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From the Athletic:
This is a public service announcement for NFL fans: You are about to be part of an NFL viewership experiment.
The NFL has scheduled two games this Monday — the New Orleans Saints at the Carolina Panthers on ESPN at 7:15 p.m. ET, and the Cleveland Browns at the Pittsburgh Steelers at 8:15 p.m. ET on ABC.
The following Monday features the Philadelphia Eagles at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 7:15 p.m. ET on ABC and the Los Angeles Rams at the Cincinnati Bengals at 8:15 p.m. on ESPN.
In short, ESPN gets an early Monday start time this week, and ABC will get it the following week. The end result will be the league and ESPN get real-time data on viewer interest regarding “Monday Night Football” doubleheader start times.
“We’re going to learn more about what optimizes best, and I think by next year we’ll continue to hone on driving the biggest viewership between the two games,” said ESPN president of content Burke Magnus. “We will learn if it is better to start with the ABC game, the ESPN game, or the other way around. Later in the year, in Week 14, we’re doing both games (Green Bay Packers at New York Giants on ABC and Tennessee Titans at Miami Dolphins on ESPN) at the same time (8:15 p.m. ET kickoff). The thought there is, can we combine total audience and do a little bit like we used to do in the old days of college football where we create a simultaneous national and regional appeal and use our networks to do that in a single window? Then it combines to sort of like a super audience total number.”
The NFL is also interested. Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, called it a unique opportunity with a single broadcast partner to examine the possibilities.
“We have the unique opportunity with a single partner, with two really strong national distribution assets in ESPN and ABC, and what we want to do is continue to innovate and create a new viewing experience,” Schroeder said. “So you’ll see more look-ins in between the games. You’ll see more coverage between the two games going on, you’ll see things at halftime in those first couple weeks where they go to the other game. The whole desire is, how do we create a new and different and compelling way for fans to watch games, and how do we continue to test and innovate as we do that? We’re really excited for those side-by-sides with Disney.”
When the viewership data gets analyzed, as with all games, there will be additional factors beyond start times, including how competitive each game was, the market size for each team playing, if the game included national stars or traditional popular teams, and the estimated reach for each outlet. The expectation would be that any game on a network (ABC) would outrate a game on cable (ESPN), but we shall see.
theathletic.com
This is a public service announcement for NFL fans: You are about to be part of an NFL viewership experiment.
The NFL has scheduled two games this Monday — the New Orleans Saints at the Carolina Panthers on ESPN at 7:15 p.m. ET, and the Cleveland Browns at the Pittsburgh Steelers at 8:15 p.m. ET on ABC.
The following Monday features the Philadelphia Eagles at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 7:15 p.m. ET on ABC and the Los Angeles Rams at the Cincinnati Bengals at 8:15 p.m. on ESPN.
In short, ESPN gets an early Monday start time this week, and ABC will get it the following week. The end result will be the league and ESPN get real-time data on viewer interest regarding “Monday Night Football” doubleheader start times.
“We’re going to learn more about what optimizes best, and I think by next year we’ll continue to hone on driving the biggest viewership between the two games,” said ESPN president of content Burke Magnus. “We will learn if it is better to start with the ABC game, the ESPN game, or the other way around. Later in the year, in Week 14, we’re doing both games (Green Bay Packers at New York Giants on ABC and Tennessee Titans at Miami Dolphins on ESPN) at the same time (8:15 p.m. ET kickoff). The thought there is, can we combine total audience and do a little bit like we used to do in the old days of college football where we create a simultaneous national and regional appeal and use our networks to do that in a single window? Then it combines to sort of like a super audience total number.”
The NFL is also interested. Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, called it a unique opportunity with a single broadcast partner to examine the possibilities.
“We have the unique opportunity with a single partner, with two really strong national distribution assets in ESPN and ABC, and what we want to do is continue to innovate and create a new viewing experience,” Schroeder said. “So you’ll see more look-ins in between the games. You’ll see more coverage between the two games going on, you’ll see things at halftime in those first couple weeks where they go to the other game. The whole desire is, how do we create a new and different and compelling way for fans to watch games, and how do we continue to test and innovate as we do that? We’re really excited for those side-by-sides with Disney.”
When the viewership data gets analyzed, as with all games, there will be additional factors beyond start times, including how competitive each game was, the market size for each team playing, if the game included national stars or traditional popular teams, and the estimated reach for each outlet. The expectation would be that any game on a network (ABC) would outrate a game on cable (ESPN), but we shall see.
A ‘Monday Night Football’ experiment is about to test your viewership habits
In the next two weeks, ESPN and ABC will air overlapping "Monday Night Football" games. And they're hoping to learn something of note.
theathletic.com
