Controlling what is far and away TV's most popular live programming, the National Football League is driving a hard bargain in renewing broadcast rights for its Thursday Night Football package next season.
The Wall Street Journal confirms earlier reported plans to split up the package among multiple broadcasters and the NFL Network, rather than just offer the whole thing to one broadcaster, as it did with CBS the past few seasons.
WSJ reports that CBS and NBC are in the lead to pay a combined $600 million for 10 Thursday night games this season. CBS paid only $300 million for eight Thursday night games this past fall.
You can read the full WSJ report here.