In the Wide World of Sports coverage that is ESPN and ABC Sports, it’s been 16 years since professional hockey has appeared on ESPN, but in a multi-year deal just announced today, the Walt Disney Company and the National Hockey League are joining forces once… Read More »NHL Hockey returns to ESPN and ABC
Monday Night Football will remain on ESPN through the 2021 NFL season under a new eight-year agreement between ESPN and the National Football League worth over $1.9 billion a year. The agreement, which begins in 2014, includes eight full seasons of MNF telecasts, expanded NFL studio programming (beginning this week), highlight rights for TV and ESPN.com, the Pro Bowl, the NFL Draft, 3D rights, and enhanced international rights.
“Today, we’ve secured cable’s most valuable television franchise, along with an enhanced international package of year-round multimedia rights.” said ESPN and ABC Sports President George Bodenheimer. “It will help grow our business well into the next decade. No one has the breadth of worldwide media assets or the ability to monetize a property the way ESPN can, particularly with Monday Night Football and our complete NFL coverage.”
“We are proud to extend our three-decade partnership with ESPN,” said NFL Commissioner Goodell. “We have come a long way together since ESPN first televised the NFL Draft in 1980. With this new agreement we are excited about the opportunity to take the NFL-ESPN partnership to innovative new heights in serving the most passionate fans in sports.”
The $1.9 billion a year cost is up from the previous contract of $1.1 billion, yet analysts are still claiming this to be a good deal for both parties. That seems like quite a bit of additional revenue ESPN will need to generate per game to generate an increase in revenue from the MNF franchise.
