ESPN's Monday Night Football

[henry296]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the MNF is moving to ESPN from ABC. It looks like NBC will pick up the Sunday night games starting in 2006.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/18/news...ball/index.htm

[Franklinnoble]

Double switch: Sunday Night Football to NBC

ESPN.com



The NFL's "Monday Night Football," a staple on ABC for the past 35 seasons, will move to ESPN starting with the 2006 season.

And NBC is returning to the NFL after six years away by taking the Sunday night broadcast previously on ESPN.

The Monday night move from network TV to basic cable, hinted at continually by commissioner Paul Tagliabue, was announced Monday.

NBC will get the Sunday night package for $600 million over six years, according to the sources. The network will also get the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2012 as part of the deal, a source told The Associated Press.

The league's financial package with ESPN has not been confirmed.

The moves leave ABC -- which originated "Monday Night Football" on Sept. 21, 1970 with the New York Jets visiting Cleveland -- as the only major network without NFL football.

MNF has been a network institution ever since, and the second-longest running prime time network series, trailing 60 Minutes on CBS by two years. The highest-rated game was a 29.6, with a 46 share, for a 1985 game between the then-unbeaten Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins. Miami won, ending Chicago's hopes of a perfect season.

ABC and ESPN are both subsidiaries of the Walt Disney Co. ESPN currently carries games every Sunday night and sometimes on Thursday.

Last month, Tagliabue said during the NFL meetings in Hawaii that the Monday night move was a strong possibility.

CBS and Fox already have agreed to pay a total of $8 billion over six years for the Sunday AFC and NFC rights.

That has become more pressing since parity caused by the salary cap has resulted in teams moving up and down the standings annually, leaving bad teams that were strong the previous season in prime time and good teams that were bad the past season off of it.

The NFL is still considering separate packages for Thursday and late-season Saturday nights.

Al Michaels has been the play-by-play voice of Monday Night Football since 1986. Frank Gifford held the job from 1971 through 1985. Keith Jackson called the first season's games.

Among the analysts were Don Meredith, Alex Karras, Fred (The Hammer) Williamson, Fran Tarkenton, O.J. Simpson, Dan Dierdorf, Boomer Esiason, Dan Fouts, Dennis Miller and Howard Cosell.

Current analyst John Madden joined Michaels for the 2002 season.

[Franklinnoble]

Eh. More money for the NFL.

NBC gets back in the game. Wonder if they'll abandon the AFL now?

[WSUCougar]

WOW

[Ksyrup]

Does this mean no more Theismann and Maguire?

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Wouldn't it would make more sense for NBC to get MNF?

[henry296]

Originally Posted by CHEMICAL SOLDIER

Wouldn't it would make more sense for NBC to get MNF?

Monday night football is more expensive. I guess NBC didn't think the ratings would make up for the increased cost.

[General Mike]

Sunday Night Football is crappy.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

I feel sorry for the folks who don't have cable.

[Ksyrup]

Who doesn't have cable (at least) these days?

[ISiddiqui]

This is BIG news! Bad move by ABC (I'm sure they could have kept MNF on ABC instead of ESPN). Now network primetime football is going to NBC and ABC loses one of their most famous franchises. Doesn't make sense for ABC, IMO.

Just heard about it myself on PTI.

[Ksyrup]

Does Disney really care if MNF is losing money on ABC and moves to its other network? Notice the article can't confirm the details of the financial package with ESPN, despite it being an ESPN article. I bet they will be paying less than the current ABC rate for MNF. Probably a good move, as it keeps the profits in-house and should cost less in the long-run.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by General Mike

Sunday Night Football is crappy.

yeah, i'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that by the time the SNF game is on i'm bombed out of my head from a full day of drinking.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Who doesn't have cable (at least) these days?

I got rid of cable for like a year and a half because I couldn't afford it. Just got DirecTV back a month ago.

[Ksyrup]

Well, most people can afford basic cable at like $15 a month. ESPN is almost always on basic cable these days.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Who doesn't have cable (at least) these days?

As we looked at our budget, it came down to a decision between cable television and broadband access for the computer when we first got married (7 years ago) because SWMBO quit her job and went to grad school for the first two years of our marriage. Cable had to go.

[Ksyrup]

You still don't have it, or that was several years ago?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

You still don't have it, or that was several years ago?

That was several years ago. We got it back when she started working.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Well, most people can afford basic cable at like $15 a month. ESPN is almost always on basic cable these days.

Basic Cable isn't $15 a month here. Limited basic is crap for $15 a month, and there's only one expanded basic package which is another $33 a month.

[kcchief19]

You can be there is a lot of financial wrangling going on behind the scenes.

For Disney, moving MNF to ESPN makes financial sense. MNF was a loss for ABC and it wasn't generating the promotional value it once did. ABC will make more money than it was airing football regardless of what they put on the air on Monday nights.

