NBC giving Saints at Packers full attention - Ingles

The New Orleans at Green Bay Packers game Sept. 8 is merely the first game of a long National Football League season, but NBC is treating it in a Super Bowl-like manner, at least in terms of promotion.

NBC-TV, home of "Sunday Night Football," and its parent NBC Universal, are giving the game the Full Monty.

In fact, on some level you can view this as a rehearsal for NBC’s run-up to the presentation of Super Bowl XLVI, which the network will carry on Feb. 5 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

The NBC peacock will be in full plumage and strutting all the way to Lambeau starting even before the week of the game.

Come that Thursday, if anyone doesn’t know the Packers are playing the Saints, it won’t be because of indifference on the part NBC Universal.

"Internally, we have declared the NBC fall primetime season as one of these uber-, mega- or as we call them inside the company – because we didn’t want to use the word synergy – symphony priorities," said John Miller, chief marketing officer, NBC Universal Television Group. "Because ‘Sunday Night Football’ was last year’s number one show of the television season, and because it is either the anchor of the beginning or the end, however you want to look at it, the television week, it’s important to re-establish that as the strong franchise."

That means, if you don’t know the NFL season begins with the Packers playing the Saints on NBC by kickoff, you are living off the grid.

Jay Leno of the "Tonight Show" will mention the game or the start of the NFL season in his monologs, starting Wednesday Sept. 7 through Sept. 9. His correspondent Rove McManus will do taped bits from Green Bay that will air Thursday.

Football bits and sketches will be folded into the "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" all that week.

Matt Lauer and Al Roker of the "Today Show" will be on-site to report on kickoff festivities. Segments are to include taped and live segments with Packers and Saints players.

"Weekend Today" and "Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda" will feature NFL segments. "Access Hollywood" on that night will feature singer Faith Hill recording and performing the "Sunday Night Football" opener. "America’s Got Talent" will carry messages about the start of the season starting two nights before the game.

The "Weather Channel" will be in Green Bay, and so will CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell. Gee, even "E!" will be there. And Telemundo. And some of NBC’s 235 station affiliates. And Comcast regionals.

Even Universal Orlando Theme Park, part of NBC Universal’s corporate family, will promote the back-to-football theme.

One reason for all the hoo-hah is that NBC, as a TV partner of the NFL, wants to mark the start of the NFL season banging as many pots and pans as it can. For years, the start of the NFL season began without fanfare. Not any more.

Since 2002, the NFL season has opened with a Thursday game. Since 2004, the previous year’s Super Bowl winner hosts the season kickoff game.

Another reason for all the noise - NBC wants to deliver as many viewers to its opening "Sunday Night Football" telecast as it can, even though it’s Thursday night.

In 2010 the show averaged 21.8 million viewers, the most in its five seasons.

The NFL kickoff opener on Thursday of last year (Sept. 9), between the Minnesota Vikings and Saints averaged 27.5 million viewers, part of the surge due to yet another return of quarterback Brett Favre.

Both the New Orleans and Milwaukee markets are fans of "Sunday Night Football." For the entire 2010 season of "SNF," New Orleans delivered the highest average household rating (25.0) and Milwaukee the second-highest (21.9) among 56 metered markets in the U.S.

Miller said cross-promotions have been used before in advance of some sports events – the Golf Channel rebranding, the NHL All-Star Game and Hockey Day in America.

"Those instances really only scratched the surface of what we are doing for football and for the fall," Miller said. "It showed when we can put some of the assets of the company, a combination of 20 channels and 40-plus web sites, against a certain priority, even if it’s only for a short period of time, we can move the dial in big way." This article was written by Bob Wolfley and appeared in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.