TV Rules Prevent Philadelphia Eagles Fans from Watching Highly-Anticipated Miami Dolphins vs. Buffalo Bills Game

The undefeated Miami Dolphins, flying high after dropping 70 points on the lowly Denver Broncos, will take on the Buffalo Bills Sunday in one of the most eagerly-anticipated games of the NFL season.

But fans in Philadelphia and in other large markets across the country won’t get to see Josh Allen face off against Tua Tagovailoa, thanks to quirks in the NFL’s schedule and TV rules.

The Eagles are playing the Washington Commanders at 1 p.m. on Fox Sunday, so most Birds fans wouldn’t have switched over to CBS to watch Dolphins-Bills, anyway. But thanks to the league’s TV rules, CBS3 isn’t airing a game at all at 1 p.m. — instead they’ll broadcast a mix of infomercials and competitive bull riding, along with highlights from Star Trek Day.

Why? Because of a long-standing NFL rule that networks can’t broadcast any game opposite a home team in its primary TV market. In Philadelphia’s case, that territory extends across 18 counties in three states, totaling nearly 3 million TV-watching homes, according to Nielsen.

» READ MORE: Eagles news: Good news for Haason Reddick, keys to Week 4 game vs. Commanders

Outside of Weeks 1 and 18, the NFL airs three games in each TV market across the country on Sunday afternoons. One network each week is given a doubleheader, meaning they air two games on Sunday — one in the early 1 p.m. window, one in the later 4:25 p.m. window. This week Fox has the doubleheader, meaning CBS is only allowed to air one game in Philadelphia and other markets across the country on Sunday.

So in Philadelphia, fans will get a choice at 4:25 p.m. between two games: New England Patriots at Dallas Cowboys on Fox 29, or Las Vegas Raiders at Los Angeles Chargers on CBS3.

It’s not just Philadelphia that’s missing out. Dolphins-Bills also isn’t airing in three of the top six TV markets in the country — Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston.

Despite the limitations, there are options for motivated fans, such as heading to their nearest sports bar or signing up for NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTubeTV. And NFL fans in Philadelphia won’t have to deal with this issue much this year, since the Eagles are scheduled to play 1 p.m. Sunday games just three times all season.

Eagles fans will get to see the Dolphins in a couple weeks on Oct. 22, when the Birds host Miami on Sunday Night Football in Week 7. A month later, the Bills will travel to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles the Sunday after Thanksgiving at the Linc in Week 12 on Nov. 26.

NFL fans will need ESPN+ this weekend

The Jacksonville Jaguars take on the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley Stadium in London early Sunday morning, but you’ll need to be an ESPN+ subscriber to watch.

For the second straight season, the NFL has scheduled an international game to stream exclusively on ESPN+, the network’s subscription streaming service. Currently a subscription to just ESPN+ will set you back $9.99 a month, or you can pay a few bucks more to bundle it with Disney+ and Hulu.

Calling Jaguars-Falcons on ESPN+ will be the network’s No. 2 crew, which features play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler and analysts Dan Orlovsky and Louis Riddick. Laura Rutledge will report from the sidelines of Wembley Stadium.

A kid-friendly version of the game will also stream on Disney+, swapping out the players with Toy Story style digital characters for a unique alternate-broadcast experience. ESPN did something similar in the NHL last season, using characters from the Disney Channel’s Big City Greens for a broadcast that felt like you were watching a video game.

It’s the first of five international games the NFL will hold this season, a tradition that dates back to 2005. The NFL breaks it across three countries — England, Germany, and Mexico, which isn’t hosting any games this season due to renovations at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

Here’s the full schedule:

Week 4: Falcons vs. Jaguars, Wembley Stadium, London (Sunday, 9:30 a.m., ESPN+)

Week 5: Jaguars vs. Bills, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London (Oct. 8, 9:30 a.m., NFL Network)

Week 6: Ravens at Titans, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London (Oct. 15, 9:30 a.m., NFL Network)

Week 9: Dolphins vs. Chiefs, Frankfurt Stadium, Frankfurt, Germany (Nov. 5, 9:30 a.m., NFL Network)

Week 10: Colts vs. Patriots, Frankfurt Stadium, Frankfurt, Germany (Nov. 12, 9:30 a.m., NFL Network)

Rob Manfred knows baseball fans are angry over streaming services

This season, Phillies fans needed to pay for several subscriptions to keep up with the team, with games airing on NBC Sports Philadelphia, Fox, ESPN, Apple TV+, and Peacock. In other words, not ideal.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is aware the deals have been frustrating to fans, but said they are necessary given the current media landscape.

“Look, I think fragmentation is not good for fans, and we understand that and its something we want to avoid,” Manfred said on the The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast this week.

Manfred pointed out Apple TV+’s Friday Night Baseball package came out of a bloc of national games that had previously appeared on ESPN and not on NBC Sports Philadelphia or other local regional sports networks. But those games come with an added cost when they stream exclusively on a subscription services like Apple TV+ or Peacock, something Manfred said was necessary given the increase of cord cutting and the decline of regional sports networks across the country.

“We would not have bought into that additional fragmentation, that is by adding Apple and Peacock, if we did not feel that we were in a transitional mode where it was really important to identify potential partners on the digital side that could help us adjust to the rapidly-changing media landscape,” Manfred said.

“What I would say to fans about this is bear with us,” Manfred added.” This is a step backward along the road to getting you more access to more games, more easily with less friction.”

Quick hits

Primo Hoagies, a longtime sponsor of 97.5 The Fanatic’s Anthony Gargano, has jumped ship to advertise on competitor 94.1 WIP, as first flagged by Crossing Broad’s Kevin Kinkead. Sources at the station say it’s more than a one-time deal, and included at least two on-air ad reads this week. That’s important because Beasley Media Group, the parent company of The Fanatic, claims in a lawsuit against the ALLCITY Network and Gargano that “a major advertiser with The Fanatic has already canceled its advertising schedule with Beasley because of the events surrounding Gargano’s affiliation” with PHLY Sports. The two sides are expected in court on Oct. 10, if they don’t settle sooner. Meanwhile, Gargano remains suspended with pay and off the air at The Fanatic.

You’d be forgiven if you didn’t know Amazon had 12 hours of sports talk on its Prime Video service. The daily lineup — which includes shows featuring former ESPN anchor Cari Champion and former professional tennis champ Rennae Stubbs — launched last November but will end at the end of October, according to network sources. The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch was first to report the move.

Former Phillies great Curt Schilling is in hot water again, this time for revealing the cancer diagnosis of former Boston Red Sox pitcher turned NESN analyst Tim Wakefield without his permission. Schilling made the news public on his Outkick Sports podcast, forcing the Red Sox to issue a statement asking for privacy on behalf of the Wakefields. The move comes just a few days after Schilling reposted an anti-Semitic message on X, formerly Twitter, that included remarks about “the Final Solution,” the Nazi plan for genocide against Jewish people during World War II. “Really wish it had been Pedro with the bloody sock,” wrote Boston Globe columnist Chad Finn.

The XFL and USFL announced their “intent to merge” Thursday, combining to form one spring football league they hope can survive where many others have failed. No details yet on the teams or TV deals (Fox owns the USFL, while the XFL had a TV deal with ESPN), so Stars fans will have to wait with baited breath to see if the team — which has yet to play a single game in Philadelphia — will be part of the new unnamed league.

2023-09-29 13:33:01
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