Monday Night Football’s move to ESPN at the end of the 2005 season is part of the last big shuffle of National Football League broadcast rights, but according to a report, ABC is looking to get back into the football game once more.
According to Front Office Sports, Disney is maneuvering to bring Monday Night Football back to ABC, and a source says there’s a good chance the deal actually happens. According to the report, ABC is in an “increasingly strong position” to land the deal with the NFL.
Negotiations between the NFL and network partners ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, and CBS Sports for the next round of TV rights are still in their early stages and nothing is finalized.
But sources on both sides of the negotiating table say Disney is making a strong push to bring ABC back to the NFL TV lineup. If ESPN retains MNF, the games could also be simulcast or megacast on ABC. “Both Disney and the NFL want it to happen,” said a source.
ABC had the rights to Monday Night Football from 1970 to 2005, when the networks shuffled a bit and ESPN swapped out Monday Night Football for Sunday Night Football. NBC took the latter over, eventually getting a significantly better pick of games in the process. ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast contract runs up until 2021, and Front Office Sports reported that a deal with ABC could put the network into the rotation of networks that airs the Super Bowl, which right now stands at NBC, Fox, and CBS.
ABC has moved on from Monday Night Football in a variety of ways in recent years, most notably turning that time slot into the Bachelor zone. But a return to broadcast television would be significant here, and it looks like Disney wants to make it happen very soon if the reports at to be believed.