ESPN Boosts NFL Playoff Coverage With New Monday Night Football Deal

Walt Disney Co's DIS ESPN signed a five-year rights agreement with the National Football League that includes expansion of NFL Playoff coverage.

The inaugural Monday Night Football NFL Wild Card game will be held Jan. 17, 2022. The new MNF game marks the first scheduled weekly prime time NFL Playoff game, premiering at 8:15 p.m. ET.

The Wild Card Monday Night Football game will air on ESPN and ABC in its traditional telecast format. ESPN2 and EPSN+ will air an alternate telecast featuring Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.

ESPN has aired Monday Night Football since 2006.

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Why It’s Important: The Wild Card game in January will be ESPN’s eighth NFL Playoff game. The sports channel has aired an annual Wild Card game since 2014.

Starting in 2023, ESPN will add an NFL Divisional round game to its postseason coverage, along with its Wild Card game.

Monday Night Football is averaging 14 million viewers through five weeks, up 20% year-over-year.

The viewership of games featuring the Manning brothers providing commentary has seen a rise. The duo had 800,000 viewers in week 1, 1.86 million in week two and 1.89 million in week three. The Mannings will offer commentary for ten Monday Night Football games throughout the season.

DIS Price Action: Disney Shares are down 1% to $171.58 on Wednesday.