• by Wayne Friedman , March 16, 2020

Looking long-term -- where the TV marketplace gets back to normal, beyond coronavirus disruptions -- the biggest TV content franchise, the NFL, is expanding its content.

The league will add one regular-season game up to 17, from 16 games starting in the 2021 season.

This follows an agreement between the league and the NFL Players Association. The NFL has been pushing for 18 games over the last several years.

In addition, it will add another playoff game to the league's opening playoff weekend. There will be a total of seven playoff teams for each conference -- the NFC and the AFC -- up from the current six. One team from each conference -- with the best record -- will receive an initial playoff week.

The expanded playoff is expected to begin in 2020.

New TV contract negotiations for the league are expected to start soon. Deals, when completed, will begin with the 2021 season.

Last year, the average televised NFL game averaged 16.5 million Nielsen-measured viewers, up 5% from the year before. In terms of TV advertising revenue, this past season there was 10% to 14% gain overall for regular-season games to around $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion.

TV networks include Fox, NBC, CBS, ESPN, and the NFL network. Also, Amazon streams “Thursday Night Football,” which is carried on TV by Fox.