This is also a HUGE chip for Disney in forcing cable companies to fork over the dough for carrying ESPN. I don't know what they curent charge is, but I think the last I heard they were charing cable companies $4 a month for putting it on your box. The cable companies have been pushing to move ESPN to ala carte, but that would cost ESPN tens of millions of households and force you to pay HBO/Showtime money to carry the ESPN tier. Now, Disney can go to the cable companies and shove another price hike down their throats and know that they won't blink because Time Warner, Comcast and the rest don't viewers to be pissed off they have to pay $10 a month to get ESPN as a pay channel.

The upshot is that everybody's cable bill just went up $2 a month.

[Maple Leafs]

If EA hadn't bought a monopoly, this sort of thing would have made next years football console games really confusing.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

As we looked at our budget, it came down to a decision between cable television and broadband access for the computer when we first got married (7 years ago) because SWMBO quit her job and went to grad school for the first two years of our marriage. Cable had to go.

You had broadband 7 years ago?

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

As we looked at our budget, it came down to a decision between cable television and broadband access for the computer when we first got married (7 years ago) because SWMBO quit her job and went to grad school for the first two years of our marriage. Cable had to go.

This is where we are now - we're paying $5/month for basic-basic cable (local channels, TNT, TBS, that sort of thing), but it goes to $45/month or so for the one with ESPN.

[JonInMiddleGA]

http://www.ncta.com/Docs/PageContent.cfm?pageID=86
About 2/3rds of households in the U.S. currently have cable. (66.8%)
About 97% of U.S. households have cable available (it passes by their house).

Add in satellite/dish users, and the latest figure I can find is about 85% of households have one or the other (and presumably ESPN access). Still, you start cutting the available pool by 15% (minus h'holds without TV at all), and that's a pretty good size drop.

Thing is, those without either don't seem as likely to be attractive to typical sports advertisers as those with, so the impact is pretty minimal on ad sales, all it will change are the total numbers (and the weekly rankings of Cable Viewership).

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Originally Posted by Celeval

This is where we are now - we're paying $5/month for basic-basic cable (local channels, TNT, TBS, that sort of thing), but it goes to $45/month or so for the one with ESPN.

I dont think ESPN is worht an additional 40$.

[henry296]

I was listening to NFL Radio and they were implying that Sunday night game will become the premier game of the week and marketed like Monday Night. I'm not buying it.

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Thing is, those without either don't seem as likely to be attractive to typical sports advertisers as those with, so the impact is pretty minimal on ad sales, all it will change are the total numbers (and the weekly rankings of Cable Viewership).

Well, the other thing to consider is network competition - how much MNF viewership is because it's the best thing on; where now that it's on ESPN there's going to be an ABC show that will draw viewers.

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by CHEMICAL SOLDIER

I dont think ESPN is worht an additional 40$.

Well, there's another 40-some-odd channels that come with it - CNN, Bravo, USA, ESPN2/Classic, Comcast SportsNet... but ESPN is the headliner, imho.

[sovereignstar]

I don't have cable nor do I have the option for basic cable.

Edit: After checking CableOne's site, what I generally consider to be cable is actually Basic "Limited Service" to them. It costs $39.50.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Well, the other thing to consider is network competition - how much MNF viewership is because it's the best thing on; where now that it's on ESPN there's going to be an ABC show that will draw viewers.

I expect the total viewers will remain roughly the same (or at least will not drop any more than they would have if the game had stayed on ABC). The impact will be more likely felt by the other networks losing viewers (likely females) to ABC's new program. In effect, Disney stands to gain total market share with this move because they can have their cake with a small side order of icing to go with it. And they'll likely gain gross sales dollars to, as this could very well become the highest rates ever charged for a cable TV program (I'm trying to think of anything that would compete, but I'm coming up blank right now). The biggest loser in this whole deal seems to me to be the local network affiliates. They'll lose noticeable dollars from the switch & aren't likely to be able to replace them.

This is really the sort of switch I expect we'll see more of in the years to come -- the most recently completed ratings period marked the first time in history that more total households were watching cable programs than were watching broadcast/network programs. I've yet to see an industry analyst who thinks that will ever change back the other way, and neither do I. The networks still have an individual edge that'll take a long time to erode completely (and may not in my lifetime) but the 4 Goliaths have definitely been cut down to a more manageable size by the seemingly endless tide of (cable channel) Davids.

[Ksyrup]

Huh. Comcast basic cable here is $13 and includes ESPN on channel 8.

[Swaggs]

I wonder what happens to Michaels and Madden?

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

I wonder what happens to Michaels and Madden?

Madden probably goes to ESPN with his contract. I guess Michaels could go with him since its the same TV family, or they could take one of the guys who currently does Sunday Night.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

You had broadband 7 years ago?

Longer than that. My roommate before I was married had it (cable modem) for the last year or two that I lived there. We got DSL when I got married.

[stevew]

At least your local affiliate may pick up the game if your team plays on monday night football. When the Steelers would play on sunday night here, it would be on a broadcast channel and ESPN.

