Broadcasting of sports events
NBC broadcast the first televised National Football League (NFL) game when they carried the 22 October 1939 game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The same year, the first nationwide radio broadcast of an NFL championship game was carried on the Mutual Broadcasting System. While the NFL had weak television deals that ranked behind college football and even the Canadian Football League in the 1950s, the broadcast rights of the NFL would go on to become an important property following the 1958 NFL Championship and the later establishment of the American Football League in 1960. "Monday Night Football", "NFL on Fox", and "NBC Sunday Night Football" have changed the landscape of American football broadcasts, including the scheduling of the Super Bowl, transforming it from an afternoon broadcast into a primetime spectacle. The price for the NFL's broadcast rights has increased steadily over the past several decades, in part because of bidding wars between the numerous networks and the fear of losing stature due to the loss of NFL programming; as of the most recent contract the league nets annual fees of over $6 billion, or half of the league's overall revenue, from television rights alone. Four of the five major sports television units in the United States, and the four companies that control all of the major broadcast networks, currently own some NFL rights.
WSVN
In 1966, with the establishment of the Miami Dolphins of the American Football League, the station, via NBC, which held the league's broadcast rights, became the station of record for the new team. This alliance continued until the end of the 1988 season, when most games moved over to WTVJ (today, most games are aired by WFOR). The station now airs at least two Dolphins games a season via the NFL on Fox, usually when the team plays host to an NFC team at Hard Rock Stadium, however, starting in 2014, with the institution of the NFL's new broadcast 'cross-flex' rules, more games can be seen on Channel 7 when they are moved from WFOR, and since 2018, via Fox's exclusive contract, Thursday Night Football games.
In addition, any Miami Marlins games featured as part of Fox's MLB broadcast contract are aired on channel 7, this included their victory in the 2003 World Series, when the team was still the Florida Marlins.