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Monday Night Football is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that primarily broadcast on Monday nights. It was originally broadcast on ABC from 1970 to 2005, before moving exclusively to sister network ESPN in 2006, which remains the main channel for the broadcast. In 2020, MNF returned to ABC in select simulcasts with ESPN, and in 2022, it began featuring select exclusive ABC telecasts. In addition, ESPN2 has aired alternate telecasts of selected games since 2020 as the Manningcast, while ESPN+ has streamed MNF simulcasts in the United States since 2021.
The television rights to broadcast National Football League (NFL) games are the most lucrative and expensive rights of any sport in the world. Television brought professional football into prominence in the modern era after World War II. Since then, National Football League broadcasts have become among the most-watched programs on American television, and the financial fortunes of entire networks have rested on owning NFL broadcasting rights. This has raised questions about the impartiality of the networks' coverage of games and whether they can criticize the NFL without fear of losing the rights and their income.
ESPN on ABC is the branding used for sports event and documentary programming televised by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. Officially, the broadcast network retains its own sports division; however, in 2006, ABC's sports division was merged into ESPN Inc., which is the parent subsidiary of the cable sports network ESPN that is majority owned by ABC's corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, in partnership with Hearst Communications.
Nationally television broadcasts of National Basketball Association (NBA) games first aired on ABC from 1965 to 1973. In 2002, NBA games returned to ABC as part of a contract signed with the league, along with cable sister network ESPN. After the ABC Sports division was merged into ESPN Inc. by parent company Disney in 2006, broadcasts have since been produced by ESPN, and have primarily used the NBA on ESPN branding and graphics instead of the NBA on ABC branding.
Wednesday Night Baseball was a live game telecast of Major League Baseball every Wednesday night during the regular season on ESPN that was broadcast from 1990 to 2021. Beginning with the 2022 Major League Baseball season, ESPN significantly reduced their MLB schedule, which included cutting most of their Wednesday Night Baseball games.
NBA on TNT is an American presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games, produced by TNT Sports. In the United States, the TNT cable network has held the rights to broadcast NBA games since 1989, and its telecasts have been streamed on its Max platform since 2023. TNT's NBA coverage includes the Inside the NBA studio show, weekly doubleheaders throughout the regular season on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a majority of games during the first two rounds of the playoffs, and one conference finals series.
Monday Night Countdown is an American pregame television program that is broadcast on ESPN, preceding its coverage of Monday Night Football. For the network's non-Monday broadcasts, the pregame show is simply titled NFL Countdown. When it debuted in 1993 as NFL Prime Monday, and Monday Night Football was airing on ABC, the pregame show was one of the first cross-pollinations between ESPN and ABC Sports, each of which operated largely under separate management at the time. The show was renamed Monday Night Countdown in 1998 to match its sister show Sunday NFL Countdown, and Monday Night Football moved from ABC to ESPN in 2006. When ABC began airing selected Monday Night Football games in 2016, the network's broadcasts were preceded by simulcasts of Monday Night Countdown. The current sponsor is Panera, starting with the 2023 season. Previous sponsors of the show include UPS, Applebee's, Call of Duty, Courtyard by Marriott and Subway
Monday Night Baseball was an American live game telecast of Major League Baseball (MLB) that aired on Monday nights during the regular season.
National Basketball Association (NBA) games are televised nationally in the United States, as well as on multiple local channels and regional sports networks. Since the 2002–03 season, broadcast channel ABC, and pay TV networks ESPN and TNT have nationally televised games. Throughout most of the regular season, ESPN shows doubleheaders on Wednesday and Friday nights, while TNT shows doubleheaders on Tuesday and Thursday nights. In the second half of the season, ABC shows a single game on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. Games are shown almost every night on NBA TV. There are some exceptions to this schedule, including Tip-off Week, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. More games may be shown as the end of the regular season approaches, particularly games with playoff significance. During the playoffs, the first round are split between TNT, ESPN, NBA TV, and ABC on mostly weekends the second round are split between ESPN, TNT and ABC on weekends. The conference finals are split between ESPN/ABC and TNT; the two networks alternate which complete series they will carry from year to year. The entire NBA Finals is shown nationally on ABC. The NBA Finals is one of the few sporting events to be shown on a national broadcast network on a weeknight.
