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A New Possibility for ‘Monday Night’

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With Robert Iger this week being tabbed to take over the Walt Disney Co. from Michael Eisner when he steps down in September, the NFL now knows whom to talk to about “Monday Night Football.”

Denver Bronco owner Pat Bowlen, who heads up the NFL’s television committee, indicated Thursday that Iger’s appointment should speed up negotiations with the entertainment giant that owns ABC and ESPN. Another plus is that Iger, a longtime ABC employee, has always had a keen interest in “Monday Night Football.”

But Bowlen, before leaving for NFL meetings in Maui, said he had no idea when a new deal for the Monday night and Sunday night NFL packages, beginning with the 2006 season, would be in place. “It could be October, it could be next month,” he said. “I wish I knew.”

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NFL deals worth $8 billion over six years for Sunday football on Fox and CBS were completed in November.

The other key negotiator for Disney is George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN and ABC Sports. But it was Iger’s appointment that fueled speculation this week that “Monday Night Football” could end up on ESPN after the current NFL television contract expires.

ESPN has a dual revenue stream -- there’s money from advertisers, plus the $2 or so a month that some 90 million subscribers pay through their cable or satellite bills. That’s one reason why ESPN now pays more for Sunday night football than ABC does for its Monday night package, $600 million to $550 million. Also, ESPN is paying for two half-season packages. TNT, until 1998, had the other half.

The question is, will the NFL simply go with whatever generates the most revenue? A source said that Disney would like to keep status quo -- “Monday Night Football” on ABC, Sunday night football on ESPN.

The NFL’s Bowlen said it was too early to predict what would happen.

“It’s all just speculation at this point,” he said. “Ratings have dropped for ‘Monday Night Football’ and we’d like to see if there is something that can be done about that.”

Yes, ratings have dropped, but then network ratings for all programming are down.

“Monday Night Football” placed ninth among all network prime-time programming last season. It marked the 15th consecutive year the series, which began in 1970, has placed in the top 10. In the previous 20 years, “Monday Night Football” cracked the top 10 only once. Also, “Monday Night Football” placed third in the key demographic categories of men 18-34 and men 18-49.

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So maybe there is nothing there to fix, or that can be fixed.

Meanwhile, there is a strong argument for “Monday Night Football” staying where it is:

* It reaches a broader audience on ABC. Fringe fans who occasionally watch “Monday Night Football” on ABC -- some of these people probably don’t even know where to find ESPN on their cable or satellite system -- would probably be lost if the series moved to ESPN.

* A move to ESPN would cause an even bigger ratings decline. The Pro Bowl in 2003, its last year on ABC, got a 5.8 rating. The broadcast ratings for the game the last two years on ESPN were a 3.9 and a 4.2, signaling a further drop in prestige for a game the NFL would like to see gain in stature.

* Disney has an exclusive negotiating period on the Sunday and Monday night packages through September, but only if those packages remain in place. If “Monday Night Football” is moved to ESPN, then bidding would immediately be open to any interested parties.

* ABC has complained in recent years that a set schedule toward the end of the season has hurt ratings because often the network is stuck with games that have no playoff implications. The NFL already addressed that issue when it completed the deals with Fox and CBS in November. During the last seven weeks of the season, the “Monday Night Football” rights holder would have flexibility with its schedule.

So despite speculation about “Monday Night Football” moving to ESPN, it’s hardly a foregone conclusion. Actually, according to several sources, that happening may be a longshot.

Still, anything could happen.

Also, a deal on a new cable package of eight late-season games, probably on Thursday and Saturday nights, remains to be done. Bowlen said those games could end up on the NFL Network -- or some other cable entity. Rupert Murdoch says he’d like to create another national cable sports network, and that he needs the NFL to do it.

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But the NFL’s most important package is “Monday Night Football.” The package, the NFL hopes, could be worth close to $1 billion a year.

Will Disney be willing to pay that and leave it on ABC? Will the price tag require Disney to put it on ESPN, because of its dual revenue stream? Or will there be a surprise, such as NBC and/or its cable entities entering the picture?

Short Waves

Howard Katz, former ABC Sports president who was with NFL Films the last two years, has been named the NFL’s new senior vice president of media operations, a new position.... Howard David, one of the best football play-by-play announcers in the country, has joined Larry Kahn’s Sports USA radio network.... FSN West has lost another top-quality person. Dennis Johnson, the regional network’s respected director of public relations, has accepted a similar position with GSN, formerly the Game Show Network.

In Closing

The Dodgers are finally going to televise a spring training game. Sunday’s game against the Washington Nationals will be televised live at 10 a.m. on FSN West 2, with Vin Scully calling the game. Next step for the Dodgers is to announce a regular-season television schedule, which should have been in place weeks ago.

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