This article is about broadcasts of National Football League games currently being broadcast on ESPN. For games broadcasted on sister network ABC, see NFL on ABC. For games broadcasted prior to 2006, see ESPN Sunday Night Football. For games broadcasted after 2006, see Monday Night Football.
American TV series or program
NFL on ESPN
Also known as
ESPN Sunday Night NFL (1987–1997) ESPN NFL (2006–present)
The NFL on ESPN is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) coverage on the networks of ESPN. NFL coverage first aired on the network in 1980, when ESPN broadcast the 1980 NFL draft. ESPN did not air live NFL games until 1987, when it acquired the rights to Sunday Night Football. In 2006, ESPN lost the rights to Sunday Night Football and began airing Monday Night Football instead.
Former NFL CommissionerPaul Tagliabue credits ESPN with raising the "profile" of the league, by turning "a potential six- or seven-hour television experience into a twelve-hour television experience," factoring in both Sunday Night Football and the network's pregame show Sunday NFL Countdown and still is to this day.
In 1979, several months after the founding of ESPN, then ESPN PresidentChet Simmons asked the NFL if ESPN could air the NFL Draft. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, despite questions about viewership potential, granted ESPN the rights.[2] The first draft ESPN aired was in 1980. Bob Ley hosted the initial coverage from Bristol, Connecticut. Howard Balzer, Upton Bell and Vince Papale joined Ley as studio analysts while Joe Thomas and four reporters were on site at the NFL Draft in New York City. Despite ESPN only reaching 4 million homes at the time, the NFL considered the initial NFL Draft broadcast a success and ESPN has aired the NFL Draft every year since.[3] In 1988, the NFL moved the draft from weekdays to the weekend and ESPN's ratings of the coverage improved dramatically.[4]
As part of its new television package in 1987, the NFL granted ESPN the rights to air a series of Sunday night games, which were to air over the second half of the regular season. The NFL thus became the last major North American professional sports league to begin airing its games on cable television.[5] However, the games were typically simulcast on regular over-the-air television stations in each participating team's local market, so that households without cable television could still see the telecasts of their local team. While ABC had been airing occasional Sunday night NFL games (usually one per season) under its Monday Night Football banner since 1978, the concept of playing a regular series of Sunday night professional football games on ESPN was originally a concept designed for the United States Football League (USFL). As part of the abortive 1986 USFL season, ESPN was to carry a weekly Sunday night game throughout the fall season.[6]
As part of the league's television contract renewal with ABC in 1989, ABC was awarded the television rights to Super Bowl XXV and Super Bowl XXIX, and the first round of NFL playoffs. The Monday Night Football announcing team anchored the telecasts, except for the first of two Wild Card Playoff games, in which ESPN's Sunday Night NFL crew of Mike Patrick and Joe Theismann presided over that telecast. However, the original crew for one of the two Wild Card Playoff games from 1990 to 1995 consisted of Brent Musburger and Dick Vermeil (both of whom did college football broadcasts for ABC during those two seasons).
Following The Walt Disney Company's purchase of both ESPN and ABC, the two network's sports departments merged in 1997. Beginning with the 1997 season, the ESPN Sunday Night Football crew called the first Monday Night Football game of the season on ABC, with the ABC Monday Night Football crew calling the second game. ESPN provided wraparound studio programming, with part of the pre and postgame airing on ABC, and ESPN's Ron Jaworski often appeared from the studio for extra analysis during the first game. This arrangement lasted from 1997 through 2005, except for 2002 when ESPN/ABC's college football crew did the early game. Super Bowls on ABC in this period were treated as ESPN events.
In 2003, ABC and the NFL dropped the Monday Night Football game for the final week of the regular season. The move, which had been in effect for the first eight years of the broadcast (1970–1977), was the result of declining ratings, as well as problems involved for potential playoff teams, as there was a potential of only four days rest between their final regular season game and first-round playoff game. ABC replaced the telecast with an opening weekend Thursday night game, and in exchange ESPN got a Saturday night game on the final weekend.
After the 2005 season, ESPN ended this package in favor of picking up the broadcast rights to Monday Night Football from ABC. NBC picked up the rights to ESPN's Sunday night games. To replace Sunday Night Football ESPN moved its late-season Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts back to the network and replaced most of the rest of the open weeks with NBA telecasts.
As part of their 2011 rights agreement, ESPN was given the exclusive rights to the Pro Bowl from 2015 through 2022.[7] Since 2018, the game has been simulcast on ABC.
