The following is a list of Super Bowl broadcasters, that is, all of the national American television and radio networks and sports announcers that have broadcast the first four AFL-NFL World Championship Games and thereafter the championship games of the National Football League. It does not include any announcers who may have appeared on local radio broadcasts produced by the participating teams.
Contents
Originally alternated between the AFL network (then NBC) and the NFL network (then CBS), the network that televises each Super Bowl game is currently determined by the TV contracts that the league negotiates with all of its broadcasters about every 4–8 years. Currently (beginning with the 2006 season), the rights to televise the Super Bowl are rotated on an annual basis by CBS, Fox and NBC.
Notes
(*) Note 1: Super Bowl I was simulcast on both CBS (at the time the sole NFL network) and NBC (the AFL network). From Super Bowl II onward, the networks began rotating exclusive coverage of the game on an annual basis. Super Bowls I–VI were blacked out in the television markets of the host cities, due to league restrictions then in place.
(**) Note 2: The 1989 television contract (which was in effect) gave CBS Super Bowl XXVI instead of Super Bowl XXVII, which was in their rotation. The NFL swapped the CBS and NBC years in an effort to give CBS enough lead-in programming for the upcoming 1992 Winter Olympics two weeks later.
(***) Note 3: The television contract for 1990-1993 had each network having one Super Bowl telecast of the first three games as part of the package. The fourth Super Bowl (XXVIII) was up for a separate sealed bid. NBC won the bid, and since they were last in the rotation for Super Bowl coverage in the regular contract, ended up with two straight Super Bowls. CBS is the only other network to televise two Super Bowls (I and II) in a row. It is also of note that those two Super Bowls are the only back-to-back Super Bowls to feature the same two teams (Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills).
(****) Note 4: Michael Strahan was a last-minute substitute for the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation ceremony; as Terry Bradshaw (who has normally covered the Lombardi Trophy presentation ceremonies for Super Bowls airing on Fox) left the New Jersey/New York area the day before Super Bowl XLVIII to fly home due to the death of his father.