Despite the NFL and their locked-out playing staff still in court mediation sessions in Minnesota, and the judge in charge recently announcing that new discussions cannot be made until mid-May, the league has carried on regardless as though everything is normal, releasing an official schedule for the 2011 season (starting in September) with the networks joining in shortly after by snapping up the rights to their alloted fixtures.

NBC are at the forefront of the rights holders this year, announcing that they are featuring the 2011 ‘NFL Kickoff Game’ on Thursday 8 September between the Saints and the Packers (current Super Bowl Champions), set to be the first of 17 regular-season games on the network. If the league does reach a new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement), then NBC will be hoping to reach the hights of last year’s Thursday Kickoff Game, which drew a regular-season prime-time record (in the history of the NFL) of 27.5 million viewers.

While Sunday Night Football is a huge ratings puller on its own for NBC, the network will be hoping more than anyone that the current dispute (between the league, team owners, and players) is resolved, as they are scheduled to present this next year’s Super Bowl (live from Indiana), a fixture which drew new heights in ratings earlier this year, when an average of 111m in America witnessing the Packers topple the Steelers in Texas in February.

The chairman of NBC Sports Group, Dick Ebersol, stated: “We are pleased to have another terrific schedule for Sunday Night Football. The incredible success the league has enjoyed with every television partner experiencing increases each of the last three seasons is a testament to the league focusing its entire scheduling process to maximize viewership. The NFL remains the most powerful content in the entire sports and entertainment universe.”

Meanwhile the other NFL host networks have been busy announcing their schedule, with ESPN’s Monday Night Football (recorded as the most-watched series US cable TV history with season averages of 14.7m viewers and a 10.5 share in 2010) planning to start with a 12 September doubleheader of Patriots-Dolphins, and Raiders-Broncos. It is a time of year when such arrangements are often made, but in the case of this year, will there even be any NFL for the networks to show?

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