[rkmsuf]

From the sounds of one article it seems the NFL is trying to position the Sunday night games as their "prime package" and make Sunday night the big football night rather than Monday.

[Passacaglia]

I wonder what ESPN showed during Monday nights? Whatever sport (curling?) probably gets less coverage now, so that ABC could make room for three more reality shows.

[flere-imsaho]

We just cancelled cable. The cheapest option Comcast offered us, for TV, came to about $45/month, all taxes included (about $10 in taxes alone). We also cancelled our cable internet, and replaced it with $20/month DSL. Overall we now save $90/month from previously. It may not seem to be a lot, but it adds up, and is part of the overall changes we've made in our budget to save money.

[WrongWay]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

In effect, Disney stands to gain total market share with this move because they can have their cake with a small side order of icing to go with it.

Bingo. Last year's ABC's MNF was constantly getting beaten by the World Wrestling's "Monday Night Raw". And, this wasn't the first year that ABC was comming in below 4th place on Monday's ratings.

It has been a long time comming, but the NFL is no longer worthy of a "Prime Time" slot. I predict that ABC's mondaynight ratings will actually increase this year.

Also, it will be nice not to hear ABC crying about "the Flexible" game schedule this year. This scared the shit out of me, because I have to by my tickets month's in advance and travel at least 300 miles to the game. Switching a Sunday day game into a Monday Night game would have me crying for a refund for my ticket, hotel expense, and maybe even Airline costs. To me the "Flexible Schedule" that ABC was proposing was just another way for the NFL to shit on their FANS.

Don't worry, most Sports Bars will still carry the NFL.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

From the sounds of one article it seems the NFL is trying to position the Sunday night games as their "prime package" and make Sunday night the big football night rather than Monday.

Overkill. I like football as much as the next guy, but 3 college football games on Saturday, and then 2 more NFL games on Sunday is enough.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

From the sounds of one article it seems the NFL is trying to position the Sunday night games as their "prime package" and make Sunday night the big football night rather than Monday.

That is exactly what they are doing, and it's why NBC got the Sunday night package instead of Monday night. Basically ESPN is keeping their second tier (typically crappy) games just showing them Monday night (instead of their current Sunday showing).

The 'big' game of the week will be on Sunday nights. The reason the NFL is moving the big game to Sundays, is because it allows them to have flexibility in the schedule. They can now move one of the Sunday games to the night to ensure they have top contenders each week.

This wasn't feasible with the Monday night games due to the shortened week for the teams involved and the stadium committments. Under the new deal, the games will just shift in time on Sunday probably 1-2 weeks before hand so the league can hand pick the games based on league positions, injuries, etc. Basically it's similar to the way they move college kickoff times based on their 'game of the week'.

[SFL Cat]

I would think Madden and Michaels move to ESPN with Monday Night Football....unless Thiesman and Maguire are a lot cheaper.

[WrongWay]

Originally Posted by moriarty

The 'big' game of the week will be on Sunday nights. The reason the NFL is moving the big game to Sundays, is because it allows them to have flexibility in the schedule. They can now move one of the Sunday games to the night to ensure they have top contenders each week.

Sorry, I can think of 8 Billion reasons why this is not going to happen.

CBS & FOX do constantly play with their kick off times, moving an early game to the afternoon for ratings, but unless the NFL is willing to refund part of the $8 billion that these 2 networks have just paid I seriously doubt that these "big" games will be switching networks anytime soon.

[henry296]

Originally Posted by WrongWay

Sorry, I can think of 8 Billion reasons why this is not going to happen.

CBS & FOX do constantly play with their kick off times, moving an early game to the afternoon for ratings, but unless the NFL is willing to refund part of the $8 billion that these 2 networks have just paid I seriously doubt that these "big" games will be switching networks anytime soon.

I believe Fox and CBS have already agreed to allow some games to be switched.

Here is one link that I found that suggests that they have:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...FL#post4627700

[jbmagic]

NBC got the best deal

With Sunday Night football they can air it at 5pm west coast ad 8pm east coast. so the ratings will be better on Sunday night than Monday Night.

Most people are coming home from work around 5pm west coast time, so 6pm west coast and 9pm east coast is getting the game late to watch for east coast.


i believe the ratings will be better on Sunday night over Monday night.

[rkmsuf]

Ironically, now NBC has football on Sunday night to go after ABC and their lineup of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives or whatever drivel is on by then.

[WrongWay]

It has just been reported here that ESPN paid $1.1 billion for the rights to broadcast the Monday night game. This is almost double the deal NBC paid for the Sunday night game.

[maximus]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Does this mean no more Theismann and Maguire?

Oh please no - I hope not.

[Crapshoot]

one thing for Jon and all the TV watches- if Sunday is being prepped as the "big game", why did ESPN pay $400 million a year more for the Monday game ?

[rkmsuf]

Theismann and Maguire will be assigned PBA coverage.