'Monday Night Football' leaving ABC for ESPN

By DAVE GOLDBERG, AP Football Writer
April 18, 2005
NEW YORK (AP) -- ``Monday Night Football,'' a television institution that over 35 years has helped transform the NFL into a prime-time ratings draw, is leaving ABC and moving to ESPN beginning with the 2006 season.

The new broadcast deal also brings the NFL to NBC for the first time since 1997. The network gets Sunday night football -- which the league now considers its marquee television showcase -- and will employ a flexible scheduling model.

``In the current media environment, Sunday is now the better night for our prime-time broadcast package,'' commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Monday.

After the coming season, ABC -- which pioneered modern television sports in bringing pro football to prime time -- will be the only major network not to carry the NFL. ``Monday Night Football'' has been a pillar of ABC since it began in 1970, when Howard Cosell anchored the show that now stands as the second-longest running prime time network series, trailing CBS's 60 Minutes by two years.

NBC will start its Sunday broadcasts with a pregame show at 7 p.m. eastern; games will begin at 8:15. The network plans to use a flexible scheduling model in the last seven weeks, allowing it to shift afternoon games to prime time to ensure more meaningful games are shown on national TV.

Monday night games will shift to the earlier start time of 8:40 p.m. eastern on ESPN.

``The earlier kickoff times for both packages, NBC's Sunday night programming devoted to the NFL and flexible scheduling for Sunday night are all positive changes,'' Tagliabue said.

The NFL will continue to show all cable games on free, over-the air television in home markets. That means that local stations will carry ESPN's Monday night games in the cities of the teams involved.

its all about the money... they don't even care that millions of people won't be able to watch MNF anymore

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Disney is not that family company that everyone thinks of. It is all about dollars and cents. So Disney takes away Monday Night Fooball from ABC and they put it on ESPN. Disney takes away Sunday Night Football from ESPN and sells it to Genral Electric and Vivendi to put it on NBC.

Yup... it's all about the money...

I would rather watch it on espn anyway

Yes ESPN is more for sports anyway I like it.

be that as it may, i won't be seeing much sunday night football, my college as of right now doesn't have cable in the dorms because of a money issue.

Yes, it is all about the money... But, don't matter to me any, I'll still be able to watch MNF.