Why some NFL fans couldn’t watch Buccaneers vs. Panthers OT ending

The final game of the NFL’s Sunday afternoon slate came down to the wire, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers executed a late comeback to beat the Carolina Panthers in a tense, overtime thriller.

Unfortunately, not every NFL fan was able to watch the ending live. Why? Because Fox didn’t show the ending of the contest across the country.

The reason for this is simple. Fox and CBS are the two networks that own the rights to the NFL’s Sunday action, and the two networks typically alternate which one gets to broadcast games nationally in both the early- and late-afternoon windows.

In Week 13, CBS was designated to show two games in each regional market. Fox was limited to showing one contest regionally in either the early or late afternoon market.

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As a result, Fox wrapped up its NFL coverage in each of its markets as the games it broadcast finished. By the time that the Panthers vs. Buccaneers game went into overtime, a majority of the network’s NFL coverage windows had closed, save for the Florida and Carolina-area markets that were scheduled to showcase the NFC South battle.

That led NFL fans hoping to tune into the Panthers vs. Buccaneers ending instead seeing a rerun of Fox’s animated comedy ‘Krapopolis.’

Naturally, this bothered and confused many NFL fans. It was especially true of those who had been watching all of the afternoon’s action on NFL RedZone, as host Scott Hanson told viewers they could catch the end of the contest ‘on their local Fox affiliates.’

That led numerous viewers to complain about the situation on social media.

While this wasn’t a ‘Heidi Game’-style error from Fox and the NFL, the league and its media partners may want to iron out its policies about when RedZone is able to continue showing stand-alone regional games.

Otherwise, the two parties will risk this situation unfolding on occasion, as it has over the last handful of NFL seasons.