ESPN will remain the home of Monday Night Football for at least another decade.
The NFL and ESPN have reached a new deal to keep Monday night games on ESPN through the 2021 season, SportsBusinessDaily.com reports.
The new contract will pay the NFL $1.8 billion a year, a 63 percent increase from the current deal. With 17 Monday night games a year, that works out to more than $105 million a game.
ESPN (and its network partner ABC) still will be kept out of the Super Bowl rotation on the new contract, although ESPN might get a wild-card playoff game at some point in the future. ESPN does get the rights to more highlights, which it will use to launch more highlight-themed studio shows. ESPN also gets the right to stream live games online.
It’s an enormous deal for ESPN, but it’s even bigger for the NFL, which was able to survive the lockout and show once again that it’s the single most valuable property in all of American television.
