Why doesn't Disney use their existing properties to push XFL viewership?

[sdem]

I feel as though using the Monday Night Football branding and perhaps running a fantasy football property through their (industry-leading I may add) ESPN FF app would help drive causal viewership. Is there any reason why Disney won't/hasn't at least done the former? Maybe even try to leverage a Manningcast/McAfee simulcast in there?

[johnnyangryfuzzball]

I feel as though using the Monday Night Football branding and perhaps running a fantasy football property through their (industry-leading I may add) ESPN FF app would help drive causal viewership. Is there any reason why Disney won't/hasn't at least done the former? Maybe even try to leverage a Manningcast/McAfee simulcast in there?

It's tough to do the multicast thing when you're dealing with NHL, NBA, and a bajillion college sports conferences—the main reason ESPN has all those channels to begin with, and why the XFL was pawned off on FX for the first seven weeks of the season. But I think that, given that the XFL is stable and has a full season under this ownership's belt, we'll probably see more cross-promotion on NFL and (probably a little bit less) college telecasts. (Plus, with Fox not having the Super Bowl this year, the sabotage is probably not as much of an issue.) I think the uncertainty of whether Johnson and Garcia had the financial backing to push through made them somewhat hesitant. But—and I'll note that since then, RedBird has found backing from the United Arab Emirates for its sports investments—I think they'll be more inclined to rebuild their audience with a little more of a push.

McAfee did some work for the XFL but he quit after week 1 of 2020 because he didn't feel comfortable with the sideline role he was given (even though by most accounts he did a really good job fitting the environment). A better structure might suit him well.

As for the MNF branding, I think the NFL holds the trademark on that (hence why it's not used for their college telecasts). But it'd be cool if they did.

[sdem]

I feel as though using the Monday Night Football branding and perhaps running a fantasy football property through their (industry-leading I may add) ESPN FF app would help drive causal viewership. Is there any reason why Disney won't/hasn't at least done the former? Maybe even try to leverage a Manningcast/McAfee simulcast in there?

It's tough to do the multicast thing when you're dealing with NHL, NBA, and a bajillion college sports conferences—the main reason ESPN has all those channels to begin with, and why the XFL was pawned off on FX for the first seven weeks of the season. But I think that, given that the XFL is stable and has a full season under this ownership's belt, we'll probably see more cross-promotion on NFL and (probably a little bit less) college telecasts. (Plus, with Fox not having the Super Bowl this year, the sabotage is probably not as much of an issue.) I think the uncertainty of whether Johnson and Garcia had the financial backing to push through made them somewhat hesitant. But—and I'll note that since then, RedBird has found backing from the United Arab Emirates for its sports investments—I think they'll be more inclined to rebuild their audience with a little more of a push.

McAfee did some work for the XFL but he quit after week 1 of 2020 because he didn't feel comfortable with the sideline role he was given (even though by most accounts he did a really good job fitting the environment). A better structure might suit him well.

As for the MNF branding, I think the NFL holds the trademark on that (hence why it's not used for their college telecasts). But it'd be cool if they did.

I think the Monday Night Football branding is directly owned by ABC/ESPN, it's just that the NFL still has to grant ABC the privilege to be the sole distributor of their league on Monday Nights.

I'm definitely bullish on the continued survival of the XFL due to RedBird! Hopefully, McAfee could be persuaded in some way to promote the league, I can't imagine he'll be able to escape it considering his ESPN contract.

[GDAWG]

I feel as though using the Monday Night Football branding and perhaps running a fantasy football property through their (industry-leading I may add) ESPN FF app would help drive causal viewership. Is there any reason why Disney won't/hasn't at least done the former? Maybe even try to leverage a Manningcast/McAfee simulcast in there?

It's tough to do the multicast thing when you're dealing with NHL, NBA, and a bajillion college sports conferences—the main reason ESPN has all those channels to begin with, and why the XFL was pawned off on FX for the first seven weeks of the season. But I think that, given that the XFL is stable and has a full season under this ownership's belt, we'll probably see more cross-promotion on NFL and (probably a little bit less) college telecasts. (Plus, with Fox not having the Super Bowl this year, the sabotage is probably not as much of an issue.) I think the uncertainty of whether Johnson and Garcia had the financial backing to push through made them somewhat hesitant. But—and I'll note that since then, RedBird has found backing from the United Arab Emirates for its sports investments—I think they'll be more inclined to rebuild their audience with a little more of a push.

