NFL TV rights news...

[thinga87]

Don't know if anyone here is interested, but this could be something to watch from an NRL and AFL TV rights auction perspective...

Monday Night Football coming to ESPN
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.

"We are thrilled to have the excitement and energy of Monday Night Football on ESPN and I am confident that we will continue the excellence that has been the hallmark of ABC's coverage for the last 35 years," said George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports. "The tremendous success ESPN has had with Sunday Night Football will be enhanced with the Monday night tradition. We will bring all of our company's leading sports assets to bear in extending the Monday Night Football brand."

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

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

Beginning in 2006, ESPN's Emmy Award-winning Monday Night Countdown will air from game sites every Monday during the NFL season.

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.

NBC has been struggling in prime-time this season, and even risks an unprecedented fall into fourth place in the ratings. ABC's newfound ratings strength with "Desperate Housewives" on Sunday nights has been particularly damaging.

NBC will devote its entire Sunday night prime-time lineup to the NFL. The Sunday night games will start at 8:15 p.m. ET and include flexible scheduling for the final seven weeks of the season, details of which will be developed by the league.

That issue 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.

"A great deal with the NFL is the best deal you can get in television," said NBC sports chairman Dick Ebersol. He said the network hasn't started working on finding anchors for the Sunday night broadcast.

"We're celebrating for a day," Ebersol said. "Then I'm sure we'll get a lot of calls."

[Mike_The_Undertaker]

Yep.... Bloody interesting

[thinga87]

I post it in the hope that the NRL do consider doing something similar - selling different packages to different networks brings in more moolah and better coverage.

[Mike_The_Undertaker]

I definately hope tyhe couverage gets better.... Even if the League has to settle for a little less moolah

[thinga87]

If Nein pays any less than they do now the NRL may as well give all games to Fox Sports!

[Mike_The_Undertaker]

If Nein pays any less than they do now the NRL may as well give all games to Fox Sports!

They may as well any way

[thinga87]

On another tangent, would anyone like to see semi-regular Monday Night Football back in the NRL? Perhaps in the first few rounds of the season...

[Thunderstruck]

Difference between the NFL and NRL in terms of television is that every single network in the US wants a slice of the NFL action as it's by far the most popular sporting code in the United States even eclipsing baseball, the traditional american pastime. SuperBowl is the top profile sporting event in the country and placing a 30 second ad during the breaks would cost you millions of dollars simply because it's watched by over 40% of the TV audience. The ads have become an event of its own.

NRL isn't popular outside the east coast, certainly not in the south and channel 9 is the only station interested in the sport outside cable TV which itself has a very low adoption rate. We have two major football codes competing for mindshare and TV slots with two others trying like mad to break in and each prefer the others not to exist. In terms of local brand power, Australia has nothing that matches the NFL, not even AFL which is "supposedly" the leading football code is strong enough to be accepted as widely by the public. It's for these reasons NFL style broadcast arrangements can not work in Australia.

[cam]

Well it sucks for Americans who dont have cable, now not everyone can watch the game of the week free tv. (i know just about all americans have cable.. but not all)

Would be like Friday Night Footy only on foxtel. i dont like that idea.

[thinga87]

Cam: ESPN is on basic cable so most people can get it, plus they have to show the game on Free-TV in the markets of the two competing teams (eg if MNF is Patriots @ Dolphins, the Boston area and other stations around there would take the ESPN game on ABC. They currently do this for Sunday Night Football.)
In any case the Monday Night game because they choose most of them at the start of the season is usually not the best game thanks to the fluctuations in form from season to season. IMO the NBC Sunday game will be the new 'must watch' game, although I'm sure CBS and FOX will make sure they're restricted to a B+ game most weekends.

In a perfect world, notwithstanding the AFL situation which will largely dictate what happens to the NRL TV rights, it would be nice for them to consider using their top rating games (Origins, Finals etc) as leverage for better coverage nationwide.
So that Origins, Tests and Finals are shown live across the country, marquee fixtures are shown live or near live and Pay-TV coverage ensures continued live broadcasts.

The curly one for the NRL will be the ability for multi-channelling and new Free-TV stations in 2008-09 when current legislation ceases, it could mean Nein (as one example) would be able to show AFL on their #1 channel in AFL states and NRL on their #2 channel and vice-versa.

Also the days of sport rating more than say a 20 for all but the biggest fixtures has long past.

[thinga87]

Just adding one more thing, it is an odd state of affairs when rugby league, a game more suited to television than AFL has only two games on Free-TV per week, when the AFL has five. This is something the NRL needs to address, only problem being they'll probably settle for three