When ESPN aired its Wild Card game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans 11 days ago, it was the final time the network was guaranteed a Wild Card game in the Monday night window.
The network’s five-year pact with the NFL to solidify that timeslot during the first round of the playoffs has officially ended. And while ESPN is guaranteed one Wild Card game each year during the course of its separate 10-year media rights agreement with the league, that game could potentially move off of Monday night, according to NFL executive Hans Schroeder.
Appearing on SBJ’s The Sports Media Podcast, Schroeder revealed that the NFL could potentially shop that Monday night window during the Wild Card round, leaving ESPN with a Saturday or Sunday game.
“I’m sure we’ll talk to Disney and I’m sure there’ll be others interested,” Schroeder told SBJ. “People see that window and the attractiveness of it. And again, we thought that that’s been a great change and a great evolution we’ve taken. And so we’ll have those conversations now in the next couple months about what we do and how we partner and think about that Monday night window.”
The addition of the Monday window coincided with the NFL expanding its playoffs from 12 to 14 teams. In doing so, the league created two additional Wild Card games, one of which has been slotted for Monday night.
As it stands, each of the NFL’s five permanent broadcast partners (ESPN/ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Prime Video) are guaranteed one Wild Card game each year. However, with six games total, one network has gotten to double up and air two games each of the past five seasons. That leaves some wiggle room for the NFL to potentially sell that sixth Wild Card game to another bidder. Increasingly, it looks like the Monday night window could be a game that gets sold.
“The reality is a lot more people can watch Monday night than they can watch Saturday at 1pm when you get to that time of year,” Schroeder continued. “So we think that’s a really great way to put our games into windows where more people can watch them. So I think that was the genesis, and certainly it made sense and there’s a certain elegance to have it be part of the ESPN Monday Night Football package.”
The NFL is masterful at leaving itself additional one-off games it can sell to partners outside of its core five. Just look at what the league has done with Netflix on Christmas, or YouTube in Brazil earlier this season. Perhaps one of those two companies wants a small taste of the NFL postseason. Starting next year, the NFL can make that happen.