2015–16 NFL playoffs
The National Football League playoffs for the 2015 season began on January 9, 2016. The postseason tournament concluded with Super Bowl 50, on February 7, when the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Dates
January 9 – February 7, 2016
12
11
For this year only, the Super Bowl decided not to use a Roman numeral ("L") and instead used the standard numerals "50."[1][2] According to Jaime Weston, the league's vice president of brand and creative, the primary reason was that the league's graphic designers had difficulty designing a suitable, aesthetically pleasing logo with only the Roman numeral "L".[2]
Television coverage[edit]
All playoff games aired on network television. This was the NFL's standard policy through the end of the previous television contract in 2013. After airing one game exclusively on cable on ESPN in 2014, the lone game which The Walt Disney Company owns the rights to was broadcast on both ESPN and ABC, a broadcast network with a much larger audience.[5][6] From Disney's purchase of ESPN and ABC in 1996 through 2005, ABC had aired all of Disney's playoff games (the network also aired Monday Night Football at the time). The last such broadcast was Super Bowl XL after the 2005 season. Disney did not own any playoff rights from 2006 through 2013.
The ABC/ESPN simulcast was an AFC Wild Card game, while CBS broadcast the rest of the AFC playoff games. Coverage of the NFC Wild Card and Divisional rounds was split between NBC and Fox, with each network having coverage of one game in each of those two rounds. Fox had exclusive coverage of the NFC Championship Game while CBS had exclusive coverage of the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl 50.[7]
ESPN Deportes served as the league's Spanish-language broadcaster.
Sky Sports served as the UK's main NFL broadcaster with the BBC showing highlights.