Not just a coin toss: How AFN decides what games get air time

  • Published
  • By George A. Smith
  • AFN Europe
MANNHEIM, Germany --  AFN TV should air Philadelphia Eagles and Penn State football on all channels every week. And memorable Eagles and Nittany Lions moments should be plastered across the AFN program guide instead of those reminders of what's on AFN TV and radio.

Fortunately for most football fans, I'm not the guy selecting the football games you see on AFN TV. That job is done by program planners at the American Forces Network Broadcast Center in Riverside, California.

Every year the games selected for airing on AFN TV generate calls, e-mails and complaints to AFN Europe stations because fans, like me, feel their team should be on the tube every week.

Making those fans happy is an extremely hard job, but still, AFN does its best.

"AFN airs more college and pro football than any single Stateside broadcast source and we're really not biased for or against any particular division, league or team," said Larry Sichter, AFN Broadcast Center chief of Affiliate Relations.

In selecting the week's televised games, AFN takes into account polls and national rankings, heated rivalries and national interest. AFN may select a great match-up between two low-ranked teams when an otherwise top-10 team faces a poor opponent. This is because they expect the "better" matchup to provide a closer, more competitive game, while a top-10 team would likely blow out the lower ranked opponent, resulting in a boring game.

In addition to airing these matchups, AFN also tries to schedule every nationally televised game between service academies. When only one academy team is playing, AFN strives to schedule the games, but it's not always possible, especially if a potentially more exciting game with higher ranked teams is available.

The final determination on the televised college football matchups is made in California on the Tuesday prior to each Saturday. This gives the broadcast center programmers the most updated rankings, records, standings and information. Viewers in Europe find out what games will air on AFN TV the next day on the web.

This makes Wednesday a big day for football lovers in Europe such as avid University of Texas Longhorn fan Army Col. Scott Malcom, AFN Europe commander. Just like other fans, he waits for the TV game schedule with a mix of anticipation and anxiety.

"The first thing I do every Wednesday morning is log onto myafn.net to see if the 'Horns' are going to be on," he said. "If they are, I rejoice. If not, I know I'll be getting a sufficient amount of rest before church on Sunday morning."

You can count on Colonel Malcom checking myafn.net right before AFN's college bowl coverage is announced. While AFN has an excellent record getting all the bowl games on the air, what every fan wants to see is their game live. AFN programmers do get the major bowl games and many other bowls on the air live, choosing to tape-delay games when several games are airing at the same time or there are other scheduling conflicts.

When it comes to scheduling NFL games, aside from the first three weeks of the season, just like with college football, AFN does not select any NFL matchups until the Tuesday prior to each weekend. This gives the broadcast center the most up-to-date standings, records, statistics, story lines, injuries and information before they make a decision on what game to air. AFN sports programmers then look at the schedule and compare match-ups before they select which games AFN will air live or delayed. That's why the staff at AFN Europe - even the AFN commander -- can't tell you what's scheduled for that weekend until sometime Wednesday, after they go to myafn.net to check.

Just like with college games, AFN takes into account national interest and rivalries. Of course you can never tell what the most exciting game is going to be until play begins. That's why when a potentially exciting game turns into a blowout, or a more exciting game is in progress, the commercial network providing the game may switch coverage.

The football games AFN gets from commercial networks come to the broadcast center as either an entire game or a "flex feed."

As the name indicates, a flex feed allows the commercial network to switch from the scheduled game to another one they judge to be a more interesting and competitive. Flex feeds give you a chance to see the best action of the day. 

Flex feeds also increase the possibility of you seeing the same game on two AFN channels at the same time. Here's an example -- AFN uses a regular feed on AFN|sports, and a flex feed from the same providing network on AFN|xtra. If the AFN|sports game turns out to be exciting, but the flex-feed game turns out to be a blow out, the providing network may switch to the other game that's already being seen on AFN|sports. 

There's another situation that may result in AFN viewers seeing the end of the same game on two AFN channels. This occasionally happens when one game ends early and the providing network switches to "bonus" coverage of the end of another game -- one that may also have been scheduled on another AFN channel. 

So while it's not perfect, there is a system in place for how AFN selects its college and pro football games for TV. There still isn't a 24/7 AFN TV Service dedicated to Penn State and Philadelphia Eagles. But for me, as well as every football fan, we know if we keep watching we'll see our team.