NFL Football Players Picture

NFL Football Players Picture
Primetime football changes for 2006

When the 2006 NFL season commences, it will mark the first time that Monday Night Football will not be part of the ABC lineup since its debut in the fall of 1970. The marquee event will instead be moved to fellow Disney- owned ESPN.
The cable channel’s senior vice president of programming, John Wildhack, said, “It’s the premier sports franchise that there is in this country. And for us to be the home for that franchise for the next eight years is a tremendous milestone for ESPN.”
Losing an estimated $150 million a year probably made the decision easier for ABC execs to swallow. But according to an ABC spokesperson, “There is one more year left on the contract and even though it will be a very emotional time, the people involved will treat this year in a very professional manner.”
The spokesman continued that once the decision had been made and ABC execs had made their statements regarding the NFL’s selection, there was nothing more to be said.

However you view it, the current 35-year run is the longest of any “sports” prime-time television program in the history of the tube. Only “60 Minutes”, CBS' prime-time news show that began on Sept. 24, 1968, and “Meet the Press,” a non-prime time show that incredibly was an NBC original on November 6, 1947, and ABC’s own non-primer, “Wide World of Sports” (April, 1961) have longer shelf lives.
Monday Night Football was the creation of ABC’s tycoon style producer, Roone Arledge, who had the foresight and chutzpah to mix sports and entertainment together.
Many firsts can be attributed to MNF since its inception on Sept. 21, 1970, when the Cleveland Browns defeated the New York Jets in Cleveland 31-21. It introduced us to a sophisticated and powerful graphics package and more importantly established what we have come to know as the “color analyst.”
When MNF made its inaugural ABC appearance, CBS’s Monday night lineup included “Mayberry R.F.D.”, “The Doris Day Show”, and “The Carol Burnett Show” while NBC countered with “Monday Night at the Movies.”
And what was life like in 1970? “Tricky Dick” and Spiro were ruling the country, inflation was at 6.5 percent, the cost for a first class stamp was 6 cents, and a gallon of gasoline set the consumer back 36 cents.
When ESPN takes over the Monday Night Football package next season, it will have 17 regular season telecasts and an ESPN pre-game show live from each site that will highlight Sunday’s action and preview the Monday night game.
Perhaps another welcomed change is that the games will be moved up to a new starting time, 8:30 p.m., with the kickoff to follow ten minutes later.
With the move to Monday Night Football, ESPN relinquishes its Sunday night and Thursday night packages, allowing NBC to jump into the football frenzy for the first time in seven seasons. According to NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer, “It’s a huge move. When we were out of football, we always made it clear that we wanted to remain in football, the only issue separating us from it was the price. Now we were able to find a deal with package and price that made eminent sense to us.”
NBC’s agreement calls for 17 regular season games -- 16 on Sunday night, the most watched night by viewers, and a Thursday night season opener -- two playoff games on Wild Card Weekend, three prime-time pre-season games, and the rights to the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl for 2009 and 2012.
Mike McCarley, vice president of communications and marketing for NBC, said, “They (NFL) came to us with a flexible scheduling idea. Sunday night was the one night that made sense for us.” Plans are for the network to begin with a 7 p.m. pre-game show followed by an 8:15 kickoff.
Another plus for NBC is that no one, including ESPN, will be able to air any NFL highlights until midnight or after on Sunday. “So people will be tuning into NBC for highlights,” said McCarley.
To ensure the best games, whichever network (CBS or FOX) has the Sunday doubleheader game, they will be able to protect only one of those games. That protection announcement will come some two weeks prior giving NBC the choice of the second best game for Sunday night. The flexible scheduling will also allow for more compelling and competitive games over the final seven or eight weeks of the season.
When analyzing the 2006 packages, Schanzer said that he knows what the CBS and FOX packages are, but that some confusion still exists over the prime time packages (ESPN and NBC). With NFL teams restricted to four prime time appearances per season, the premier teams (Patriots, Eagles, Steelers, etc.) would surface on Monday night, say three times, and once more on Sunday. That was the way it was in the past, but in 2006 that will now be reversed.
Schanzer continued, “What happened here was that the NFL decided to move what had been the Monday Night package to Sunday night meaning that the premier package will now be on Sunday night.”
ESPN’s Wildhack’s response was, “Monday Night Football is the definition of appointment viewing and now that brand is married with ESPN’s multi-media offering of MNF.” Besides the regular ESPN telecast, the game will be aired on ESPN HD, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN Mobile, which will be made available by the end of this year.
Earlier, I had asked both Schanzer and Wildhack if there had been any movement towards assembling announcer teams. In both cases, the answer was no. But that issue became somewhat clear when NBC announced in mid-June that it had signed 69-year-old John Madden to a six-year deal beginning in 2006. The network was mum on whether it would pursue his partner, Al Michaels. Madden has now hit for the cycle, having worked for all four major networks.
Upon his signing, Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, was quoted as saying, “We’re just positively giddy to have John Madden join NBC.” I think others would have a somewhat different opinion.
But this announcement also helps clear up the ESPN package as well, either it will be the Sunday night crew of Mike Patrick, Paul Maguire, and Joe Theismann or something completely different. Wildhack, however did say, “No decisions have been made on talent, but we operate from a position of strength with our studio teams and game crew.”
ESPN’s deal is for two more years than NBC’s, culminating in 2006 and ending in 2013. The deal is reported to be for 8 years and $1.1 billion. NBC’s contract calls for six and $600 million.
Prior to the most recent announcements, the NFL re-upped with both CBS -- six years and $622 million and Fox -- six years and $712 million.
Anyway you slice it, the NFL will be well fed for the balance of this decade and beyond. The deals call for more than $440 million a year.


By Doug Kennedy For PittsburghLIVE