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 Business News | April 2005 
Monday Night Football to Move to ESPN
 Barry Jackson - NFLTV
| | Monday Night Football will move to cable in 2006, and NBC will broadcast games on Sunday nights, with flexible scheduling late in the season. |
In a historic day in NFL broadcast history, the league announced Monday it will shift Monday Night Football from ABC to ESPN, and Sunday night games from ESPN to NBC, beginning in 2006.
Monday Night Football - which has been on ABC since its inception in 1970 - will move its kickoff from 9:07 p.m. to 8:35 p.m. when it relocates to ESPN. Sunday night games - which will mark NBC's return to the NFL after an eight-year absence - will shift from 8:35 to 8:15 p.m.
NBC's Sunday package will include flexible scheduling for the final seven weeks of the season, with game-time switches occuring two weeks in advance.
Disney - which owns ABC and ESPN - is transferring Monday games to cable primarily because ABC was losing $150 million a year on MNF. ABC, whose prime-time lineup has rebounded, also felt it could stomach the loss of one of its highest-rated programs.
ESPN will pay $1.1 billion annually for eight years - twice what ABC is now paying - and can better afford that because it draws revenue from advertising and cable subscriber fees.
"Monday Night Football did not make financial sense for ABC," said George Bodenheimer, the president of ABC Sports and ESPN. "It's a huge day for ESPN. Who would have thought 25 years ago we would have Monday Night Football?"
Disney had a chance to acquire Sunday night games for ABC, but Bodenheimer said the network had no interest - a claim disputed by NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and an NFL official who requested anonymity. NBC instead grabbed the Sunday package for $600 million annually for six years - the same amount ESPN now pays.
Ebersol predicted Sunday games would outrate Monday games. "You should not have any weak games [in the final seven weeks]," Ebersol said. "The Monday night package is moving to Sunday night, not vice versa." An NFL official concurred.
ESPN, however, insisted it will get the marquee games. The league assuredly will give a strong schedule to both.
ESPN is available in 90 million of the nation's 108 million TV households.
Bodenheimer declined to say if he would offer ABC's Al Michaels and John Madden the Monday night games on ESPN, or retain ESPN's current announcing team (Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire).
Ebersol declined to speculate on announcers. But it would not be surprising if he pursues ABC's team.
• NBC will air a pregame show at 7. ESPN's NFL PrimeTime will shift to midnights in 2006.
• As part of the Sunday night flexible scheduling, the network with the Sunday afternoon doubleheader (CBS or Fox) won't lose its top game to NBC.
• The NFL awarded two Super Bowls to NBC (2009 and 2012) but none to ESPN.
• The NFL's new long-term TV deals (with ESPN, CBS, Fox and NBC) are worth $3.735 billion annually, 53 percent more than the current $2.44 billion.
• The NFL Network has a good chance to get the new late-season eight-game Thursday/Saturday package starting in 2006. TNT is an option, too. |
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