50th season of Monday Night Football opens strong

ESPN kicked off its 2019 NFL game coverage with a Monday Night Football doubleheader that produced dynamic results and a large audience, while also serving as a forum for a warning about a potential carriage dispute between parent Walt Disney Co. and AT&T’s distribution vehicles.
On the field, New Orleans Saints kicker Will Lutz capped a wild one with a 58-yard game-winning field goal that overcame a Houston QB DeSsaun Watson go-ahead touchdown throw to Kenny Stills just seconds earlier. In the nightcap, the Oakland Raiders and Jon Gruden, the long-time former MNF analyst, put aside the Antonio Brown escapades to upset the Denver Broncos. The contests averaged a combined 8.6 overnight rating, a 19% bump from MNF’s 2018 doubleheader and the highest-rated pair by that measure since 2015.
However, the kickoff of MNF’s 50th season also saw ESPN run ads, which started during the Saints/Texans game, with information also disseminated on Bottom Line crawl, alerting AT&T subscribers that they could soon lose ESPN. The potential disconnect pertains to eight ABC-owned stations, including WABC in New York and KABC in Los Angeles, the ESPN suite of services, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD and Freeform. Neither party was specific about when their contract will expire, but if it does, those channels could be blacked out on DIRECTV and U-verse platforms, as well as streaming service AT&T Now, rebranded from DIRECTV Now.
Disney in a statement noted that since its contract with AT&T for ABC, ESPN, Disney, and Freeform networks ends soon, it has “a responsibility to make our viewers aware of the potential loss of our programming. However, we remain fully committed to reaching a deal and are hopeful we can do so.” AT&T countered by expressing disappointment that Disney put its “viewers into the middle of the negotiations. We are on the side of consumer choice and value and want to keep Disney channels and owned-and-operated local ABC stations in eight cities in our customers’ lineups. We hope to avoid any interruption to the services some of our customers care about.”

Related Stories

Whoopi Goldberg and cast mates will take The Stand on CBS All Access Dec. 17

whoopi-goldberg

The Stand, CBS All Access’ television adaptation of the storied 1978 Stephen King novel, will debut December 17. Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgard, James Marsden, Odessa Young, Jovan Adepo and Amber Heard, the limited series unfolds around King’s apocalyptic struggle between good and evil after a plague destroys most of the country. Ben Cavell serves […]

McKinnon lands unprecedented Exotic deal

Get ready cats and kittens. Joe Exotic (working title), UCP’s limited series starring and exec-produced by Kate McKinnon, scored a straight-to-series order by both the NBCU television and streaming divisions. In an unprecedented move, project will roll out across broadcast net NBC, streamer Peacock, and a basic cable net USA. Series is based on the […]

Cat’s meow: Quaid will star in his own animal rescue story

Cat's meow: Quaid will star in his own animal rescue story

Dennis Quaid is the cat’s meow. He’s partnering with ITV America’s Leftfield Pictures for unscripted TV project Saving Dennis Quaid, which he’ll star in and exec produce. Project documents the animal lover’s recent headline-making pet rescue where he and partner Jimmy Jellinek set out on a mission to adopt a 6-year-old black cat from Lynchburg, […]

Turner Sports Shaq’s up

Big news at Turner Sports, as the company lands a multiyear extension of its partnership with Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq’s expanded role gains the Basketball Hall of Famer more airtime, including on TNT’s Inside the NBA and NBA on TNT, as well as contributions to NBA.com. He also will develop projects throughout the WarnerMedia portfolio including […]

The Tonys go digital

The Tonys go digital

The 74th Annual Tony Awards ceremony will go on, presented digitally sometime in the fall. Date and platform are TBA. The event had originally been scheduled for June 7, but was replaced by plans for a streaming special on the same date due to COVID-19. That special was postponed amid unrest over the George Floyd […]

CynCity

Cynsiders

Instagram