The issue is that FOX has rights to National Football Conference games — including the Giants-Vikings — and ESPN has exclusive rights to Monday Night Football. The plan heading into the standoff was that FOX would produce the broadcast and would be allowed to show the game in the Giants' and Vikings' home markets, and that did not include central Connecticut.
It appeared as the wholesale nhl jerseysgame approached that either ESPN was declining to allow FOX Sports to show the game in Connecticut, or that FOX Sports was tied by NFL rules. ESPN issued a statement blaming the holdup on FOX Sports.
"ESPN proposed Sunday afternoon to televise the game in Connecticut and across the country on ESPN2, with the sole condition that we manage the commercial inventory on our network. Fox rejected that offer, seeking instead to usurp our national feed, presumably for its financial benefit."
A FOX Sports spokesman said the network was constrained by NFL rules, which he said are clear about Sunday games postponed to Monday.
"We're limited in theGreen Bay Packers markets that the NFL is allowing us to show the game. Those markets are New York, Minneapolis, Albany, N.Y., Rochester, Minn., Duluth, Minn., and Mankato, Minn.," said FOX Sports spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said.
The match-up was moved from Sunday because of the collapse of the Metrodome in Minneapolis Saturday.
The general manager at Fox CT,New York Jets the local affiliate that would carry the game, issued a statement this evening calling on ESPN to change its position.
"These circumstances certainly are compelling enough to allow for the game's broadcast tonight on Fox Connecticut, and we find it terribly unfortunate that ESPN is placing its own self-interests over the desire of the people of Connecticut to watch their team play," said Richard Graziano, who is also chief executive officer of CT1 Media and publisher of The Hartford Courant. "We join with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in asking ESPN to reconsider its decision and to allow for this football game to be broadcast tonight on Fox
In a his sternly worded letter to the NFL, the Connecticut attorney general, a self-described Giants fan, said denying Connecticut viewers was unfair.
"This is a personal foul on fans in Connecticut," Blumenthal said at an afternoon press conference. "It's unfair to block a game that fans would have been able to view…Fans in the Giants' home viewing area should not be penalized for such an unusual event as the collapse of a stadium roof. It is unreasonable and unfair to suddenly and arbitrarily boot Giants fans in Connecticut out of what is and should be part of the team's home market."
Blumenthal later said the NFL Oakland Raiderswants to have the game broadcast in Connecticut, either on an over-the-air station of a cable network, Blumenthal said at 4 p.m. today, two hours after his initial announcement.
In response to Blumenthal's request, NFL spokesman Dan Masonson said in a written statement, "We could not get ESPN and FOX to agree to modify their contractual rights and make the game more broadly available." Masonson declined to elaborate on the NFL's position in the talks.
Fox CT, the local affiliate that would carry the game, is part of the same newsgathering operation that includes The Hartford Courant.
With the unusual prospect of Dallas Cowboysa second game unfolding during a Monday Night Football telecast, ESPN said in a written statement, "We will aggressively update fans leading up to and throughout the game tonight on ESPN within our Monday Night Football coverage and across our other platforms."
Masonson, at the NFL, explained that Albany is part of the home market because it is where the Giants hold their summer training camp.
Other markets will have the regularly scheduled Monday Night Football game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans, beginning at 8:30 p.m.
ESPN Radio 1410 will broadcast the Giants-Vikings game beginning with the pregame show at 7:05 p.m., and WTIC-AM 1080 has announced it also will broadcast the game.
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