to be shown on NBC and CBS

NBC, CBS GOT PATS-GIANTS FOR FREE

Well, we've done some sleuthing regarding the NFL's decision to simulcast the Pats-Giants game on Saturday night. And a source with knowledge of the situation tells us that NBC and CBS are paying a whopping . . . nothing . . . for the rights to the game.

Plus, the networks get to sell their own commercials.

Wow.

"NBC is the exclusive carrier of prime time 'over the air' NFL football," the source said, "which means if the game was moving to an 'over the air' station it had to be NBC."

But since NBC already has a game for the week (Tennessee at Indianapolis), the Pats-Giants game was partially owned by CBS as well, since CBS would have aired the game on Sunday afternoon, given that the AFC team in the interconference contest is the visitor.

Said the source: "Both parties had to agree to a simulcast or agree not to do it."

Another source tells us that ESPN, which pays the NFL $1.1 billion per year for the rights to Monday Night Football, wasn't even included in the discussions -- which officially confirms the four-letter network's status as the NFL's biatch.