Detroit Lions Television Network

The Detroit Lions Television Network is a network of six television stations in Michigan that broadcast the NFL's Detroit Lions preseason games as well as the weekly regular season pre-game show The Ford Lions Report. As of 2011, WXYZ-TV in Detroit is the flagship station. ^[1]

Affiliates

The stations in the network and the areas they serve are: ^[2]

Callsign	Network affiliation	Virtual channel	DMA
WXYZ-TV	ABC	7	Metro Detroit
WNEM-TV*	CBS	5	Flint/Tri-Cities
WXMI-TV	Fox	17	Grand Rapids / Kalamazoo / Battle Creek
WFQX-TV/WFUP	Fox	32/45	Cadillac / Traverse City / Sault Ste. Marie
WSYM-TV	Fox	47	Lansing / Jackson
WJMN-TV	CBS	3	Escanaba / Marquette / Houghton

* Due to E/I requirements, WNEM-TV does not air The Ford Lions Report; its sister station WNEM-DT2 does so instead.

Pre-season games

The network carries all preseason games, except those picked for national broadcast by CBS or Fox. WXYZ-TV has announced all games will be in high definition.^[1] WNEM-TV and WSYM-TV also air games in high definition. The announcers are Matt Shepard with play-by-play, Rob Rubick with color commentary, and Tom Leyden with sideline reports. ^[1] Because of the NFL's local television blackout policy, Lions home games that do not sell out 72 hours before the game are not permitted to be broadcast live on stations whose normal coverage area is within 75 miles of the stadium (specifically WXYZ-TV, WNEM-TV, and WSYM-TV) ^[2] so they are broadcast on tape delay on those stations. However, all Lions road games are broadcast live on all affiliates.

The Ford Lions Report

The Ford Lions Report is a live regular season pre-game show from the game site and WXYZ-TV's studio. On WXYZ-TV the show is 60 minutes, however the affiliates only air the second half of it. Don Shane is the host, Rob Rubick is the analyst and Matt Shepard (joined by Charlie Sanders for home games and and Tony Ortiz for road games) serve as the field reporters, Tom Leyden does post-practice locker room interviews, Mike Valenti and Tom Leyden do the fantasy football report and game preview, and Brad Galli does special features. The show also includes interviews with Lions head coach Jim Schwartz by Don Shane and a one-on-one teammate interview by wide receiver Nate Burleson with a different player each week.^[1] It also includes highlights from the previous game with players wired for sound and the Detroit Lions Radio Network's Dan Miller's play-by-play.

Former broadcasters

Main article: List of Detroit Lions broadcasters

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Detroit Lions and WXYZ partner for 2011 season WXYZ-TV, February 8, 2011
2. ^ ^{a b} Preseason TV Detroit Lions official site