NFL

'MNF' moves to ESPN in 2006

Deal ends league's 35-year run on ABC; NBC also returns to broadcasting NFL games.

By wire services
Published April 19, 2005

NEW YORK - Monday Night Football , a television institution that for more than 35 years has helped transform the NFL into a prime-time ratings draw, is leaving ABC and moving to ESPN beginning with the 2006 season.

The new broadcast deal also brings the NFL to NBC for the first time since 1997. The network gets Sunday night football, which the league now considers its marquee TV showcase, and will employ a flexible scheduling model.

"In the current media environment, Sunday is now the better night for our prime-time broadcast package," commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Monday.

Moving MNF to ESPN, which currently broadcasts Sunday night games, keeps the brand under the Disney Co. umbrella. Disney owns ESPN and ABC.

ESPN, which has been broadcasting Sunday night games since 1998, reportedly will pay $1.1-billion a year over eight years for Monday games.

Under its current eight-year, $4.4-billion contract, ABC has paid $550-million per year to broadcast MNF, exactly one-half of the annual average that ESPN has agreed to pay.

NBC will broadcast Sunday night games for $600-million a year over six years. That annual figure is the same price ESPN paid for Sunday night football over the course of its current eight-year deal. NBC will also get the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2012.

After this season, ABC will be the only major network not to carry the NFL. MNF has been a pillar of ABC since it began in 1970, when Howard Cosell anchored the show that stands as thesecond-longest running prime-time network series, trailing CBS's 60 Minutes by two years. It ends ABC's involvement with the sport and an era that began with an idea by then-commissioner Pete Rozelle and advanced with the technological sophistication of Roone Arledge, former president of ABC Sports.

Arledge's football legacy ends because of three factors: ABC's estimated $150-million in annual losses from MNF, ESPN's desire to take on the storied franchise, and the dealmaking of Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports.

"I can't help thinking over and over," Ebersol said, "about being Roone's assistant in late 1969. ... My thoughts were all about Roone and what his sadness would be to see something that was his dream ending. Roone was ABC personified."

Although ABC and ESPN are Disney-owned, ESPN has more sources of income to cover the costs of broadcasting the games. ESPN has a dual revenue stream - there's money from advertisers, plus the $2 or so a month that some 90-million subscribers pay through their cable or satellite bills.

With deals already made with CBS, Fox and DirecTV, the NFL will receive $3.7-billion annually starting in 2006, up from the $2.4-billion it receives on average from its current TV contracts, which expire after this season.

NBC will start its broadcasts with a pregame show at 7; games will begin at 8:15. The network plans to use a flexible scheduling model in the last seven weeks, allowing it to shift afternoon games to prime time to ensure more meaningful games are shown.

Monday night games will shift to the earlier start time of 8:40 on ESPN.

No decision has been made about whether ESPN will keep its announcing team of Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire, or bring over the ABC team of Al Michaels and John Madden.

[Last modified April 19, 2005, 01:20:12]