• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 7, 2005

ABC wants its football like it wants its hamburgers from Burger King - just the way it likes it. That means switching ABC's high-profile "Monday Night Football" to its Walt Disney Co. sister cable network, ESPN, and moving ESPN's "Sunday Night Football" package to ABC.

On the surface, it sounds like a pretty bad deal, advertising-wise. ESPN gets around $150,000 and more for a 30-second commercial for its "Sunday Night Football" games, while ABC pulls in $300,000 for a 30-second commercial for its "Monday Night Football" package.

Sounds like a better deal at ABC? Oh no. ABC loses $150 million a season on its "MNF" package. This is after paying a $550 million annual rights fee to the NFL. ESPN has a different financial scenario. Not only does it get millions from advertising, but it also gets millions in subscriber fees for its football programming - which puts them into a different financial scenario than "MNF."

For the entire ABC-ESPN package, Disney would propose paying 26 percent more, about $1.45 million, to get this switch - which would lower its financial loses on "MNF." More importantly, it gives the "Monday Night Football" package the benefit of your standard dual-revenue stream that cable enjoys: advertising revenues and subscriber fees.

With subscriber fees, ESPN could in theory pay almost $1 billion for "MNF" - about twice what ABC pays now. But ABC would needs to see a price reduction for "Sunday Night Football."

If this indeed happened, ABC's will need to more or less delay "Desperate Housewives" and the new budding hit "Grey's Anatomy" until January starts. This is possible as more TV shows, such as "American Idol" begin in January.

Some popular culture critics - and even Al Michaels, the "MNF" announcer - worries moving "MNF" would ruin a long time institution, a primetime sports program that gets not just men but women to watch a football game. The NFL might not want to devalue the "Monday Night Football" brand name.

Of course, there could be one dangling carrot that Disney might consider. The NFL could propose leaving the ABC and ESPN packages just the way they are and give ESPN a groundbreaking opportunity, what a Television Week article suggested this week: The Super Bowl.

Sure, there would be cries from public advocates that not everyone gets ESPN. But, ESPN is available in 80 percent or more of national TV households. The rest could see the games on over-the-air stations in those teams' markets.

That one game would mean $200 million alone in advertising revenues - not counting any residual monies from subscriber fees. ABC would be eternally grateful for this - and for trimming the fat. For getting a meal just the way it wants, ABC might even ask the NFL to hold the fries.