After contemplating moving ESPN’s NFL Wild Card playoff game to Fox, the league has decided to keep it on ESPN, at least for next season. The game also will continue to be simulcast on ABC. The NFL holds an annual option to move ESPN’s only NFL playoff game off the net, and when Fox picked up the rights to “Thursday Night Football” in February, the league considered making the move. ESPN pays $100M for the rights to that one game. But under former President John Skipper, ESPN’s relationship with the NFL had deteriorated to the point where the league was ready to move the game, and several Fox execs expected it, as well.
But interim ESPN President George Bodenheimer and new President Jimmy Pitaro worked to repair that relationship almost immediately and made several concessions to show the league that a new, more NFL-friendly regime was in place. For example, they agreed to carry the NFL Draft’s third day on ABC and produce exclusive NFL Draft coverage on ESPN2 throughout the weekend. In a move that could be interpreted as an olive branch to ESPN, the NFL decided to keep the wildcard game on the network -- though the league could opt to make the switch to Fox the following season.
