Leslie Moonves, the president and chief executive of CBS, has said that the US network would have liked a longer deal than a one-year extension with American football’s NFL for the Thursday Night Football package.
CBS secured a one-year renewal for the upcoming 2015-16 season for a rights fee of about $300m (€271m) after the initial one-year deal to cover the 2014-15 campaign.
“Is that frustrating? Would we have liked more? Absolutely,” Moonves told the New York Times newspaper.
CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus added: “I’m not sure what the alternative is. We weren’t shy about proposing a long-term deal.”
McManus added: “As a network, we’re much stronger with Thursday Night Football than without it.”
Brian Rolapp, the league’s executive vice president for media, said that “everything is on the table” in the future as the NFL considers its options for the Thursday Night Football slot.
“I think it’s fair to say everything’s on the table,” said Brian Rolapp, the league’s executive vice president for media. “We know we have a really good thing with CBS, and we’re focusing on this year,” he said. “Thursday is the only package that isn’t long term, and we think a little differently about it. In this day and age, to lock into one model isn’t the smartest thing anymore.”