A few months after a long-shot bid for NBC’s Al Michaels, ESPN/ABC is reportedly after NBC’s Sunday Night Football package altogether.
ESPN/ABC is pursuing the NFL Sunday Night Football rights currently held by NBC, the New York Post reported Monday. If it is successful, the games would “likely” air on ABC, which has not aired a regular NFL package since losing Monday Night Football to ESPN in 2005.
The potential addition of SNF would not necessarily result in ESPN/ABC dropping MNF, which has aired on one of the two networks since its debut in 1970. Per the Post, ESPN/ABC is interested in acquiring two NFL packages — a return to the old status quo, when ESPN’s SNF and ABC’s MNF deals overlapped from 1987-2005. At one point the two packages used the same graphics and “Heavy Action” theme music.
NBC could stay in the mix for the NFL’s other primetime packages if it lost SNF. Both NBC and ESPN/ABC are said to be potential dark horse contenders for the NFL’s Sunday afternoon packages as well.
Key to ESPN/ABC’s interest in SNF is the fact that NBC has a far stronger schedule than ESPN despite paying far less money for SNF — an average of less than $1 billion per year — than ESPN does for MNF (nearly $2 billion/year).
The NFL’s new media rights deals have long been anticipated and are widely expected to generate substantial increases over the current contracts, most of which were agreed to in 2011. As noted by the Post, the league’s new deals could be announced by the end of the year. Back in September, league commissioner Roger Goodell said the deals could be completed “in the next two months or the next two years.”
[News from NYP 11.2]
