NFL draft to get Disney treatment: Televised on ABC for three days, with live musical acts
By the time the NFL and its television partners are done adding to draft coverage, we’ll wonder if the days of the commissioner just reading picks ever really happened.
The NFL has expanded the draft to three days, moved the event to stadiums to include more of a live audience, and pretty much made the draft an overproduced event. Judging by its ratings, nobody seems to mind.
The 2019 NFL draft will push the idea of the draft being everything but teams picking college players to a new level. The NFL announced that it is teaming with Disney to expand draft coverage next year. It’s notable that the league clarified it is joining up with Disney, and not ABC or ESPN, the television networks that Disney owns.
All three days of the draft will be on ABC, the first time that has happened, and with “an added focus on the personalities and backstories of the draft picks and the overall spectacle of the draft, including live musical acts.” This seems like it will be a Disney event.
At this rate, announcing draft picks might become optional.
ABC’s broadcast sounds like it will be unique for draft coverage
The NFL draft next year will be in Nashville, and that got the NFL’s creative minds going. The ABC broadcast sounds like it will be different than any other the NFL has offered for its draft.
If you still like the actual draft — I know, crazy — there’s good news. ESPN will have its own broadcast over the three-day event, and it will be “a traditional X’s and O’s football analysis-themed production.” The NFL Network will have its own broadcast too, and one would assume that will focus on football as well. That’s great for the fans who don’t need a country music act between the Giants and 49ers selecting offensive linemen. ABC will simulcast ESPN’s broadcast of the third day of the draft, which is the fourth through seventh rounds.
ABC’s broadcast spectacle will be broadcast on April 25-27 next year. The draft might happen those days too, if the NFL remembers that part of the show.
The 2019 draft could be short on star power
This might be the right year to have musical acts going during the NFL draft. Next year’s draft won’t be anything like the last two, when star quarterbacks and other easily recognizable names like Saquon Barkley drove huge ratings. There are a lot of good defensive players and offensive tackles that will make up a majority of the first round of the 2019 draft. There are a few quarterbacks too, but it doesn’t seem the draft will have the star power of the past couple years.
That won’t keep the NFL from blowing it up to a larger-than-life event. There’s probably a limit to the expansion of the draft coverage, but we haven’t reached it yet.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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