ESPN NBA Wednesday is a weekly presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season games on ESPN. Debuted in 2002, NBA Wednesday generally airs on most Wednesdays throughout the entire regular season. On some Wednesdays, telecasts will consist of a doubleheader, with one game typically from the east coast at 7:30 p.m ET and the other game from the west coast at 10:00 p.m. ET. On other weeks, only one NBA Wednesday game will air at 9:30 p.m ET, following the network's presentation of ACC Wednesday college basketball. NBA Wednesday may also be occasionally preempted altogether by an ACC Wednesday or other college basketball doubleheader.
The NBA on ESPN is the branding used for the presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games on the ESPN family of networks. The ESPN cable network first televised NBA games from 1982 until 1984, and has been airing games currently since the 2002–03 NBA season. ESPN2 began airing a limited schedule of NBA games in 2002. ESPN on ABC began televising NBA games in 2006. On October 6, 2014, ESPN and the NBA renewed their agreement through 2025.
Nationally television broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games first aired on ABC from 1948 to 1951. Between 1970 and 2005, Monday Night Football aired exclusively on ABC. In 2006, ESPN took over as the exclusive rights holder to Monday Night Football, and the ABC Sports division was merged into ESPN Inc. by parent company Disney. Afterward, ABC did not broadcast any game from the NFL, whether exclusive or a simulcast from ESPN, until they simulcasted an NFL Wild Card playoff game in 2016. ABC would then return to Monday Night Football in 2020, when they aired three games as simulcasts from ESPN.
NBA Saturday Primetime is the branding used for Saturday night broadcasts of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by ESPN and televised on its sister network American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Saturday Primetime games typically air on selected Saturdays from January to March or April of the regular season. As these games air in primetime, they usually feature marquee matchups of the league's most prominent teams.
NBA Sunday Showcase is a series of Sunday afternoon broadcasts of National Basketball Association (NBA) games that are produced by ESPN and televised on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The Sunday Showcase season usually begins on Super Bowl Sunday, but in 2021, it began two weeks after Super Bowl LV on February 21, 2021.
As the national broadcaster of the NBA, CBS aired NBA games from the 1973–74 until the 1989–90 season, during which the early 1980s is notoriously known as the tape delay playoff era.
Upon expiration of the contract in 2002, the league signed an agreement with ABC, which began airing games in the 2002-03 season. NBC had made a four-year $1.3 billion bid in the spring of 2002 to renew its NBA rights, but the league instead went to ESPN and ABC with a six-year deal worth $2.4 billion, a total of $4.6 billion when adding the cable deal with Turner Sports.
From 2014 to 2022, CBS, NBC, and Fox, as well as cable television's ESPN, paid a combined total of US$20.4 billion will pay $39.6 billion for exactly the same broadcast rights. The NFL thus holds broadcast contracts with four companies that control a combined vast majority of the country's television product. League-owned NFL Network, on cable television, also broadcasts a selected number of games nationally. In 2017, the NFL games attracted the top three rates for a 30-second advertisement: $699,602 for NBC Sunday Night Football, $550,709 for Thursday Night Football (NBC), and $549,791 for Thursday Night Football (CBS).
The following is a general overview of the National Basketball Association (NBA) on television in the 2020s. There have been no new national media contracts during this period. Locally three NBA teams, the Los Angeles Clippers, Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns, moved all or some of their games from regional sports networks to over-the-air television networks.
References
- ↑ Rajan, Ronce (2023-08-17). "ESPN & ABC's Blockbuster Broadcast Schedule for 2023-24 NBA Regular Season". ESPN Press Room U.S. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ↑ Martin, Katie Hughes (2022-08-17). "Bang! ESPN and ABC's Star-Studded 2022-23 NBA Television Schedule". ESPN Press Room U.S. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ↑ Cafardo, Ben (2021-08-20). "ESPN & ABC Combine to Nationally Televise 101 Games during 2021-22 NBA Regular Season". ESPN Press Room U.S. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ↑ Simmons-Winter, Shakeemah (2020-12-04). "ESPN & ABC Combine to Nationally Televise 49 Games During First Half of 2020-21 NBA Regular Season". ESPN Press Room U.S. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ↑ "Watch ESPN Schedule - Live Now, Upcoming and Replays". ESPN. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ↑ "SportsCenter with Stephen A. Smith to Serve as ESPN NBA Pregame Show on Wednesdays - ESPN Press Room U.S." October 21, 2019.
- ↑ Booth, Trevor (18 October 2021). "ESPN NBA broadcast lineup: Schedule, play-by-play, analysts and hosts for 2021-22 season". Sporting News. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
- Sherman, Ed (October 30, 2002). "ESPN jumps through hoops to do NBA right". Chicago Tribune. p. 2.
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