ESPN On ABC Making Things Complicated

This week was the first of three scheduled Monday Night Football "doubleheaders" (even though they aren't doubleheaders, they're simultaneous games) this season.  There's another one scheduled for next week, and a third scheduled for early December.  ABC was also already planning on simulcasting the ESPN broadcast of several other Monday night games.  That has turned into every Monday night game this season, which will cover one night of programming for ABC during the WGA and SAG strikes.

It brings me back to when I was a kid and Hank Williams, Jr., was asking us "Are you ready for some football?" every week.  And it's part of the bigger strategy that sees ABC more integrated into ESPN's NFL coverage.  ABC has even reentered the Super Bowl rotation under the NFL's new TV contract that began this season.  Which actually really complicates things for ABC and ESPN's owner, Disney.

Disney has made no secret of the fact that it's trying to divest some of its linear channels and shift its focus to streaming.  They have no interest in selling ESPN (although, they would love to eventually make it a streaming-only platform), but everything else is up for grabs, including ABC.  They evidently have a potential buyer in Nexstar, but selling ABC could end up being more complicated than originally thought.  And sports are the reason why.

When Disney purchased ABC and ESPN, they eliminated ABC Sports.  All sports programming on ABC is produced by ESPN and even marketed as "ESPN on ABC."  That works because the two networks have the same owner.  (Kind of like how NBC utilizes USA and CNBC for some of its Olympic sports programming.)  If Disney sells one network and not the other, though, suddenly it doesn't work so well.

Think about all of the sports that air on ABC, too.  And the number of games has only grown in recent years.  ESPN/ABC is the primary broadcaster for both the NBA and NHL, and not to mention all of the college football!  NCAA Tournaments have increasingly been shown on ABC, too, with last season's women's basketball championship game airing on ABC and this year's women's volleyball championship scheduled for a Sunday afternoon on ABC, as well.  ESPN also has exclusive rights to the MLB Wild Card Series.  Last year, they put the Cardinals-Phillies series on ABC, and they'll likely do that again this season.  They even used ABC for some of their US Open and Wimbledon coverage this year.

I don't know the specifics of all these broadcast contracts, but some (all?) of them call for a certain number of games on ABC.  The NBA Finals are exclusively on ABC, and so is the Stanley Cup Final in alternating years.  The Little League World Series is primarily on ESPN...with the U.S., International and World Championship Games on ABC the final weekend.  And the only reason ESPN was added to the Super Bowl rotation is because they committed to airing the game on ABC when it's their turn (they're currently set to air Super Bowls LXI & LXV).

That's just the pro leagues.  ABC also figures into ESPN's deal with the NCAA, as well as the individual conferences.  Starting next season, ESPN will have exclusive SEC rights and exclusive ACC rights, so those two leagues will be featured prominently on ABC throughout football season.  Then there's content like tennis, golf, the X Games, etc.  It's a lot.

With ESPN and ABC having the same owner, it makes things very easy.  Disney makes the schedule for both networks, so coordinating which game is on which channel doesn't take much.  Some games are even designated either/or, with the decision being made later on.  Likewise, sometimes they'll have "Teams TBA" on the program guide because of that flexibility.

As Disney is finding out, however, things will become much more complicated if/when they sell ABC and/or its affiliates.  They won't control the programming on ABC, so they'd need to come to an agreement with the new owners about showing ESPN sports on ABC stations.  And ABC's new owner would be well within their rights to say no.  I don't know why they would, but they could.  And if they did, that would put Disney and ESPN in a bind.

There's also the matter of Disney's recent carriage dispute with Spectrum that left nearly 15 million cable customers without Disney-owned stations (including ABC and ESPN) for three weeks.  Carriage disputes are nothing new in television, but if ESPN and ABC have different owners, what would that mean for the next one.  Would Disney-owned ESPN programming even be allowed to be shown on non-Disney-owned ABC?

Nexstar, for its part, would only be purchasing the ABC broadcast network and eight owned & operated local ABC affiliates.  And there's no reason why Nexstar wouldn't continue the existing ESPN/ABC broadcast agreements.  But it's also easy to see them wanting Disney to buy airtime on the network or something like that, which would obviously cost Disney money.  And, not to mention, figuring out who's paying the ESPN talent to appear on another network (which, granted, is very minor in the grand scheme of things).

None of this will likely do anything to change the big picture.  If Bob Iger wants to divest and thinks selling ABC is a way to do that, that's exactly what he'll do.  But the symbiotic relationship that has existed between ABC and ESPN for many years only complicates matters.  This isn't as simple as NBC shutting down NBCSN and the Olympic Channel to move it programming to other networks it already owns.  This would be just the opposite.  It would be finding a way to keep programming on a network you no longer own.

And you know that the pro leagues, college conferences and other sports organizations don't care about any of this.  They have contracts with ESPN that stipulate a certain number of events air on ABC.  As long as the conditions of that contract are met, they've got no reason to care.  How ESPN and ABC figure out scheduling isn't their problem.  It's Disney and Nexstar's.

Whatever happens, it's highly unlikely that much will change.  ABC may have a new owner, but some deal will be reached where they continue to carry sports programming under the "ESPN On ABC" banner.  The brand means too much to both.  How that ultimately ends up happening, though, could prove to be very interesting.