The NFL is ripping off ESPN according to Wall Street analysts. Michael McCarthy of The Sporting News has a new report out citing a number of sources that say the return ESPN is seeing on its investment in the NFL warrants some serious action.
Independent research firm MoffettNathanson suggests that ESPN should get out of the Monday Night Football business when the contract expires in 2021 and instead pursue reacquiring the Sunday Night package. NBC’s Sunday Night Football package is priced lower and is consistently one of TV’s highest rated shows. NBC’s contract expires in 2022.
James Andrew Miller, who wrote the ESPN memoir Those Guys Have All the Fun, says the right move for ESPN may be to forget about live NFL rights and focus instead on investing in cheaper highlight packages. McCarthy says considering the decline in ratings, Miller’s idea makes sense.
Why pay through the nose for a Monday night package, asked Miller, when today’s “Monday Night Football” is a pale shadow of ABC’s old version with John Madden and Al Michaels? Much less the original Monday night crew of Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford?
ESPN currently pays $1.9 billion per year for the TV rights to Monday Night Football. Jimmy Pitaro views his primary job as president of ESPN as preserving and rehabbing the network’s relationship with the NFL. Both Turner and Amazon have expressed interest in bidding for Monday Night Football in the future. That will likely drive the price higher in the next round of bidding. It is absolutely fair to value professional football as a commodity, but at some point ESPN may have to face facts and realize that this is a relationship that is only working for one side.
Sunday Night Football is the package the NFL gives its star treatment. If ESPN is already paying a higher price, it makes sense that staying in business with the NFL would require that it gets the best package of games.
