One of ESPN’s unpopular “Monday Night Football” telecasts is coming to an end in 2025.
ESPN will no longer broadcast one of its Monday night games exclusively on its ESPN+ streaming service, the network announced Tuesday. That game had previously been scheduled for Week 7 and would have been between the Houston Texans and Seattle Seahawks.
Instead, that game has been moved to ESPN, and will air as part of a doubleheader with a Buccaneers-Lions contest. The decision comes as part of the network’s new licensing deal with NFL Media.
ESPN is launching its direct-to-consumer streaming service on Aug. 21, and ESPN+ will be folded into that. All of ESPN’s live NFL broadcasts will be streamed on the higher tier of the new direct-to-consumer offering, leaving the current streaming service without much of a purpose.
Streaming-exclusive games are relatively unpopular with fans, but none moreso than the ESPN+ game, as that service never had the reach of Amazon Prime or Netflix. Last year, the network put a Week 7 game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Arizona Cardinals exclusively on ESPN+ in virtually the same timeslot as another NFL game aired on linear television. Unsurprisingly, the ESPN+ exclusive telecast led to many fan complaints.
The NFL is still fully embracing streaming as a way to deliver games, but will likely be sticking to more popular streaming platforms in the future.
