I have several instant thoughts on the local TV winners and losers after Wednesday’s announcement of the Buffalo Bills' 2025 schedule.
But before taking a station-by-station look at the schedule, I should note that four Bills games, three in prime time, are unassigned.
Buffalo Bills vs Baltimore Ravens (copy) (copy)
Bills quarterback Josh Allen greets Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson after their 2024 playoff game. Joshua Bessex/News file photo
Buffalo stations have the right to bid for the local rights to the "Monday Night Football" game against Atlanta on Oct. 13 on ESPN and the two Thursday night games against Miami (Sept.18) and Houston (Nov. 20) on Prime Video. In addition, the Jan. 4 season finale against the New York Jets hasn’t been assigned.
Being able to carry Bills games is a huge deal for the local stations. Josh Allen contract huge.
Bills games are the highest-rated local TV programs of the year by far, generating ratings in the 40s at a time networks are thrilled to get a 5 rating in prime time for entertainment programs.
People are also reading…
According to sources, Bills’ regular-season games can generate around $150,000 in revenue for the local stations and more for playoff games. However, they pay a considerable rights fee to simulcast games on cable networks and streaming services.
In addition to the high advertising revenue Bills games generate, stations also use them to promote their local news departments and are more likely to get viewers to watch their pregame and postgame shows that are full of advertisements.
Now let’s take a station-by-station look at the TV schedule:
• WIVB-TV (Channel 4), the local CBS affiliate associated with the American Football Conference that always carries the most Bills games, has eight scheduled games.
It is a winner because it has by far the most Bills games.
Buffalo Bills 2025 schedule roundtable: Easiest/toughest stretch, best road trip, record predictions
News Bills writers Katherine Fitzgerald, Lance Lysowski, Jay Skurski and Ryan O’Halloran debate four schedule-related questions in this roundtable about the Buffalo Bills' 2025 schedule.
But it's down from nine scheduled at this time a year ago. Channel 4 ended up carrying 10 Bills games because it bought the rights to a Bills "Monday Night Football" game with Jacksonville carried on ESPN. WKBW-TV (Channel 7), the local ABC affiliate, might have normally carried the ESPN game but it couldn’t bid on the Jacksonville game because it had to carry a second MNF game that night on ABC.
The same thing could happen this season because the Bills play Atlanta on ESPN on the same night Chicago plays Washington on ABC starting an hour later.
Channel 4 has to be thrilled that CBS was able to keep the game against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs at 4:25 p.m. Nov. 2. I thought that CBS would lobby hard to keep that game because of the Mahomes-Josh Allen rivalry has made the annual matchup one of the highest-rated NFL games of the season.
Channel 4 must be less than thrilled that it lost games against Cincinnati (Dec. 7) and Carolina (Oct. 26) to Fox that a CBS affiliate would have normally received before the NFL recently tried to balance schedules by no longer requiring AFC road games to be carried by CBS and NFC road games to be carried by Fox.
• WUTV: The local Fox affiliate has three games, which makes it a winner. That is one more Bills game than it received last year and two of them this upcoming season are must-see TV.
Fox is billing the Cincinnati home game against quarterback Joe Burrow and company and the Dec. 28 home game against Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts and the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles as America’s Games of the Week.
• WGRZ-TV (Channel 2): The NBC affiliate wins by getting the Sept. 7 season opener on “Sunday Night Football” featuring the matchup between Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, the last two MVPs of the league.
Bills' 2025 schedule: Breaking down the 17-game slate, including 5 in prime time
Here's a game-by-game breakdown, including start times, with the exception of Week 18, and broadcast information.
Bills fans have to hope it goes better than last year’s "SNF" against the Ravens, a 35-10 loss in Baltimore that was avenged by a Bills playoff victory.
The second “SNF” game against New England on Oct. 5 is an oddity. It is rare for any team with as dismal a record as the Patriots had last season to get a "SNF" appearance. The Patriots finished 4-13 last season and one of their victories was in the season finale against Buffalo in a game in which the Bills rested Allen (after one snap) and many of its regulars.
The NFL apparently thinks the Pats will improve markedly under new coach Mike Vrabel and that the rivalry game with the Bills will be a draw largely due to Allen.
• WKBW-TV (Channel 7): For now, it is a loser because it doesn’t have any scheduled Bills games. It carried two Bills games last season.
As noted above, it can’t bid for the "MNF" game against Atlanta because it must carry the second game on ABC that night.
But Channel 7 can become a winner. The Scripps station carried last year’s Prime Video game against Miami and would appear to be the favorite to win the local rights to this year’s Prime Video games against Miami and Houston. It needs a Bills presence.
Some more things to note:
• The Bills are playing only seven games at 1 p.m. Sunday. That’s the same number that it had scheduled last year.
The most attractive 1 p.m. games are at the Jets on Sept. 14 and at Miami Nov. 9. The Miami game is a head-scratcher, especially since the NFL thinks the Sept. 18 game against the Dolphins is worthy of prime time. But the networks need attractive 1 p.m. games on Sunday, too.
How did Buffalo Bills enlist Allen Iverson for their schedule unveil video? Here's the inside story
A look at how the Buffalo Bills' schedule unveil video came together.
• The five prime-time games scheduled are the same number that were scheduled last year. But two of them are on Prime Video, the least attractive prime-time package. Last season, the Bills had two games on "SNF" and two on "MNF."
The Prime Video games suggest the NFL is trying to give the streaming service more attractive matchups. More evidence: The streaming service also is carrying two Philadelphia games.
There is always a chance the Bills could be flexed into another prime-time game this season.
• The good news for out-of-town members of the Bills Mafia is that the only games scheduled to be exclusively carried on a streaming site that would require a subscription are the Thursday night games on Prime Video.
The NFL is expanding its relationship with streaming services.
YouTube, which has the Sunday Ticket, is carrying the Sept. 5 game between the Los Angles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs from Brazil.
Once again, ESPN+ has one exclusive game – Houston against Seattle at 10 p.m. Oct.20.
The streaming site Netflix has two games on Christmas Day – Washington-Dallas and Minnesota-Detroit and Prime Video has a third game that night – Kansas City-Denver.
Prime Video also has the Philadelphia-Chicago game Nov. 28.
Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, has a doubleheader Dec. 27 with teams to be determined.
Finally, Peacock and Prime Video will carry playoff games.
Undoubtedly, NFL fans who don’t have streaming subscriptions and don’t live in the home markets of the teams playing in those games will be the most upset.
But they can’t say they haven’t been warned.
0 Comments
Stay up-to-date on what's happening
Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly!