When ESPN televises its next wild-card playoff game in January 2016, the game won’t be broadcast only on a four-letter network. The game will go three-letter, too.
ESPN has announced that it will simulcast the postseason contest on ABC, which is commonly owned with ESPN by Disney. While that necessarily will undermine ESPN’s ratings, it will increase the total audience — further confirming the NFL’s desire to put significant games on free broadcast TV.
Despite the many technological gains of the lack 40 years, millions of Americans still get the bulk of their boob-tube programming from rabbit-ear antennas.