CBS and NBC will split the rights to the NFL’s expanded Thursday Night Football offering, with both networks broadcasting five games apiece, said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Leslie Moonves, President and CEO, CBS Corp., and Steve Burke, CEO, NBC Universal on Monday in a joint statement.

The move grows the broadcast package of games to ten from the eight that have been airing on CBS during the regular season. CBS will air the first five games and NBC the last five. Both CBS and NBC will produce Thursday Night Football with their existing NFL teams, as well as contributing to the production of the games of NFL Network.

Thursday Night Football has provided extremely valuable programming and a powerful promotional platform to help launch CBS’s primetime schedule, contributing to our standing as the perennial number-one and most-watched network,” said Moonves in a statement. “Broadcasting the first half of the Thursday Night Football schedule is a terrific way to jump start the 2016-17 television season.

“The NFL has the most powerful programming on television, and we are delighted to expand our primetime schedule to 24 regular-season games,” said Burke, also in a statement. NBC’s broadcast of Sunday Night Football is often television’s most-watched program.

Meanwhile, the NFL Network will exclusively televise eight more regular season games and will simulcast the entire Thursday Night Football schedule. Beyond that, NFL Network also will air late-season games on Saturday and additional games to be determined.

The NFL is still in talks with prospective digital partners to stream Thursday night football games online, with an announcement expected in the near future, according to the NFL.

“…[G]rowing the base of games with CBS, now with NBC, and soon with digital streaming will only help us solidify this night in the consciousness of NFL fans here and globally,” said Robert Kraft, chairman of the NFL’s Broadcast Committee, and owner of the New England Patriots, in a statement.

Thursday Night Football started in 2006 with an eight game schedule exclusively on NFL Network. By 2012, Thursday Night Football had grown to a 13-game schedule exclusively on NFL Network, where it remained through the 2013 season.

For both the 2014 and 2015 seasons, CBS partnered with NFL Network to present an expanded 16-game Thursday Night Football schedule. The 2015 season was the most-watched and highest-rated Thursday Night Football season ever.

[Image courtesy of Variety]

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