As the NFL uses the next three months or so to put together its 2025 regular-season schedule, expect the league’s new, more aggressive approach to flex scheduling to be utilized this fall.
The league is entering the third season of 11-year, $110 billion media-rights deals that didn’t include traditional requirements for CBS and Fox airing a certain number of AFC and NFC games, respectively.
“One of the big changes on those deals was every game became a free agent,” NFL EVP of media distribution Hans Schroeder said during an interview with Front Office Sports at Radio Row in New Orleans. “So, we go into a scheduling process every year, all 272 games can go into any window on any partner. That flexibility has been tremendous.”
This past season, the NFL played two games on Christmas Day on a Wednesday for the first time, which it sold to Netflix. The league also flexed a Thursday Night Football matchup, which it hadn’t done before (a Monday Night Football game was flexed for the first time in 2023).
“We’re playing more Thursdays, we’re playing more games early, we’re playing more games on Christmas,” Schroeder said. “We wouldn’t be able to do that, and then drive the viewership and get the ratings that we’re seeing, without that type of flexibility. So, that flies a little bit under the radar.”
Even though the NFL has turned its annual schedule release into one of its tentpole moments, what gets marked on the calendar in the spring isn’t set in stone. “Nobody’s crystal ball is perfect in May,” Schroeder said. “Good and bad. You have teams maybe go a different way and you have teams that play their way into prime [time], and flex is a great tool for that.”
What does that mean for fans? While early-season matchups won’t be getting moved very often, the NFL will make sure its best TV windows are filled with games that have playoff implications, even if it throws a wrench into previous plans.
Numbers Game
The NFL’s commitment to its flex strategy brings the possibility of more media partners, like bringing on Netflix last year. But Schroeder and his colleague Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s chief media and business officer who also spoke to FOS last week, emphasized finding the biggest audiences possible.
“Our strategy from Day One has always been about reach,” Schroeder said. While streaming services still may not be drawing as big of audiences as free over-the-air TV networks, that “gap is closing,” Schroeder said, and is something the NFL is comfortable with moving forward.
