ESPN gets rid of an unpopular ‘Monday Night Football’ move

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.