As the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce romance enters Week 3 — at least publicly — the NFL is trying to take advantage of the newfound publicity.
The NFL requested its television partners NBC, ESPN, Fox, and NBC to air promotions for Swift’s upcoming movie for free during their pregame shows this past Sunday, Oct. 1 and Monday, Oct. 2, according to a report by The New York Post.
ESPN chose to play “The Eras Tour” promos during its pregame shows on both days, “Sunday NFL Countdown” and “Monday NFL Countdown.”
NBC also gave in to the request during its pregame show “Football Night in America.” It also played ads for the movie during the “Sunday Night Football” game between Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets, though those were reportedly paid for.
Fox and CBS did not air the concert, though neither had the Chiefs on its airwaves during the weekend. Amazon had not been reached out to over the weekend, but that could be because the network airs “Thursday Night Football” games.
Amazon will show a Chiefs game on Oct. 12 when the defending Super Bowl champions play the Denver Broncos. It’s not clear whether Amazon will play “The Eras Tour” ads as early as the Oct. 5 match between the Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders.
Swift has attended the last two Chiefs games, the first of which was against the Chicago Bears on Sept. 23 and was aired on Fox.
Fox and NBC, the two networks that have shown Chiefs games since Swift has attended, both cut to the singer often during the broadcast.
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” game on Sept. 30 saw 27 million viewers, the most viewers since Super Bowl LVII. But while there has been data on female viewership growth particularly in the younger demographic, some have argued that the viewership bump wasn’t a cause of the Taylor Swift Effect.
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