ESPN Plays Defense With Monday Night Football, Says Bloomberg Markets

ESPN Plays Defense With Monday Night Football, Says Bloomberg Markets

NEW YORK, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- ESPN, Walt Disney Company's most successful division bringing in almost 80 percent of the revenue for the company's cable network group, will spend more than $8 billion to air Monday Night Football, a strategic deal that will help the network maintain its commanding lead over the competition, says this month's issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine. With an array of big-league challenges from cable system operators, the football show's arrival at ESPN will bring along with it a critical mass of young viewers and will allow for Disney's ABC to stack Monday night's programming line-up.

In the November issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine, the article entitled "ESPN Calls A Razzle-Dazzle Play" reports on ESPN's need to block up and coming rivals, such as Comcast Corp., the world's largest cable system operator, which picked up the NHL broadcast rights for its Outdoor Life channel in August and may challenge ESPN directly for professional sports broadcast rights in the future.

Bloomberg News sports media writer Allan Kreda takes a close look at ESPN, which is now available in more than 90 million U.S. homes -- about 82 percent of all households with televisions -- its high-priced football gamble and its plans for further expansion in order to bolster its hand in its ongoing battles with cable operators.

The November edition of Bloomberg Markets hits newsstands this week and is available at all Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores and other local news vendors. Bloomberg Markets is distributed to all users of the Bloomberg Professional(R) service. Bloomberg Markets articles are also available to users of the Bloomberg Professional service via the Bloomberg terminal.

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Source: Bloomberg

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