Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions won’t be going anywhere anytime soon as the company has extended its agreement with The Walt Disney Company and ESPN. The extension will add a fourth year (through 2024) for Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, commonly known as the “Manningcast” and the agreement was expanded to include alternate presentations for the UFC, college football, and golf, each produced by Omaha Productions and ESPN featuring other hosts.
Jimmy Pitaro, Chairman, ESPN and Sports Content, said, “We couldn’t be more proud of Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli and the partnership we’ve developed with Peyton, Eli and the team at Omaha Productions. This new agreement allows us to deepen our relationship and explore original concepts to spread that magic to other sports and events. Ultimately, this will help grow our audience by providing fans with even more creative options that they crave.”
For ESPN, it was imperative that they were able to extend their agreement with Omaha, especially with Amazon reportedly interested in adding the ManningCast to Thursday Night Football. In its debut season, the alternate broadcast aired on ESPN2 and ESPN+, and under the extended agreement, the Mannings will be featured in a 10-game annual slate of alternative Monday Night Football telecasts. The first season of the ManningCast was a rating success with the 4-time Super Bowl-winning brothers holding ESPN records for the seven most-watched alternate telecasts while averaging 1.6 million viewers over 9 episodes.
Peyton Manning, founder of Omaha Productions, added, “I’ve always loved talking football with my brother, and it was even more fun to do it while watching ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Eli and I are excited to sign on for another season, and the entire Omaha team is looking forward to producing MegaCasts that celebrate other sports.”
It remains to be seen how well the alternate broadcasts will translate to other sports as the network plans to broadcast “multiple events per year showcasing alternative viewing options.” For college football, the network will offer alternate broadcasts of games during the regular season, postseason, and College Football National Championship in collaboration with Omaha. For UFC and golf, select events will get an annual alternate viewing treatment with hosts to be named at a later date.