CBS, NBC Agree to Swap Super Bowls

By Jon Lafayette
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

CBS and NBC have agreed to swap Super Bowl broadcasts in 2021 and 2022, CBS has confirmed.

CBS, which broadcast the Super Bowl last month, was scheduled to next have the big game in 2022 and NBC was scheduled to have the game to be played in 2021. Instead, CBS now has the 2021 Super Bowl and NBC will have the 2022 Super Bowl.

Fox has the 2020 game, following the upcoming 2019 season.

The move means that NBC will be able to sell a first quarter advertising package that includes both the Super Bowl and the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing, China. With both the Olympics and the Super Bowl in its “Fab February” of 2018, NBCUniversal’s first quarter advertising revenue jumped 85%.

It also means that CBS will have Super Bowls—the highest rated program on television—in two of three years and not have to compete with the Olympics for advertising dollars.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.