Monday, April 18, 2005
All My Rowdy Friends Will Have To Change The Channel
Monday Night Football is moving to ESPN.
After 35 seasons, an American institution is leaving ABC, as is reported by the Washington Post.
Both ABC and ESPN are owned by Disney, so the same rich guys will keep getting richer, but I'm still sad to see the change.
NFL officials say they've lost much of their audience over the last few seasons on ABC, but I don't see how moving to ESPN will do any better. If you don't have cable, or if your cable system doesn't carry ESPN (as sometimes happens when Time Warner and Disney don't get along), you're screwed...and ratings won't improve by cutting off an entire section of your audience just because they still get their TV for free over the air.
Sunday Night Football will move to NBC, leaving ABC without any football. Perhaps they'll pick up arena football from NBC, or maybe Desperate Housewives and the Bachlorette will merge into some kind of 5-night-per-week mega show.
After 35 seasons, an American institution is leaving ABC, as is reported by the Washington Post.
Both ABC and ESPN are owned by Disney, so the same rich guys will keep getting richer, but I'm still sad to see the change.
NFL officials say they've lost much of their audience over the last few seasons on ABC, but I don't see how moving to ESPN will do any better. If you don't have cable, or if your cable system doesn't carry ESPN (as sometimes happens when Time Warner and Disney don't get along), you're screwed...and ratings won't improve by cutting off an entire section of your audience just because they still get their TV for free over the air.
Sunday Night Football will move to NBC, leaving ABC without any football. Perhaps they'll pick up arena football from NBC, or maybe Desperate Housewives and the Bachlorette will merge into some kind of 5-night-per-week mega show.
