When ESPN airs the Houston Texans-Pittsburgh Steelers Wild Card round game next Monday, it’ll be the final time the network is guaranteed that window during the first round of the NFL’s postseason.
According to a report by Austin Karp in Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s five-year pact to guarantee itself the Monday Night Football window during the Wild Card round ends this season. And while ESPN is guaranteed a Wild Card game each year under its current media rights agreement with the NFL, the Monday window was part of a separate deal the two sides struck in the fall of 2021, the second year of the NFL’s 14-team playoff format.
Per Karp, “no talks have been held about extending the deal,” but, “ESPN is clearly pleased with the prime-time position.” Prior to securing the Monday night window, ESPN got a Saturday afternoon Wild Card game between the 2014-15 and 2019-20 seasons. During the first year of the expanded playoffs in 2020-21, ESPN got a Sunday afternoon Wild Card game.
The Monday night window obviously creates brand synergy for ESPN, which airs Monday Night Football throughout the season. It does, however, force one team to play on shorter rest than another team in the following round.
Audience figures for ESPN’s Monday Wild Card contest have generally been strong, ranging from 23 million for Rams-Cardinals in 2022, to 31 million for Cowboys-Buccaneers in 2023.
Of course, ESPN and the NFL are preparing to enter into an equity deal that will see the Worldwide Leader take ownership of NFL Network and linear distribution for NFL RedZone in exchange for giving the NFL a 10% stake in the company. Any deal about Monday Wild Card games would be separate from that deal, Karp reports. But the existence of that deal should give both sides some motivation to work together in the best interest of one another.