Thursday Night Football on ABC?

[Gerald1981!]

With Super Bowl LV behind us, will the Thursday Night Football package move from Fox to ABC in 2023, while the others remain unchanged (NFC stays on Fox, AFC stays on CBS, Sunday Night Football stays on NBC and Monday Night Football stays on ESPN)?

[atariboy]

They really need to fix Monday Night Football. Inexcusable it's the worst presented football telecast now.

[DAC]

With Super Bowl LV behind us, will the Thursday Night Football package move from Fox to ABC in 2023, while the others remain unchanged (NFC stays on Fox, AFC stays on CBS, Sunday Night Football stays on NBC and Monday Night Football stays on ESPN)?

FOX signed a 5 year contract for Thursday Night games prior to the 2019 season, so that's not happening. Disney's (ESPN/ABC) contract is up after the 2021 season. If anything, it's going to be hard for Disney to retain Monday Night Football given the lousy job they've done with it since it was (foolishly) moved from ABC to ESPN. They have done little to keep "ABC Sports" alive as a brand other than their NBA deal. Even the college football games that air on ABC are branded as ESPN, since they abandoned having "nationally broadcast" regular season college games, and now shuffle games from ESPN to ABC on a regional basis.

In addition to the Disney deal only having one season left on their NFL contract, the NFC/AFC contracts with FOX and CBS also end after the 2021 season. It will be interesting to see who gets what and for how much money, and if Disney will enter the fray. The NHL's contract with NBC Universal is up after the current season ends. With the upcoming discontinuation of the NBC Sports cable channel, it will be interesting to see which company and the NHL are mutually interested in each other.

Editorial comment: I think that contracts between leagues and networks for sports have been big wins (particularly for baseball) for the leagues, but have hurt viewers. Less eyes are on the product, yet more money is being made on these massive TV deals. FOX seems to have nearly lost interest in putting baseball on broadcast television, with their Saturday games only airing over-the-air between Memorial Day and the massively over-hyped All Star game. After that, Saturday baseball is banished back to FOX Sports 1 until the playoffs.

I don't know the status of Turner's TBS MLB contract, but TBS having a Sunday afternoon MLB game seems like an afterthought, since other than the ESPN Sunday Night game, all teams play day games on Sundays. With the RSN's carrying pretty much all of the games in their markets, and RSN's and TBS both being exclusive to cable, it seems like the average cable-subscribing baseball fan would choose to watch their local team rather than whatever TBS is showing. Turner does such a good job with the NBA, and makes me wonder if they will attempt to expand their sports portfolio. My biggest fear is that a streaming service is going to secure exclusive rights to one league or another (or even partial rights), and viewers will once again have to pay more, needing cable AND streaming services to see all of the games they want. The times are changing, and changing FAST.

[Mega Hertz]

With Super Bowl LV behind us, will the Thursday Night Football package move from Fox to ABC in 2023, while the others remain unchanged (NFC stays on Fox, AFC stays on CBS, Sunday Night Football stays on NBC and Monday Night Football stays on ESPN)?

FOX signed a 5 year contract for Thursday Night games prior to the 2019 season, so that's not happening. Disney's (ESPN/ABC) contract is up after the 2021 season. If anything, it's going to be hard for Disney to retain Monday Night Football given the lousy job they've done with it since it was (foolishly) moved from ABC to ESPN. They have done little to keep "ABC Sports" alive as a brand other than their NBA deal. Even the college football games that air on ABC are branded as ESPN, since they abandoned having "nationally broadcast" regular season college games, and now shuffle games from ESPN to ABC on a regional basis.

In addition to the Disney deal only having one season left on their NFL contract, the NFC/AFC contracts with FOX and CBS also end after the 2021 season. It will be interesting to see who gets what and for how much money, and if Disney will enter the fray. The NHL's contract with NBC Universal is up after the current season ends. With the upcoming discontinuation of the NBC Sports cable channel, it will be interesting to see which company and the NHL are mutually interested in each other.

Editorial comment: I think that contracts between leagues and networks for sports have been big wins (particularly for baseball) for the leagues, but have hurt viewers. Less eyes are on the product, yet more money is being made on these massive TV deals. FOX seems to have nearly lost interest in putting baseball on broadcast television, with their Saturday games only airing over-the-air between Memorial Day and the massively over-hyped All Star game. After that, Saturday baseball is banished back to FOX Sports 1 until the playoffs.

I don't know the status of Turner's TBS MLB contract, but TBS having a Sunday afternoon MLB game seems like an afterthought, since other than the ESPN Sunday Night game, all teams play day games on Sundays. With the RSN's carrying pretty much all of the games in their markets, and RSN's and TBS both being exclusive to cable, it seems like the average cable-subscribing baseball fan would choose to watch their local team rather than whatever TBS is showing. Turner does such a good job with the NBA, and makes me wonder if they will attempt to expand their sports portfolio. My biggest fear is that a streaming service is going to secure exclusive rights to one league or another (or even partial rights), and viewers will once again have to pay more, needing cable AND streaming services to see all of the games they want. The times are changing, and changing FAST.

