Welcome back to another edition of the Awful Annuncing Sports Streaming Outrage Meter, where we attempt to quantify just how cumbersome and annoying streaming exclusives are for fans and audiences. We rate each streaming nuisance in four categories on a scale of 1-25, (1 is not that annoying/inconvenient/frustrating, 25 is extremely annoying/inconvenient/frustrating). The most egregious score possible is 100.

It’s happening again. Another NFL game that’s exclusive to a streaming service.

Earlier this season we had the Green Bay-Pittsburgh game from Brazil on Peacock on opening weekend. This time, ESPN+ gets one Monday night football nightcap as part of a doubleheader.

For the past two seasons, we’ve had MNF doubleheaders split between ESPN and ABC, regardless of whether one game was scheduled for 7:30 PM ET and the other in the regular 8:15 PM ET timeslot. For this week 7 Monday night football twin-bill, ESPN and ABC will simulcast Baltimore and Tampa Bay at 8:15 PM ET with the second game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Arizona Cardinals as an exclusive streaming-only for ESPN+. Although ESPN+ has had its exclusive game in London for the past two seasons, this is the first time they have had it for Monday night football.

Last season, NBC and Peacock played a linear/streaming doubleheader during both the regular season and Wild Card Weekend, giving fans plenty of reasons to complain.

The commercials for this are so funny: ESPN+’s exclusivity is hyped up as if Monday Night Football couldn’t be broadcast for free over the airwaves for 35 years. Don’t piss on me and call it streaming. https://t.co/jm7BPZGORk

— Robert Breedlove (@Breedlovecam) October 21, 2024

Although ESPN has heavily promoted tonight’s doubleheader, there will likely be viewers who are unaware that Chargers-Cardinals is behind the dreaded paywall. Here’s our guess at how much of an annoyance this will be.

How we got here

In 2021, ESPN announced a new 10-year contract with the National Football League, which delivered three weeks of MNF doubleheaders and an exclusive game for ESPN+. The key was that it would come from the NFL’s international inventory from London or Germany, as stated in the original press release:

A highlight of ESPN’s expanded regular season package will be an annual exclusive national game on ESPN+, the leading sports streaming service. The competition will take place internationally and will be broadcast live in the ET window on Sunday mornings. Additionally, this agreement provides ESPN with the ability to simulcast all ESPN/ABC game broadcasts on ESPN+.

In addition to the one game for the streaming platform, ESPN+ received highlights rights, allowing NFL Primetime to return after a fifteen-year absence.

As mentioned, ESPN’s three-week doubleheaders would allow for games on both ESPN and ABC. However, because the NFL has already completed its London schedule this season and only has one international game left in Germany in Week 10, all of which is scheduled for NFL Network, there was no room for ESPN+. For example, the NFL ensured that the streaming service would get one game per season in this final MNF doubleheader this year.

Over the past two seasons, many simply avoided the ESPN+ game, knowing that the London game was usually not a big game and many fans were often still asleep, in church or unaware it was even happening. Perhaps that’s why the exclusive game has now been moved to Monday night, where fans are highly aware and interested.

Broadcast history of events/annoyance scale

I love how espn is promoting the Chargers-Cardinals Monday Night Football game as an exclusive on espn+

Yes, we are all very excited about a new streaming service!

— Joe DiTullio (@DiTullioJoe) October 15, 2024

Monday night football dates back to 1970, when it started as a novelty for ABC but quickly became a ratings giant just weeks after the new package. In 2006, the package moved to cable when ESPN took over and largely kept it out of broadcast television until recently, when it was used to strengthen ABC during the writers’ and actors’ strikes last year. It is used again this season, despite some weaker ratings.

However, this is the first time that a Monday night footballThe game will be strictly streamed.

This ends six decades of games being broadcast on linear television, both broadcast and cable. ESPN has had NFL games on ESPN+ before, so it’s not entirely new, just new to Monday night football.

With that in mind we’re giving this one a 15 out of a potential 25 points because this is very annoying, especially for those who only realize it when they try to tune in, but there is at least one game tonight that doesn’t require a streaming service.

You get your Monday night fix, but no dessert.

What is the ransom?

ESPN+ costs $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year. That’s a lot. It can be part of the Disney streaming bundle Disney+ and Hulu, for $14.99 per month with ads or $24.99 per month without ads on Hulu and Disney+. Since ESPN is preparing a standalone service, you can expect the costs to be even higher. While parent company Disney has emphasized streaming, the shift away from cable and broadcast has become even more prominent.

The cost for this and other programming, whether college sports, exclusive original content, MLB, NHL or NBA, is quite expensive. This provides quite a large return for the consumer.

If you don’t have the Disney bundle and are in a pinch, $11.99 isn’t great, but Unlike other ransoms, it is stomachable. We give this one one 10 out of 25.

Broadcast quality

This is ESPN. Even with this Chargers-Cardinals game being shuffled to streaming, the Worldwide Leader won’t skimp on quality. The NFL has standards and requires broadcast quality production. If you watch this game on your personal device or a set-top box like Apple TV+, you won’t see anything cheap.

We score 2 out of 25 here the annoyance will be minimal.

ROI

If this is your first time watching an event on ESPN+, the company hopes you’ll stick around for others.

As ESPN+ grows, you’ll see how Disney will continue to look for more content to feed the beast that gets more rights in the future. For now, ESPN+ is more of a niche offering. Some of the reasons people are now subscribing are for low-level college football games, NHL, NCAA Olympic sports and championships, and UFC events.

Do you see yourself from the list below sticking around in this lineup outside of tonight’s game?

The 30 for 30 catalogs and a slew of other originals (hello, Omaha Productions) also give you some binge-watching options if you’re interested. If you are a fan of sports documentaries and haven’t seen many of them yet 30 for 30s, you can probably get a lot of mileage by subscribing to ESPN+ for the game and then bagging a handful or more of excellent docs in a month. You’ll also get access to more written context on ESPN’s website if that’s your thing, although that whole value proposition is changing.

Ultimately, how good is this service for your $12 a month? We have to assume that if you don’t have ESPN+ yet and are only now subscribing, it’s unlikely you’ll see much else on the service.

Despite our appreciation for the 30 for 30s, this isn’t the most robust offering. We go with A 21 out of 25 score.

Final score

The total score is 47 out of 100 on the annoyance scale.

The very first Monday night football Game streaming is undoubtedly annoying, but it costs $12, and you can still watch football tonight even if you don’t decide to sign up for it.

There are many worse offenders.

Still, it’s quite annoying!

You can read our previous Sports Streaming Outragre Meter for Fubo UEFA Euro 2024 here.