Fox Corporation has snagged the syndication rights to a forthcoming version of the National Football League’s (NFL) morning recap and discussion program, “Good Morning Football.”
This fall, Fox-owned television stations across the country will start airing the syndicated, two-hour version of Good Morning Football (GMFB) from NFL Network, with the inaugural broadcast set for September 2.
The deal means the program will clear several major markets, including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, Milwaukee, Houston, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. In many areas where Fox owns the local broadcast station, the community is also served by a National Football Conference (NFC) team; two years ago, Fox extended its agreement with the NFL to continue broadcasting NFC games on Sunday afternoon through the 2032-33 season.
“Adding additional NFL-based content to our lineups, this time on a Monday-Friday basis, makes too much sense for us not to do; the fact that GMFB is already a successful franchise enhances it even more,” Frank Cicha, the Executive Vice President in charge of programming at Fox Television Stations, said in a statement.
The distribution agreement covers Fox-owned local television stations only — it does not necessarily mean the program will air on Fox affiliates in other parts of the country. Sony Pictures is handling distribution of the show in syndication, and other broadcast deals are expected to be announced before GMFB relaunches in early September.
In March, the NFL laid out plans to expand GMFB by two hours, with the extra programming offered in syndication to broadcast stations across the country. Syndication partners are free to air one or both hours of GMFB live or on a tape-delay, and will have the ability to re-run the program throughout the week, however they see fit.
The first three hours of GMFB will remain exclusive to NFL Network, which is in the process of relocating the show’s production from New York City to Inglewood, California. The network already produces live programming from its Southern California studios, including “NFL Total Access” and “NFL GameDay.”
