Losing Sunday afternoon.

• Author: Schley, Stewart
• Position: Sports Biz - National Broadcasting Company Inc.'s shuffling of television programmes

CAUTION, BRONCOS TICKET HOLDERS: YOU'LL NEED TO CLEAR ANY Sunday-evening plans you may have over the next few weeks with the suits at NBC Sports.

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In case you didn't read the fine print on this year's season tickets, please allow us to provide the following public service in a (slightly) larger typeface:

"All NFL games scheduled for Sundays in Weeks 10-15 and Week 17 are eligible to be moved to the Sunday night game, which is televised nationally by NBC. Please note: The Denver Broncos home games vs. San Diego (11/19), Seattle (12/3) and San Francisco (12/31) all qualify for this potential time change."

In lieu of making calls to NBC's viewer-relations department (it's 212-664-5313) you can check the Broncos' website at www.denverbroncos.com to get the word on whether NBC, which is paying $650 million a year for rights to televise games on Sunday evenings, wants to move your customary Sunday afternoon at Invesco Field into the dark night. (And yes, that includes the possibility of the New Year's Eve game, which is certain to collide with a few good party plans.)

The unusual leverage is NBC's to apply thanks to negotiations in the latest round of NFL television contacts. The new deals clotheslined the old, familiar NFL TV schedule (the one that had ESPN televising Sunday night games and ABC broadcasting "Monday Night Football") and replaced it with an unfamiliar constellation of outlets, channels and start times.

In the case of NBC, the idea is to free the Peacock network from the trauma that befell ABC's "MNF" last year, when lousy late-season matchups encouraged would-be viewers to spend their evenings doing other things, presumably family details such as recounting how many children they had and so forth.

This way, NBC gets to scan the schedule and pluck off a dandy little matchup it would prefer to expose in prime time. Why do I have a feeling that Dec. 3 Broncos-Seahawks match is doomed to happen after dusk?

So let's then analyze the situation. $650 million a year in TV rights payments vs. the selfish preferences of 70,000 fans who collectively cough up a few million in live-gate and concession revenues per game. It's a close call, but upon further review ... the touchdown goes to the rich and gaudy multimedia conglomerate!

Yes, sports fans, the new media-saturation and mind-control strategy effected by the modern-day NFL is all about exploiting "content" to appeal to the largest audiences, which can in turn be...