aREDSKIN Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Monday Night Football' to ESPN Three months before the start of NFL TV negotiations that have been expected to result in a 3% to 5% increase in rights fees, NFL officials are continuing to float ideas for changes in the deals' packaging that could bring larger increases. The process has been moving since February, and possibilities for the deals that will begin in 2006 now include: • ESPN taking over Monday Night Football from ABC. • NBC making a strong run at ABC for Sunday night games. • One network taking the entire Sunday afternoon slate shared by CBS and Fox. • Kickoffs of the Sunday day games moved back an hour. • A cable network, possibly USA, FX or TNT, showing late-season games on Thursday and Saturday nights, starting on Thanksgiving. The NFL's current eight-year deals, worth a total of $17.6 billion, expire after the 2005 season. Negotiations with the incumbent rights-holders — ABC, CBS, Fox and ESPN — are expected to start in October. "When you start talking about 3's, 4's and 5's, it sounds like interest rates, not (rights fees) increases," Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, a member of the NFL's television committee, said Thursday. "There very likely will be competition from other interested media for any of the packages." Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, the NFL TV committee chairman, said a "new late-season package of games" on Thursday and Saturday nights is being considered. But the possible shift of MNF to ESPN and NBC returning to the NFL after what will have been an eight-year absence draw the most interest. "ABC has been losing a ton of money on Monday Night Football," TV consultant Neal Pilson said. "ESPN can better afford the package." ABC reaches 20 million more households than ESPN, but ESPN has two revenue sources — ad sales and cable subscriber fees. On the prospects of NBC, which recently bought USA Network, Bowlen said, "NBC is an expanded organization. The old philosophy for NBC was not to lose money on a product. But when they get in a bigger situation, different things could be happening." As for one network broadcasting all of the Sunday afternoon games, Steve Grubbs of the PHD ad agency, which represents DaimlerChrysler, said, "Fox has been the ones to step up. You would have a lead-in to your Sunday night lineup every week." Said Fox Sports President Ed Goren, "Until somebody puts a specific offer on the table, along with a dollar figure, everything is just pure speculation." http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/martzke/2004-07-22-mnf_x.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade7 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 One of the best things about football is the fact that its so convienient to watch. Sunday, after church(for those religious), and mostly on network TV. The NFL is going to screw a lot of people if they move several games to cable channels, especially MNF. I'm praying that they see the light in that money isn't everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. S Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 this kinda blows. Moving MNF to ESPN may be alright as long as its the same everything, but many people may not get it anymore. However, I do not like the idea of moving some games to cable networks, like USA, TNT, or FX, that seems pretty pointless. There's a certain tradition of waking up on Sunday (going to church for whoever does) and then at 12-1, starting to watch the football double-headers. People may be too busy to watch games on a thursday night or so, this is real pointless. Also I think its fine how CBS and FOX share the games, one network could not please everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wskin44 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Originally posted by Renegade7 One of the best things about football is the fact that its so convienient to watch. Sunday, after church(for those religious), and mostly on network TV. The NFL is going to screw a lot of people if they move several games to cable channels, especially MNF. I'm praying that they see the light in that money isn't everything. Renegade; Break down and get cable son. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade7 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Originally posted by wskin44 Renegade; Break down and get cable son. Why do they do this to me? :cuss: Can you say "cut back"? :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wskin44 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 What they really need to do is to stagger the start times better on Sunday and more evenly distribute early Sunday games with late Sunday games. As a Sunday Ticket subsciber I've learned that most Sundays anywhere from 10 to 12 games are played at 1:00 EST and only 3 or 4 are played at 4:00. It hurts the value of the service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wskin44 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Originally posted by Renegade7 Why do they do this to me? :cuss: Can you say "cut back"? :doh: Get on the bridge to the 21st century: steal cable from your neighbor. :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade7 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Originally posted by wskin44 Get on the bridge to the 21st century: steal cable from your neighbor. :laugh: wskins, corrupting todays youth! :mad: :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wskin44 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 It's kind of like kids sneaking into the ballpark to see the big game. It's an American tradition. MNF is your birthright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cphil006 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 I don;t know if they could move it to cable. That would be like moving hte Super Bowl to cable. They could get more money from the network company couldn;t they. Advertisers know more people have access to network and therefore want to put advertising on network, making the network able to pay more money to get the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wskin44 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Cable subscriber fees could make the difference, but I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade7 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Originally posted by cphil006 I don;t know if they could move it to cable. That would be like moving hte Super Bowl to cable. They could get more money from the network company couldn;t they. Advertisers know more people have access to network and therefore want to put advertising on network, making the network able to pay more money to get the game. Bingo. Network TV is so easy to get compared to cable. Put a wire on the back of the TV(radio wire) on the antenna plug and BAM, network tv. The NFL is going to lose a lot of people because not everyone can just jump up and get cable. It's like an arm and a leg now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorEastNCFan Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 It would be kinda weird having MNF on ESPN, but I don't think I'd be too unhappy about it. I have DirecTV with the NFL package. I don't get ABC on the satelitte, and my antenna reception for ABC really sucks. So hopefully this will help so I don't miss any monday night games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhd24 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Not to go with the nfl, but what's the big deal. I think the statistic is that 78% of all americans have some sort of cable/sat. That number is growing as well. And besides, say the skins were on ESPN monday night football, we'd still get to watch the game on network TV here locally on channel 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 I'd rather have them schedule TWO monday night games and whatever one is more important to the teams playing, show on ABC...have the other game on ESPN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aREDSKIN Posted July 23, 2004 Author Share Posted July 23, 2004 Im not sure that if ESPN acquires the rights that ABC would be out of the picture all together. I'm sure that if ESPN (Disney) won the rights there would be language that would allow some sort of rebroadcast rights to other company owned Disney assets (ABC). Since ESPN is the cash cow for Disney they are probably thinking that they can maximize the penetration of ESPN on cable and thereby increasing overall revenues. Cable rate will definately go up if ESPN gets the contract Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocono Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 "Three months before the start of NFL TV negotiations that have been expected to result in a 3% to 5% increase in rights fees, NFL officials are continuing to float ideas for changes in the deals' packaging that could bring larger increases." An increase that small would be real bad news for teams who project to be over the cap in the future and are hoping for future increases in the cap to bail them out. The cap has gone up about 5% a year during the last TV deal which more than doubled the previous one. An increase like the one talked about would leave the cap pretty flat at around 85M during the term of the new contract and would leave some teams scrambling. Even worse would be a prolonged labor negotiation over a stagnent pie which would result in no CBA extension until near the expiration of the current one. Teams would only be allowed to prorate over 5 years in 05 and 4 years in 06 when signing or re-signing a player plus they would require 06 hits at the average value of the contract to meet CBA rules regarding contract structure in uncapped years. That would mean that a contract like Coles which allowed for 3 cheap years before the hit reached 5M would now require an 06 hit above 5M making new extensions or signings problematic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sisko Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Originally posted by Renegade7 One of the best things about football is the fact that its so convienient to watch. Sunday, after church(for those religious), and mostly on network TV. The NFL is going to screw a lot of people if they move several games to cable channels, especially MNF. I'm praying that they see the light in that money isn't everything. Sorry Renegade but if they move kickoff times back to noon your Pastor had better move the beginning of church service back too. NFL is often cited as one reason men don't go to church as often. Your comment about the money gives away your age my young friend. The money is EVERYTHING to these guys. It is their business and source of income after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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