I can't see ABC wanting to lose the sure ratings. NBC would certainly benefit compared with just the AFL. When will the games move to the NFL Channel, if ever?
(edited by DrDirt on 24.7.04 2201) Perception is reality
I doubt this'll happen. MNF is the only thing ABC has that can consistently get in the Nielsen's Top 10. The network's primetime performance has been laughable for years. MNF is all they've got.
It hurts us at my station, because we have the crappiest lead-ins to our 10 pm news you can imagine. The local CBS guys have better lead-ins by far...but we still beat 'em. :-)
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What's the Vegas odds that if MNF does leave ABC that it will be replaced with a Reality TV show... I think you might get 5 cents on the dollar
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Originally posted by The ThrillI doubt this'll happen. MNF is the only thing ABC has that can consistently get in the Nielsen's Top 10. The network's primetime performance has been laughable for years. MNF is all they've got.
The reverse would be that ABC always gets killed after December when they try to plug programming into Monday night and it falls flat. Plus, with MNF starting at 9e/8c, they have to play with an hour before the show on the east coast and an hour after the show out west. Programming nightmare. I guarantee you, there are people in Steve McPherson's office that would love to kick football off the sked, just like not everyone at Fox Entertainment Group loves the fact that the NFL and MLB screws up Sundays, their key night, until November (and to a certain extent, February.)
How much money ABC (not Disney, but ABC) actually makes off of MNF would be interesting to know, especially if they run it the same way they do the NBA and did the NHL. Both those leagues' rights were owned by ESPN, and when broadcasts ran on ABC they were a "paid presentation of ESPN, Inc." If that's the way the Mouse House is running NFL broadcasts, then ABC may or may not be making the money they could off MNF (though ESPN would be, so it's just putting your cash in a different pocket of your coat.) In the end, ratings would probably fall off for MNF if exclusively on cable, and I really doubt ABC can find substitute programming for Monday night when they can't find it for most other nights of the week, even if their development for this fall is supposedly pretty good.
Originally posted by DrDirtWhen will the games move to the NFL Channel, if ever?
I doubt it, Dirt. Putting the games on a cable channel that has far less markets than the Networks would be ratings suicide, and if the people aren't watching football, they aren't caring about football. Simulcasting would allow for more advertising revenues, specifically advertising towards separate demos, but again, the network ratings would slip, and things would avalanche from there.
The NFL Network has been showing edited replays of games on Sunday afternoons-I'd be interested in what those ratings are.
Ratings or no, they've only served to make me hungrier for football, so when I heard that the network will be showing preseason games (nfl.com), I almost wept.
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Originally posted by estragandIf MNF does go to ESPN, I vote they keep the MNF announce team of Madden and Michaels. Can't stand Joe Theezman and Paul MacGuire.
But if Madden goes to ESPN what does that mean for videogames?!