“Are you ready for some football?”

Then forget about ABC.

After 36 years of prime-time, network coverage of the NFL, ABC is out of the football business starting with the 2006 season. Its sister network, ESPN – both are owned by the Walt Disney Co. – won the bidding war to broadcast Monday night football. ESPN will pay $1.1 billion a year for the broadcast rights.

Football won’t disappear completely from nighttime network television. NBC, which had stopped carrying the NFL eight years ago, will broadcast the Sunday night game, which had been on ESPN. NBC will pay $600 million a year for the five-year contract.

For football fans, the shakeup means that commentators like John Madden and Al Michaels could be looking for new jobs. It also means some fans will miss the Monday night game, often billed as the week’s marquee matchup. According to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, about 67 percent of U.S. television households have cable, about 72 million altogether. Another 20 million subscribe to satellite programming. For the rest of the country, the Monday night game will not be available, although it will be replaced with the network broadcast of the Sunday night game.

It’s no secret that professional sports are dominated by money. The new deal boosts the NFL’s payments from television contracts by almost 40 percent over its current deal and will bring in more than $3 billion annually.

It’s about money for fans, too. For those dedicated to the Monday night game, it means subscribing to a cable or satellite service.