ESPN buys stake in AFL
Seeking to build a year-round football franchise on Monday nights, ESPN today will announce with the Arena Football League that the network has acquired a minority ownership stake in the AFL.
Under the deal, ESPN has signed a five-year, multimedia contract with the league. The highlight will be a new Monday night TV package of games, according to John Skipper, ESPN’s executive vice president of programming, and AFL commissioner David Baker.
NBC had been the AFL’s flagship TV carrier since 2003.
Starting with the 2007 season, ESPN and corporate cousins ESPN2 and ABC annually will carry at least 26 AFL games – 17 in the regular season and nine in the postseason. ESPN2 will have Monday prime-time games from March 12 through June 25.
ESPN hopes to extend its ratings success with “Monday Night Football” beyond the end of the NFL season and into training camps, Skipper said. During its first season of “MNF,” ESPN is averaging a 9.9 rating and 12.3 million viewers. That’s a 38 percent boost in ratings and a 39 percent increase in viewers from its Sunday night games in 2005.
“People say they can’t get enough football. The (AFL) is a fun, high-scoring product,” Skipper said Monday.
Baker said the 19-team league will start and end six weeks later than it did last season, moving the opening to March 1 – a month after Super Bowl XLI in Miami. The 2007 AFL season ends with ArenaBowl XXI on July 29, about the time NFL teams open training camps.
“This gives the fans year-round football on Monday nights,” Baker said.
Skipper and Baker declined to comment on the size of ESPN’s ownership stake. At the end of the contract, ESPN can sell its share back to the AFL or to another investor, Baker said.
ESPN’s ability to push the sport on 15 media platforms, including ESPN Deportes and ESPN Radio, will grow the league’s fan base and TV ratings, Baker predicted.
The AFL reached 65 million viewers during the 2006 season through NBC, OLN, FSN and Comcast. NBC carried the main Sunday afternoon package from 2003 through 2006. But the league “was not happy” with its ratings on NBC, which dipped to a 0.8 average in 2006 from 0.9 in 2005, spokesman Chris McCloskey said. “That’s one reason why we mutually decided to discontinue the relationship.”
ABC will begin ESPN’s AFL coverage with two regional games March 4. ESPN and ESPN2 will split eight AFL playoff games. ABC returns to broadcast ArenaBowl XXI from New Orleans on July 29.
The AFL is talking with other potential TV partners, including the NFL Network, for its Friday night national package and regional telecasts, McCloskey said.
This season will see the return of the New Orleans VooDoo after a one-year hiatus because of Hurricane Katrina.