On April 22, 2014, the NFL announced that it had exercised an option in ESPN's recent contract extension for Monday Night Football rights to air a first-round Wild Card playoff game on the channel after the conclusion of the 2014 season. This was the first time that an NFL playoff game was ever broadcast exclusively on cable television in the United States, in lieu of any of the league's broadcast network partners.[7][8][9] The MNF broadcast team of Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and sideline reporter Lisa Salters called the game, the first of the 2014–15 NFL playoffs. The NFC South Champion Carolina Panthers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27–16.[7][8] As with all MNF games, the matchup was simulcast on local affiliates WJZY (a Fox affiliate) in Charlotte and KASW (a CW affiliate) in Phoenix. This was because of the NFL's rule that requires local affiliates to allow viewers over-the-air access to the game. However, the cable-only playoff game experiment would only last one season, as on May 11, 2015, it was announced that ABC would simulcast ESPN's Wild Card playoff game for the 2015 season.[10] This was the first NFL game broadcast nationally on ABC since MNF left the network at the end of the 2005 season. The game, announced by the broadcast team of Tirico, Gruden and Salters, was the first of the 2015–16 NFL playoffs. The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Houston Texans 30–0. The ESPN/ABC simulcast has continued ever since.[11][12]
Since 2018, ABC has simulcast ESPN's coverage of the final day of the NFL Draft. Beginning in 2019 and every year since, ABC has aired a College GameDay branded version of the Draft on the first two days, separate from ESPN's coverage.[13]
On March 18, 2021, the NFL announced that ESPN had renewed its rights to Monday Night Football. Under the new deal, ESPN will gain a Saturday doubleheader on the final weekend of the season beginning in 2021 (which will be simulcast by ABC), As a result of this change ESPN will no longer air an NFL Doubleheader on NFL Kickoff Weekend. And beginning in 2023, it will gain four additional regular season games (with three airing on ABC as Monday doubleheaders, and one Sunday morning NFL International Series game exclusive to ESPN+), flex scheduling beginning in Week 12, the ability to feature up to four teams twice per-season, as well as produce many alternate broadcast feeds of select games, under their Megacast series. All MNF games will stream on ESPN+, and ESPN will also gain rights to a divisional playoff game, and two future Super Bowls for them and ABC.[1][14]
In January 2024 it was reported that the league were in advanced stages of discussion with The Walt Disney Company to acquire a stake of ESPN in exchange for NFL media (which includes NFL Network and NFL RedZone) coming under control of The Walt Disney Company. If enacted the acquisition will have to approved by a majority of NFL owners to be enforced.[15]
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.
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications.
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.
ESPN Deportes is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications. The network is aimed primarily at the Hispanic community in the United States. The channel broadcasts from studio facilities at ESPN's traditional bases of operations in Los Angeles, and Bristol, Connecticut, along with their Mexican base in Mexico City.
The 2006 NFL season was the 87th regular season of the National Football League (NFL). Regular season play was held from September 7 to December 31, 2006.
The NFL on Westwood One Sports is the branding for Cumulus Broadcasting subsidiary Westwood One's radio coverage of the National Football League. These games are distributed throughout the United States and Canada. The broadcasts were previously branded with the CBS Radio and Dial Global marques; CBS Radio was the original Westwood One's parent company and Dial Global purchased the company in 2011. Dial Global has since reverted its name to Westwood One after merging with Cumulus Media Networks.
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.
ESPN Megacast, formerly known as ESPN Full Circle, is a multi-network simulcast of a single sporting event across multiple ESPN networks and services—with each feed providing a different version of the telecast making use of different features, functions or perspectives. These simulcasts typically involve ESPN's linear television channels and internet streaming platforms, and may occasionally incorporate other Walt Disney Television networks at once.
Thursday Night Football is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time.
National 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.
The following article details the history of Monday Night Football, the weekly broadcast of National Football League games on U.S. television.
As of the 2022 NFL season, CTV and TSN broadcast Sunday games. Monday Night Football airs exclusively on TSN. TSN and CTV 2 own rights to Sunday Night Football and Thursday Night Football. RDS carries games in the French language from all timeslots. U.S. network television feeds may also be available, often from multiple markets, on cable and satellite ; all games are subject to simultaneous substitution. Monday Night Football also airs in simultaneous substitution with the ABC feed on CTV2 beginning with the 2023 season.
The history of the National Football League on television documents the long history of the National Football League on television. The NFL, along with boxing and professional wrestling, was a pioneer of sports broadcasting during a time when baseball and college football were more popular than professional football. Due to the NFL understanding television at an earlier time, they were able to surpass Major League Baseball in the 1960s as the most popular sport in the United States. Today, NFL broadcasting contracts are among the most valuable in the world.
NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.
Recently, the NFL's TV broadcasters have suffered annual financial losses because advertising revenue is unable to keep up with the rising costs of broadcast rights.
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).
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