McAfee did some work for the XFL but he quit after week 1 of 2020 because he didn't feel comfortable with the sideline role he was given (even though by most accounts he did a really good job fitting the environment). A better structure might suit him well.

As for the MNF branding, I think the NFL holds the trademark on that (hence why it's not used for their college telecasts). But it'd be cool if they did.

I think the Monday Night Football branding is directly owned by ABC/ESPN, it's just that the NFL still has to grant ABC the privilege to be the sole distributor of their league on Monday Nights.

I'm definitely bullish on the continued survival of the XFL due to RedBird! Hopefully, McAfee could be persuaded in some way to promote the league, I can't imagine he'll be able to escape it considering his ESPN contract.

He won't talk about if he's not forced to. Stephen A Smith is never going to talk about it, neither will the guys from Pardon the Interruption. There's not going to be a mandate from ESPN to force whoever is left to talk about it.

[laxtreme56]

The XFL is being used to bring up the visibility of FX. I know we all want more games on ABC and big ESPN, but 500k viewers on FX is more advantageous to the league than 875k on ABC. Honestly, I'm fine with that.

[GregParks]

I feel as though using the Monday Night Football branding and perhaps running a fantasy football property through their (industry-leading I may add) ESPN FF app would help drive causal viewership. Is there any reason why Disney won't/hasn't at least done the former? Maybe even try to leverage a Manningcast/McAfee simulcast in there?

MNF is a very valuable brand to both ESPN and the NFL; I don't think either property would want to dilute that, nor cause confusion in the marketplace, by using it for the XFL. Ideally, ESPN can create branding all its own for the XFL. As others have said, hopefully with year one in the books, we'll see a little more investment from ESPN on that end.

In terms of Fantasy Football, I'd agree and think the absence of anything in that regard from the XFL or ESPN last year was a letdown. I blame that at least partially on the league getting behind on certain big things, which left some things lower down on the priority order, like FF, getting skipped over for year one. Ideally, that is an improvement made for year two.

[sdem]

I feel as though using the Monday Night Football branding and perhaps running a fantasy football property through their (industry-leading I may add) ESPN FF app would help drive causal viewership. Is there any reason why Disney won't/hasn't at least done the former? Maybe even try to leverage a Manningcast/McAfee simulcast in there?

MNF is a very valuable brand to both ESPN and the NFL; I don't think either property would want to dilute that, nor cause confusion in the marketplace, by using it for the XFL. Ideally, ESPN can create branding all its own for the XFL. As others have said, hopefully with year one in the books, we'll see a little more investment from ESPN on that end.

In terms of Fantasy Football, I'd agree and think the absence of anything in that regard from the XFL or ESPN last year was a letdown. I blame that at least partially on the league getting behind on certain big things, which left some things lower down on the priority order, like FF, getting skipped over for year one. Ideally, that is an improvement made for year two.

Agreed, ESPN's fantasy football app is huge. Just run a few push notifications and it'll bring in some extra viewership.

[4th&long]

I feel as though using the Monday Night Football branding and perhaps running a fantasy football property through their (industry-leading I may add) ESPN FF app would help drive causal viewership. Is there any reason why Disney won't/hasn't at least done the former? Maybe even try to leverage a Manningcast/McAfee simulcast in there?

XFL is not Disnesy's property. They have no vested interest in promoting something they don't own. USFL doesn't even do a good job of cross promotion across its properties and it owns the USFL.

Also Disney is re-evaluating all its properties - especially linear cable networks. So not only is XFL not Disney's priority even its own nets like FX may not be a priority.
Look for example at NBC. NBC shutdown its own NBC-SN a couple years ago and dropped NHL. They also sold regional NBC-SN Washington. Disney may be doing the similar in the near future. Recall that FX was only relatively recently acquired from FOX (old Fox).