Back in the 1960s during the years of the American Football League, then a new pro league in direct competition with the NFL, their Sunday games were broadcast live on NBC and were thus readily available for viewing across the country, developing as a result a wide following. Now in 2019 a new league, the Alliance of American Football, with its eight teams and regular season starting immediately following the NFL's Super Bowl, is struggling to even meet its payroll. There is no pretense as to the AAF being on the same skill level as the NFL; they are simply providing a little more pro football for diehard fans of the sport. I watched some of the opening week game between Orlando and Atlanta and thought the level of play was relatively good and entertaining...I even wrote an article on the 10th (here's the link) praising the league and its prospects for survival. But that game I saw was broadcast on the regular CBS network channel...every single subsequent game in the AAF regular season this year has been relegated to "bottom-feeder" channels like B/R Live, CBS-Sports, and the NFL Channel. I happen to get none of these channels on my cable lineup and for those who do get CBS-Sports and the NFL Channel with Cox Cable in Gainesville, they are buried deep on the selection dial at channels 269 and 250, respectively. So I ask: is this any way to promote a new league and familiarize it to the masses of American football fans?
Although I initially held high hopes for the AAF as an emerging football tradition, now that I am completely cut off from its games and know that very few others will be watching any of them, I sadly now feel that its days are numbered...good luck on even making it to the end of this season! It's almost as if CBS and the NFL got the broadcasting rights just so that they could sink the league by placing the games on channels nobody watches...I can understanding why a competing league like the NFL would do this, but why CBS, especially after that Orlando-Atlanta game drew such high ratings?
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