Espn Gets NFL Monday Nite Football!

[gb4fan92]

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 confirmed Monday by two sources familiar with the deals who spoke to The Associated Press under condition of anonymity. The sources said the league is expected to get $1.1 billion over eight years from the network.

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, one of the sources said.

The moves leave ABC - which originated "Monday Night Football" in 1970 - as the only major network without NFL football.

 
ABC and ESPN are both subsidiaries of the Walt Disney Co. The deal with ESPN, which currently carries games every Sunday night and sometimes on Thursday, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Last month, Tagliabue said during the NFL meetings in Hawaii that the Monday night move was a strong possibility. ABC, which has been losing money on the package despite high ratings, had been balking at the NFL's asking price.

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.

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Associated Press Writer David Bauder also contributed to this report.

[Joseph S]

Ha. Ha. Ha. TMJ4 gets to do 1080i on Sunday night every week against the SDTV programming fiascos shown Sundays on the Wiz. No more Monday night screwups by the Wiz after this year guaranteed. :p

[Andrew Grall]

I know some people are going to be upset that Monday Night Football will only be available via "pay" TV (cable/satellite).  There are still a few people out there who get all of their TV via antenna...

[murdoc]

I know some people are going to be upset that Monday Night Football will only be available via "pay" TV (cable/satellite).  There are still a few people out there who get all of their TV via antenna...

Who really cares?  MNF hasn't been THE game of the week for a while.  The last few years, THE game has always been Sunday night.  The Sunday night game will never be "set" as it may be bumped for a better, more interesting game unlike MNF.  As football fans we all should be happy.  Now the game of the week will be carried nationally OTA rather than on cable/sat.  As HDTV fans we should be happy because we get 1080i and DD 5.1 from WTMJ and no more screw-ups from WISN as Joseph S. mentioned.  

Now I just hope we don't have to hear from "over/under" Al Michaels and "oops, I fell asleep again" John Madden.  

[gyoung]

I'm wondering how this works from a business standpoint.  Obviously the NFL is going to lose viewers on Monday night but gain on Sunday night.  So it will be a wash right?

But Sunday night is more of a TV watching night so they will gain more viewers because more viewers will be viewing a game on a more readily available network.  So they will get more viewers right?

I think it will be interesting.  Also, no word on if Al Michaels and John Madden are returning to host the MNF game on ESPN.

[tazman]

Well with NBC picking up Suday night football.  What am I gonna do?  I'll be besides myself without that Sunday night episode of Law and Order :rolleyes:  Wasn't NBC working on Law and Order 7 days a week. {fart}   So for those of us OTA only people, we'll miss 2 packer games per season I guess.  If it means not listening to Madden then it's worth it!

[Sparkman87]

Well with NBC picking up Suday night football.  What am I gonna do?  I'll be besides myself without that Sunday night episode of Law and Order :rolleyes:  Wasn't NBC working on Law and Order 7 days a week. {fart}   So for those of us OTA only people, we'll miss 2 packer games per season I guess.  If it means not listening to Madden then it's worth it!

OTA people won't miss any games in the home markets.  Just as the Sunday night
ESPN games are picked up OTA in the markets of the teams playing, so will Monday night ESPN games.

[SugarRay]

So now I will miss 3 Packer HD games that I would have gotten on ABC NMF. I don't have the HD+ Package for espn HD

[cjucoder]

OTA people won't miss any games in the home markets.  Just as the Sunday night
ESPN games are picked up OTA in the markets of the teams playing, so will Monday night ESPN games.

I'm confused.  Are you saying MNF will be picked up by a local station in Milwauke only when the Packers play?  On Monday night?  Which station?  That would be great 'cuz as an OTA only person I was sad about this news.  Where did you get this info?

[AndrewP]

Yes, Monday games most likely will be picked up by WISN, but, also mkost likely, in SD version. Espn will not allow to pick up HD version.

[Bluto]

So now I will miss 3 Packer HD games that I would have gotten on ABC NMF. I don't have the HD+ Package for espn HD

Maybe not.  I'm willing to bet - since the NBC Sunday Night game becomes the league's marquee game - that NFL teams will appear up to three time on Sunday Night, but only up to one or two times on Monday night.  Basically, the reverse of how many times a team can appear on Sunday Nights and Monday nights now.  Just my opinion - nothing I've read.

[Sparkman87]

Yes, Monday games most likely will be picked up by WISN, but, also mkost likely, in SD version. Espn will not allow to pick up HD version.

That is how it has been for ESPN Sunday night football.  Maybe, with this new deal, they will allow the local channel that is covering the game to pick up the HD feed, along with the SD feed.  Especially if the local ABC station is one one who has the local rights, you know the corporate synergy thing.

[Sparkman87]

Yes, Monday games most likely will be picked up by WISN, but, also mkost likely, in SD version. Espn will not allow to pick up HD version.

If that is the case, why not pick up the HD version that carries ESPN-HD just for the football season, then drop it afterward?

[Sparkman87]

So now I will miss 3 Packer HD games that I would have gotten on ABC NMF. I don't have the HD+ Package for espn HD

If that's the case, why not pick up the package that includes ESPN-HD just for the football season?

[Andrew Grall]

Who really cares?  MNF hasn't been THE game of the week for a while.  The last few years, THE game has always been Sunday night.  The Sunday night game will never be "set" as it may be bumped for a better, more interesting game unlike MNF.  As football fans we all should be happy.  Now the game of the week will be carried nationally OTA rather than on cable/sat.  As HDTV fans we should be happy because we get 1080i and DD 5.1 from WTMJ and no more screw-ups from WISN as Joseph S. mentioned.  

Now I just hope we don't have to hear from "over/under" Al Michaels and "oops, I fell asleep again" John Madden.  

I guess I would care if it meant I would miss my team playing a couple of games during the season because of this.  Or at least miss it in HD.  Of course you could argue that we already have that issue with Sunday night games...

It doesn't really affect me because we have digital cable with the HD package.  But, for example, my father-in-law has never had cable and certainly won't be picking it up just for Monday night games on ESPN.  Of course, he doesn't have an HDTV right now, and living in Wisconsin, the game will surely be broadcast on one of the local stations...