That groaning sound you might have heard in the background were Bears & Packers' fans finding out Sunday night that their NFC Wildcard game will air Saturday night. Why were fans groaning, you ask? Because the game will be airing on a channel most of us don't have on cable or satellite.

I'm referring to Amazon Prime Video, which is actually a streaming channel much like Roku, Hulu and Peacock to name a few. Amazon raised many eyebrows in the sports media business when they acquired the rights to the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" package in 2021.

The game, which is actually an NBC Sports production, will be called by legendary play-by-play voice Al Michaels. Kirk Herbstreit, also ESPN/ABC's lead college football analyst, and sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung will round out the Prime crew for Saturday's broadcast.

ESPN 1000's local broadcast, of course, will be called by Jeff Joniak, Tom Thayer & former Bears' fullback Jason McKie. The ESPN Radio outlet will also have complete coverage before & after this matchup.

Because NFL broadcast rules state the games must be available over the air in the participating markets, this Packers/Bears' game will air on FOX 32 locally. The FOX-owned station, which bills itself as "The Home of the Bears", will actually start its coverage at 12:30P (CT) Saturday afternoon ahead of FOX's own coverage of the Rams/Panthers' NFC Wildcard game they'll have in Charlotte leading up to it. FOX 32 will also have live, local postgame as soon as the game ends on Prime Saturday night. FOX 6 in Milwaukee & NBC 26 in Green Bay will do the same for Packers' fans there.

As for why Amazon Prime got the Packers/Bears' NFC Wildcard game instead of more traditional NFL partners such as FOX, CBS, NBC & ESPN/ABC, this Jeff Agrest story linked here might explain the how & why:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports-media/2026/01/05/why-nfl-playoffs-green-bay-packers-chicago-bears-nfc-wild-card-game-prime-video-cbs-espn-abc-fox-nbc?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-cst-sports