“Monday Night Football” will be offered by Fox next NFL season — the faces and voices behind Fox Sports, that is.
ESPN announced Wednesday that it has signed former Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to multi-year deals to staff the booth of one of its signature sports programs.
Additional details — such as Buck and Aikman agreeing to contribute content to the ESPN+ streaming service — will be announced at a later date, ESPN said in a press release. But someone familiar with the schemes said Buck would get nearly $15 million a year, and Aikman nearly $18 million — making them some of the highest-paid sports channels. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms of the contracts had not been announced.
Buck and Aikman’s move, who will be convening games for their 21st NFL season in 2022-2023, was hardly a surprise, as Buck’s expected departure was first reported by the New York Post. Still, the official announcement was a reminder of how crucial – and lucrative – football has been to the networks and broadcasters that deliver the games.
Despite criticism that haunted the NFL over a wide variety of issues, including a lawsuit accusing the league of discriminatory recruiting practices, NFL games accounted for 48 of the 50 most-watched broadcasts in the 2021 regular season. year, which aired on NBC, achieved the game’s best ratings in five years, with an average audience of 112.3 million viewers on television and streaming.
If anything, the competition should be even fiercer next season, with Amazon airing “Thursday Night Football.” So that has led to some musical chairs among the mostly male niche of football channels.
Last season, Steve Levy featured on ESPN’s Monday squad as the play-by-play announcer and former player and scout Louis Riddick and former quarterback Brian Griese as analysts. With Griese recently leaving Disney-owned ESPN to become the quarterbacks coach of the San Francisco 49ers, the network has made a strong effort to emulate Buck and Aikman, who have convened six Super Bowls.
At nearly $18 million a year, Aikman’s salary will rival that of CBS’ Tony Romo, another former Dallas Cowboys quarterback turned color analyst.
“If you get the chance to bring in the iconic, longest-running NFL broadcasting duo, grab it, especially at a time when we are on the cusp of a new era in our growing relationship with the NFL,” said Jimmy Pitaro, the chairman of ESPN and sports content, said in a statement.
As for the other broadcasters, Fox Sports is reportedly leaning toward naming Kevin Burkhardt its primary NFL play-by-play announcer, according to reports, while Amazon has been linked to Al Michaels, who won the Super Bowl last month. called for NBC.
