The steady exodus of viewers from traditional cable bundles has turned live sports into a rare source of mass‑audience television, and few sports have felt the shift as sharply as the NFL.
Why Football Is the New Programming Pillar
In a recent interview, Peter Kafka, chief correspondent at Business Insider, argued that the primary purpose of major broadcast networks such as CBS and Fox is no longer to offer a broad slate of programming but to secure the rights that deliver the biggest live audiences.
Fox, while known for carrying NASCAR, Major League Baseball, the Indy 500 and the FIFA World Cup, still derives the bulk of its viewership from football, a fact underscored by last year’s statistic that 92 of the 100 most‑watched U.S. telecasts were games, and 84 of those were NFL contests.
Broadcast networks monetize these audiences through two intertwined streams: national advertising rates that spike during marquee events and retransmission fees paid by cable and streaming distributors, both of which are anchored by the NFL’s draw.
Over‑the‑air outlets that lack a football contract, including Ion and The CW, have struggled to replicate the ratings power of the Big Four, prompting unconventional strategies such as Ion’s investment in women’s sports and The CW’s upcoming college‑football lineup that will feature ACC, Pac‑12 and Mountain West games beginning in 2026.
The pattern suggests that, for the foreseeable future, the NFL will remain the cornerstone of broadcast television, a status that no other sport currently matches.