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Originally posted by: Roulette Man
Do Fox or CBS get compensated when their best game of the week is pulled from them?
As far as poor old DonDiego can determine: NO.
However, Fox and CBS each may "protect" a total of five [presumedly this will change to ten or eleven] Sunday afternoon games, not more than one per week, during weeks 11–16 [presumedly weeks 5-16] and NBC selects which game they want to air.
_For example, in 2011, NBC wanted a late season game between the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots which featured Tim Tebow as the Broncos quarterback. CBS protected the game and NBC got a game featuring the San Diego Chargers instead.
Networks have the option of waiving designated protection to allow for a Sunday night airing.
_For example, a game between the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs and one-loss Denver Broncos in Week 11 of the 2013 season was protected by CBS, which would have had to air it in the non-national 4:05 p.m. timeslot, because the game was in Denver and the network did not have doubleheader rights that week. CBS thus allowed NBC to pick up the telecast for a nationwide broadcast.
FOX and CBS cannot protect games in week 17. During the last week of the season, the league can re-schedule games as late as six days before the contests so that as many of the television networks as possible will be able to broadcast a game that has major playoff implications, and so that several division races or Wild Card spots are on the line at the same time. The week 17 game on Sunday night is decided exclusively by the NFL.
Ref: wikipedia