The new XFL will have even more broadcast television exposure than the original.
The XFL has reached multi-year media rights agreements with ESPN and FOX, the parties announced Monday. Under the deals, the ESPN and Fox family of networks will each carry two games per week, primarily on ABC (13 telecasts) and FOX (11). Most of the over-the-air games will air on Saturday afternoons (usually at 2 PM ET on ABC and 5 PM on FOX), though FOX will carry a pair of Thursday night games on April 2 and 9.
The flagship ESPN network will carry only seven games, but that includes the final two games of the season — a semifinal game on April 19 and the championship on April 26. Two games will air on ESPN2. FS1 will carry eight games and FS2 one.
According to Sports Business Daily, neither ESPN nor FOX will pay a rights fee for the games, but will cover the production costs (approximately $400,000 per game).
The new league will debut February 8 of next year. ABC will carry the first game.
The original XFL was a partnership between the then-WWF and NBC Sports. The NBC broadcast network carried one game a week on Saturday nights, with Sunday games airing on the now-defunct UPN and TNN. NBC and UPN carried a combined 23 games in the 2001 season, one less than ABC and FOX will carry next year.
The XFL will be the second new football league to debut in as many years. The Alliance of American Football, which debuted in February and folded in March, had a cable-heavy television deal with games primarily on NFL Network and CBS Sports Network. CBS was scheduled to air just two games, but added two more to its schedule during the season. It ended up airing only one before the league went under.
[News from ESPN PR 5.6]
