This past year saw ESPN provide two NFL Draft broadcasts; the traditional one on ESPN, and a more college-centric offering on ABC. It was seen at the time as another example of ESPN attempting to strengthen their frayed relationship with the NFL.
Those efforts are continuing, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting that the 2020 NFL Draft will once again be shown across three networks: ABC, ESPN, and the league’s NFL Network.
Just in: the 2020 NFL Draft in Las Vegas will once again be broadcast on ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 20, 2019
The ratings were decent in 2019, with ABC doing a bit better than the FOX broadcast in 2018. (The existence of which was seen as a pretty big shot at ESPN.) Considering NFL rights are once again coming up soon, this move makes a lot of sense. Factoring in Disney/ABC/ESPN’s apparent desire to get ABC back into the NFL rotation, and this was probably more of an inevitability than anything else.
ESPN (and now ABC) both clearly want to remain in the NFL business, and this is yet another example of how they’re making that clear to the league.
