NFL renews CBS Thursday Night Football deal

The NFL American football league has extended a rights deal for the Thursday Night Football package with the CBS network in the US.

The deal will run for the 2015-16 season, with the league having an option to extend the partnership by one season, covering the 2016-17 campaign.

Under the agreement, CBS will broadcast 8 regular-season games. The first eight games will be simulcast on NFL Network, the league-owned, pay-television broadcaster, with the second eight match-ups being shown on the NFL Network exclusively.

Fourteen of the matches will be shown on Thursday nights, with two late-season contests broadcast on Saturdays. CBS will produce coverage of all of the games.

The Los Angeles Times newspaper, the new deal is worth just over $300m for the 2015-16 campaign, up from $275m for the previous agreement.