XFL meets ESPN expectations

XFL Football discussion.
laxtreme56
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Re: XFL meets ESPN expectations

Post by laxtreme56 »

ESPN touting more of its XFL success and promises to "advance the fan experience in 2024."
https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-rele ... fl-season/

Interesting tidbit here, "The Championship game was our most-watched game of the XFL season on ESPN+." Of course no numbers were revealed, but it's good to see it being the most streamed game of the year, even if week 1 were the most watched on TV.
MGB01
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Re: XFL meets ESPN expectations

Post by MGB01 »

Now the $64M question: how/where do you put games on ABC?

I mentioned this a couple times this year: the Sat DH was more than likely a giveback to ABC/ESPN for this being the Stanley Cup Finals TNT-exclusive year (of course this will also be the case in '25 but let's keep focused on nine months from now). So would a 12/12:30 start be where the XFL shows up beginning in week two? Now you're excluding Seattle and Vegas but honestly Vegas (at Cashman) belonged nowhere but FX and Seattle could honestly live if they were only up for a midseason or week 10 game. Every team was on ABC at least once anyway.

This was also in my TV thread last July.
GregParks
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Re: XFL meets ESPN expectations

Post by GregParks »

laxtreme56 wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 6:20 pm ESPN touting more of its XFL success and promises to "advance the fan experience in 2024."
https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-rele ... fl-season/

Interesting tidbit here, "The Championship game was our most-watched game of the XFL season on ESPN+." Of course no numbers were revealed, but it's good to see it being the most streamed game of the year, even if week 1 were the most watched on TV.
Good catch. Some positive numbers coming out after the season and obviously it's nice that ESPN is touting things too, and not just the XFL. Appears the relationship remains strong.
MGB01 wrote:
Now the $64M question: how/where do you put games on ABC?
It's one thing to say "they need more games on network TV," but it's another to, as you noted, find a place and time for them. It's hard given all of ABC/ESPN's sports properties. You'd love to have a strong lead-in like an NBA game, but then you run the risk of the game bleeding into the XFL game and the XFL game starting late. At this point, the XFL is still only going to get leftovers after the NBA and NHL schedules come out - they're going to be the priority, and rightly so. That's just the reality of being (a) a lesser sports property and (b) one the network is paying significantly less for than the others.
@gregmparks
MGB01
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Re: XFL meets ESPN expectations

Post by MGB01 »

The NHL schedule was released today. We'll have to wait for the full-season TV schedule (i.e. the doubleheader curveball) but I think the league has a pretty good idea of what's available.

As it is now back-to-back Stadium Series games at MetLife could affect week one (specifically the Rangers/Isles game on Sunday).
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