Next contract the NFL should introduce reverse mirrors for the CBS and Fox slots on Sunday afternoon.
What is a reverse mirror? It is a situation in which two national television channels have their signals split regionally, such that each of two programs will be available in all (or almost all) regions on one of the two channels, but will not air on the same channel in both regions.
ESPN and ABC do this with some college football telecasts each year. NBC and NBCSN have done this with some NHL playoff broadcasts.
In the NFL, CBS and Fox can utilize CBS Sports Network and Fox Sports 1, respectively, to distribute the top two games in their timeslots outside of areas where the games are airing on CBS and Fox.
Here is how it would work.
On the Singleheader Network
CBS/Fox takes the top game they air that Sunday, whether it's 1 or 4 PM game, and in markets it does not air on CBS/Fox, the game airs on CBSSN/FS1. In markets where the game is on CBS/Fox, Game B airs on CBSSN/FS1.
On the Doubleheader Network
In each timeslot, CBS/Fox takes the top game and distributes it to CBSSN/FS1 in areas the game is not airing on CBS/Fox. In areas the top game is on CBS/Fox, CBSSN/FS1 airs Game B. This does not apply if the late timeslot has only one game.
I have also proposed the NFL playoffs expand to 16 teams, which would then mean the utilization of the reverse mirror in the playoffs.
In the next contract, I want ABC to share the TNF rights with Fox (9 games on each network, all simulcast on NFLN) and all London games played at 9:30 AM ET with those games on ABC as well. ABC would also have a first-round game on Sunday night, a Saturday Divisional game, and become third in the Super Bowl rotation (putting NBC at #4 to make all their Super Bowls coincide with the Winter Olympics). NBC would have a Saturday night first-round game and a Saturday Divisional game, alternating timeslots with ABC each year.
Fox and CBS would alternate timeslots for the afternoon games on both days of the first round and the Sunday Divisional games. The 1 PM timeslot would be used for reverse mirrors on CBS/CBSSN and Fox/FS1.
2 Additional Notes:
1. Adoption of college OT rules should be a condition of the current TV partners renewing with the NFL
2. Even then, NBC might not renew if Sunday Ticket is not made available to competing providers. NBC is owned by Comcast, whose Xfinity is a major competitor of AT&T-owned DirecTV.