Monday Night Football Moves to ESPN

[PureHatred]

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.

Not sure if its a big deal, but if you don't have cable, how are you going to get your John Madden fix?

[AareDub]

Interesting. I guess its not really going to make a difference to me because I have ESPN. I can imagine it will suck for those without it.

[Loose Cannon]

yea, they said this last year. So it doesn't surprise me

[MoRcHeEbA]

hmmmm, we don't have ESPN up in canada and TSN which runs most ESPN programs' shows wrestling on Monday night's so it will be interesting too see what happens up here.

[PureHatred]

Pffft. Canadians :roll:

[PureHatred]

Seriously, though, I'm sure they will air whichever gets the better ratings live, and then show the other tape delayed at like midnight.

[MoRcHeEbA]

yes so wrestling will be getting the bump :cool:

[BCWWF]

This is unbelievably rediculous.

Why would they put Monday Night Football on cable? ABC is going to lose soooo much money and Monday Night Football is going to lose a lot of its prestige.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

They probably have a bunch of racy pregame skits that they only felt comfortable airing on cable.

[BCWWF]

I'm kind of excited to see NBC do Sunday Nights though, could be cool

[The Icon of Elisim]

hmmmm, we don't have ESPN up in canada and TSN which runs most ESPN programs' shows wrestling on Monday night's so it will be interesting too see what happens up here.
TSN owns the score and sportsnet so Raw will probably move to one of those

[MoRcHeEbA]

im pretty sure that CTV owns TSN. I know Ted Rogers owns Sportsnet who owns the Blue Jays. I'm not 100% sure though although A-Channel carried monday night games last year so they'll probably continue to do that.

[Gonzo]

Aren't ABC and ESPN all part of the same company?

[el fregadero]

I know Disney has something to do with them as well.

[YOUR Hero]

I really think this is an unwise move ny the NFL. I say that, but I do realize ESPN and the NFL have some time to sort things out and get ESPN available in more markets.

[el fregadero]

They were talking on some show (I think it was CNN) and they said out of the houses that have televisions, 70% or so had cable and that another 15% had satellite. So that's still roughly 85% of people just having the ability to watch it now. I doubt it will affect it's rating too much.

[Innovator]

First a couple WWE specials next year and now the NFL, damn NBC is getting back in the swing of things

[Corkscrewed]

yes so wrestling will be getting the bump :cool:
Nah... Vince just has one less excuse for sagging ratings now.

He'll blame it on whatever show replaces MNF, tho. Desperate Houseboys or whatever it'll be called.

[Jesus Shuttlesworth]

Well they just switched. Monday Night Football goes to Cable while Sunday Night Football goes to NBC.

I don't really care. Monday Night Games are rough - On too damn late. Especially when you got football yourself the next day.

[BCWWF]

It makes sense in the fact that the NFL is going to have their big game on Sunday Night instead of Monday now, but there are a few things that I just don't understand about it all.

Why would ABC/ESPN give up so much? Having Monday Night Football on cable takes away a lot of the prestige, a lot of the ratings, and a lot of the advertising. Why didn't they try to keep it on ABC?

Why did the NFL decide to make Sunday Night the big one, and why not just get rid of Monday Night Football now? Monday Night used to be the big deal, only one game that day, everybody see's it, great production etc., now that game is on Sunday. Unless they are going to still just put on decent game on NBC and give ESPN a really good game for Mondays still, but I don't know how that would make much sense. If Monday isn't going to be anything special, I don't see a purpose of keeping it, but I guess it all comes back to money.

From a watching standpoint I don't think it is a bad idea, similar to the reason's Stima said, starting a game at 8 pm on a Monday isn't very friendly. It will be weird though, I liked having a pretty good game on Sunday Night, and then having all of Monday to be hyped up for that really big matchup.

Oh well, I guess Disney is the biggest loser in this.

[BCWWF]

And nobody cares about the WWE, its not like MNF is off the air, the same people who watch wrestling are still going to watch it, and the same people who realized it has sucked since 2001 are still going to watch MNF

[Jesus Shuttlesworth]

What are you talking about the "big game" on Sunday now? It's going to be the same shit as wells. Just differnet channels. I am sure they are going to try to put the best game possible on Monday Night. Since it's the only game, and its nationally televised.

[BCWWF]

Putting Monday Night Football on cable completely puts it on the back burner. The broadcast that can bring in the most advertising revenue and the most viewers is the one on NBC, and thats why they are getting the best games. They have it set up also now so that they can choose the best game to put on there, so if the Pats and Steelers are playing in week 16 for #1 in the AFC, CBS basically gets fucked.