ESPN and the Arena Football League entered into a five-year agreement that includes extensive multimedia rights and a minimum of 26 televised games per season, which began in 2007. ESPN also purchased a minority ownership stake in the AFL as part of the agreement that enhances ESPN’s football programming lineup, the most comprehensive in sports television, with year-round football on Monday nights.

ESPN will televise a minimum of 17 regular-season games and nine playoff games -- including a minimum of three Wild Card games, three Divisional Playoff games, both Conference Championships and the ArenaBowl -- on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. ESPN also has an exclusive window for weekly Monday night primetime games on ESPN2 -- continuing to establish Monday night as the “football night” for fans year-round.

Similar to recent major ESPN content acquisitions, the agreement entails a broad range of rights. Fifteen ESPN platforms will benefit from this new agreement, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN on ABC, ESPN Classic, ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD; ESPN.com; Spanish-language ESPN Deportes; ESPN360 (the company's growing interactive and customizable broadband service); Mobile ESPN Publishing (the company's wireless content licensing business); ESPN Radio, ESPN The Magazine and other ESPN-branded services (i.e., iPod, video-on-demand). ESPN also gains the right to both air and syndicate Arena Football League games through ESPN International.