Correct. And I would also like to add that this has been a very informative and entertaining post. I think you're on to something. It hits harder here at home as not ONE of our sports teams here is even a local draw, let alone national.

[MasterB]

That has been a hold up why the NFL deal hasn't been made is TNF deal does ESPN want to promote a rival streaming service Prime Video since Disney has their own streaming brands if they want to get ABC back in the Super Bowl game. Pretty much Fox, CBS & NBC keeping the Sunday deals, MNF staying with ESPN, ESPN+ gets NFL Sunday Ticket. Got that from CNBC article.

[Editorcj]

ABC Sports does not exist any more in the Disney corporation, it is only a font in ESPN productions.

[Editorcj]

Disney is now balking at the 100% increase in TV rights the NFL is demanding, so ESPN could lose Monday Night Football, forget bringing Thursday night to ABC.

[TC Talks]

Doesn't Disney own Fox now?

It seems that three major distribution Networks are owned by the same company. That might make it a little bit more difficult on the NFL to create a bidding war.

All that leaves is NBC and CBS.

[paul8539]

I still remember when Thursday Night Football was called 'Monday Night Football, Thursday Edition'.

[Robert Faygo]

Doesn't Disney own Fox now?

It seems that three major distribution Networks are owned by the same company. That might make it a little bit more difficult on the NFL to create a bidding war.

All that leaves is NBC and CBS.

The FOX broadcasting network (and its deal with the NFL , it's owned and operated over-the-air broadcast stations, along with Fox News Channel and Fox Business) is still part of the FOX conglomerate. They weren't part of the Disney deal.

All the other sports properties (most of the regional sports networks) that are still using the FOX Sports name are owned by Diamond Sports Group after the Feds forced Disney to get rid of them in order to acquire the rest of the FOX stuff they bought.

[TC Talks]

I see

[DAC]

FOX has also retained ownership of FS1 and FS2.

[Lester The Nightfly]

ABC Sports does not exist any more in the Disney corporation, it is only a font in ESPN productions.

Which is why I get funny looks from folks when I wear my "Wide World of Sports" embroidered patch baseball cap. I should probably give the the yellow blazer as well...

[matt1]

Actually, ABC called it "Special Thursday Edition" in the late 70's!!

[Matt]

With Super Bowl LV behind us, will the Thursday Night Football package move from Fox to ABC in 2023, while the others remain unchanged (NFC stays on Fox, AFC stays on CBS, Sunday Night Football stays on NBC and Monday Night Football stays on ESPN)?

FOX signed a 5 year contract for Thursday Night games prior to the 2019 season, so that's not happening. Disney's (ESPN/ABC) contract is up after the 2021 season. If anything, it's going to be hard for Disney to retain Monday Night Football given the lousy job they've done with it since it was (foolishly) moved from ABC to ESPN. They have done little to keep "ABC Sports" alive as a brand other than their NBA deal. Even the college football games that air on ABC are branded as ESPN, since they abandoned having "nationally broadcast" regular season college games, and now shuffle games from ESPN to ABC on a regional basis.

In addition to the Disney deal only having one season left on their NFL contract, the NFC/AFC contracts with FOX and CBS also end after the 2021 season. It will be interesting to see who gets what and for how much money, and if Disney will enter the fray. The NHL's contract with NBC Universal is up after the current season ends. With the upcoming discontinuation of the NBC Sports cable channel, it will be interesting to see which company and the NHL are mutually interested in each other.

Editorial comment: I think that contracts between leagues and networks for sports have been big wins (particularly for baseball) for the leagues, but have hurt viewers. Less eyes are on the product, yet more money is being made on these massive TV deals. FOX seems to have nearly lost interest in putting baseball on broadcast television, with their Saturday games only airing over-the-air between Memorial Day and the massively over-hyped All Star game. After that, Saturday baseball is banished back to FOX Sports 1 until the playoffs.

I don't know the status of Turner's TBS MLB contract, but TBS having a Sunday afternoon MLB game seems like an afterthought, since other than the ESPN Sunday Night game, all teams play day games on Sundays. With the RSN's carrying pretty much all of the games in their markets, and RSN's and TBS both being exclusive to cable, it seems like the average cable-subscribing baseball fan would choose to watch their local team rather than whatever TBS is showing. Turner does such a good job with the NBA, and makes me wonder if they will attempt to expand their sports portfolio. My biggest fear is that a streaming service is going to secure exclusive rights to one league or another (or even partial rights), and viewers will once again have to pay more, needing cable AND streaming services to see all of the games they want. The times are changing, and changing FAST.

This shows how much I pay attention to the NBA - I didn't even realize the ABC Sports brand still existed at all.