ABC-7 ready to lose MNF

While local network television affiliates like Bangor’s WLBZ (Channel 2) are more than ready for some football, others like Bangor’s WVII (Ch. 7) are ready to see it go.

The move of Monday Night Football, a staple of the ABC network’s programming schedule for the last 35 years, to cable TV and ESPN, and the further shuffling of Sunday night football from ESPN to NBC has prompted plenty of reaction from local affiliates.

Surprisingly, all of it has been positive.

“It’s really not a bad thing for us,” said Mike Palmer, WVII’s vice-president and general manager. “It impacts us financially in a very good way. Here’s why: We have to write a big fat check to ABC for Monday Night Football. It’s a very healthy check and now we won’t have to write it anymore.

“It was so fat it actually outweighed the money we generated from Monday Night Football in local ad revenue.”

Palmer wouldn’t say what that fat check’s amount was, but added that losing MNF in September of 2006, when the new contracts the National Football League agreed to with NBC and ESPN take effect, helps his station in other ways.

“Having Monday Night Football meant no 11 o’clock news for one night every week starting in September,” Palmer explained. “Affiliates all over the country basically had a disaster one night out of the week with it because the late news started much later, the overtime costs for crews staying late, and it just piled on.”

ABC lost the rights to fellow Disney-owned network ESPN, which won MNF rights with a $1.1 billion eight-year package.

“We have nostalgic memories of yesteryear with the loss of the program, but it ain’t what it used to be,” Palmer said. “In past years, you’d hear about bars hosting Monday Night Football parties and people having them at their houses, but you don’t anymore. The bottom line is we’re financially in the black about it.”

Meanwhile, WLBZ general manager Judy Horan was tinkled pink when she heard about NBC’s takeover of the Sunday night NFL package with a six-year, $600 million contract.

“It was a pleasant surprise when we got the e-mail from NBC,” said Horan. “We’re very happy about it.

“We think it certainly is a premium package and it provides a very popular product to viewers, so that gives us an excellent platform for advertisers and a new vehicle to promote our own programming.”

The only downside in the reshuffling of the NFL’s TV rights deck is for most non-cable or satellite TV viewers in Maine who will no longer be able to see MNF games. Then again, they can now see Sunday night games, which they couldn’t before because they were aired by ESPN.

Loyal MNF viewers in Maine who have neither cable nor satellite service will be particularly distressed compared to the rest of the country because Maine is one of the lowest cable-penetrated states in the country. According to the February Nielsen ratings book, cable penetration for the entire Maine market is just 48 percent. Cable penetration in Penobscot County is 56 percent, but rural counties like Piscataquis and Waldo are only at 38 and 33 percent, respectively.

“The cost to run cable in rural areas is still extremely high,” said Horan. “With the absence of Monday Night Football, this will be a good thing for us in terms of providing free, over-the-air access to that same kind of programming, and Sunday night is a terrific night for us to air it too.”

Pursuing the Patriots

Bangor sister TV stations WVII and WFVX are set to broadcast seven New England Patriots games this coming fall and winter.

Vice-president and general manager Mike Palmer confirmed his stations will carry five regular seasons games (three Monday Night Football games on WVII and two on Fox Network affiliate WFVX) and two preseason games. He’s also working to have an NFL broadcast restriction lifted on both preseason games, which prohibits WFVX from airing either game live due to an arcane exclusivity rule.

“I’m going to call the NFL office and see what can be done,” Palmer said. “It makes no sense that we have to delay them and stations in Portland do not. I’m hopefully optimistic we can get it done, but it’s really beyond my control.”

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.com