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Monday Night Football since 2006


wdm1219inpenna

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Monday is the new sunday and vice versa.

True. What Bill McD is experiencing is on purpose. The broadcast network package has the top-tier games. They get first dibs. The reason Sunday Night Football feels like the old MNF is because that's the continuation of ABC's version. ESPN still has the same stuff they always had on Sunday nights before. They've tried to hype it and were glad to keep the MNF brand, but it is not what it used to be. Not supposed to be -- but ESPN just wants to hype it as if it is still.

I believe the NFL wanted it this way because Sunday is a better TV night.

I was going to say the same thing. So instead, I'll just say nicely explained.

I look at it the same as the Cleveland Browns. They might have the name and the records of the old version, but that team is really in Baltimore.

Uh-oh....

EXACTLY. NBC didn't pay all that money to get the weekly "cable game". And make no mistake, with the NFL, the two weekly prime time games fall in to 2 categories: the Marquee Matchup (playoff teams meeting, big interconference games, etc) and the Cable Game. There is no way in hell Buffalo would ever get a Marquee Matchup coming off the season they had last year. Coming off a playoff trip? Yes.

ESPN can tell you that Monday Night Football is Monday Night Football, but all it really is now is Sunday Night Football on Monday Night.

Go Astros!

Go Texans!

Go Rockets!

Go Javelinas!

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No one's mentioned this yet: The Salary Cap has weakened Monday Night Football.

Before the Cap Era, ABC had a pretty good idea on which teams would be contending for the playoffs, and would schedule those teams for the tail-end of their coverage, which is why the Packers, Cowboys, Steelers, 49ers, and other consistently-winning teams would be on.

Now that there's a Cap, it's a lot more difficult to predict which teams will still be contending at the end of the season, which is why MNF's value has decreased and, as a result, now airing on a cable station. Sunday Night Football had this same dilemma, but NBC's added that Flex package (NBC had to pay a larger fee to air this game, plus compensate Fox and CBS since NBC would take away one of their games and viewership) and made Sunday Night's game more valuable and watchable.

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No one's mentioned this yet: The Salary Cap has weakened Monday Night Football.

Before the Cap Era, ABC had a pretty good idea on which teams would be contending for the playoffs, and would schedule those teams for the tail-end of their coverage, which is why the Packers, Cowboys, Steelers, 49ers, and other consistently-winning teams would be on.

Now that there's a Cap, it's a lot more difficult to predict which teams will still be contending at the end of the season, which is why MNF's value has decreased and, as a result, now airing on a cable station. Sunday Night Football had this same dilemma, but NBC's added that Flex package (NBC had to pay a larger fee to air this game, plus compensate Fox and CBS since NBC would take away one of their games and viewership) and made Sunday Night's game more valuable and watchable.

Yes... and no.

Has it weakened MNF in terms of competitive match-ups? Probably, if not certainly.

Has it done so in terms of marketability? No. Let's face it, competitive or not there are some teams with national fan bases (Dallas, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Oakland, etc.) that are going to draw fans no matter who they're playing. Are the ESPN ratings going to be the same as they were on ABC? Of course not. ESPN didn't pay for that - they essentially re-upped on their previous Sunday night package, hoping to get an 'enhancement' of their previous package by slapping the MNF brand on it.

ABC turned over MNF to ESPN because ABC was losing money on the package, while ESPN (which is actually larger than its parent in terms of revenue generation) is capable of tapping into different revenue streams and absorbing the cost more readily. In some ways it was a move for accounting purposes and corporate symmetry (sp?) more than anything else.

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i would have to say that MNF has lost all of its appeal for me simply because i don't have cable so i can't friggin watch it (unless its the bengals since i live in cincy and its on channel 12). used to love watching it though, regardless of who was playing, just because i'm that big of a football fan.

as long as there's a game on, i'll watch it.

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