3 New Things Making Monday Night Football an Advertiser’s Dream in 2022
By Jason Dunham
Sports Advertising Sales Strategist
With franchise-shaking trades and cancelled retirements, it’s shaping up to be another incredible season for NFL fans. But it’s not just the teams making adjustments to their lineups.
Broadcast changes and popular new content are attracting buzz-worthy headlines for Monday Night Football on ESPN. Check out three things that could grow interest, viewership and the advertising power for the 2022-2023 NFL season.
#1 Aikman and Buck Make a Big Move
Since 2002, Hall-of-Famer and former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman has been sharing his insightful game analysis alongside play-by-play commentator Joe Buck on Fox Sports. This year, however, will see the duo swap broadcasting booths and join the Monday Night Football crew on ESPN.
Monday Night Football is already the most-watched program on cable TV for the 14th time last season.1 It captured that title by averaging of 13.5 million viewers.2 This addition of Aikman and Buck is projected to only bolster those already strong numbers and end ESPN’s rotating door of on-air talent.
Monday Night Football Viewership
#2 Prime Captures Thursdays
A huge move later in the week is also expected to tilt viewership in ESPN’s favor. Coming a year earlier than initially expected, Thursday Night Football will be seen exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
This shift to streaming is the start of an 11-year deal between Amazon and the NFL. But this move behind a paywall means those not willing to subscribe to the streaming service will look to get their football fix elsewhere as the appetite for NFL content is only growing.
NFL Trends
#3 Monday Night with the Mannings
The ESPN family of networks received an extra boost of programming with last year’s strong debut of Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli. This live, more informal – and more insightful – analysis of the Monday night game attracted a new audience intrigued to see the Manning brothers at home talking about football.
Viewers responded well to the legendary and extremely likable brothers talk game strategy with fellow NFL alumni, famous friends and other special guests. ESPN was quick to renew the show through the 2024 season after a strong first year out.
Peyton and Eli Score with Viewers
Jason Dunham has been in sports marketing and management for more than 19 years, joining Midco in January 2019 as a Sports Advertising Sales Strategist. Prior to Midco, Dunham was a partner at a Twin Cities-based sponsorship and marketing agency, where he focused on sponsorship representation, activation and operational planning for events, teams and sports conferences. Dunham is a native of Minot, ND, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and business administration from Minot State University.
Jason Dunham has been in sports marketing and management for more than 19 years, joining Midco in January 2019 as a Sports Advertising Sales Strategist. Prior to Midco, Dunham was a partner at a Twin Cities-based sponsorship and marketing agency, where he focused on sponsorship representation, activation and operational planning for events, teams and sports conferences. Dunham is a native of Minot, ND, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and business administration from Minot State University.
All logos are property of their respective corporations or entities. Use of the individual entity logos does not constitute an endorsement by the entities of Midco’s products or services. 1 Viewership data provided by TiVo. Past performance does not guarantee future results. 2 ESPN Pressroom: ESPN’s Monday Night Football Delivers 15.9 Million Viewers for Second Consecutive Week, Q4 2021 3 Fan Nation: NFL Has Best Viewership Ratings Since 2015, Q1 2022 4 Sports Pro Media: 2022 Super Bowl Viewing Figures Rise 16% to 112.3m for NBC, Q1 2022 5 ESPN Pressroom: ESPN & The Walt Disney Company Expand Agreement with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, Q1 2022