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The Om Field -> Forums -> Washington Redskins -> Comcast To Drop NFL Network
Post Info TOPIC: Comcast To Drop NFL Network
KB24


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Posts: 76
Date: Apr 29 8:37 AM, 2009
Comcast To Drop NFL Network
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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sports/Goodbye-friend-NFL-Network-leaves-Comcast.html

Comcast subscribers who are fans of the NFL Network, do not bother looking for your favorite channel on May 1. It will no longer be there. The contract will expire and the NFL Network and Comcast have not come to terms on a new one.

After keeping in contact with representatives of the NFL Network and Comcast, I can tell you that neither party has changed their stance on the issues nor has there been any dialogue outside of lawyers debating before the Federal Communications Commission for well over a month. So you really can't resolve an issue if you don't address it face to face.

NFL Network no longer wants to be relegated to Comcast's Sports Package where fans, like myself, pay an extra $5 or so a month to get the channel (along with a number of other sports offerings including the NHL Network and NBA TV). What they want is for the channel to be offered on the extended basic channel lineup -- like the ESPN family of networks, TNT, TBS, and MLB Network and of course the local outlets like CSN and MASN. It is the NFL Network's contention that because of the eight regular season games they air, it belongs on the more accessible extended basic.

Comcast disagrees, saying that the eight games in question are offered to local affiliates in each home markets -- for example if the Redskins were playing Dallas, a local TV station in each city would carry the game. Therefore, airing the games nationally are not worth the cost of adding the service to the basic expanded cable and should be part of the Sports Package -- where those who are most interested in the games would have access to them as they do now.

I really think that for Comcast and the NFL Network, this is far more personal. I think this has to do more with the recently completed multi-year deal the NFL struck with DirecTV -- giving the satellite giant exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package. The cool billion dollar deal left cable companies like Comcast out of the lucrative NFL Sunday Ticket business. Fans, by the way, will have access to the NFL Sunday Ticket package via broadband as soon as the 2010-2011 season.

The NFL-DirecTV deal put the NFL Network in the unenviable position of dealing with the angry cable companies who are in no mood to help the league-owned network. The best thing now might be for the network to seek an existing cable partner.

About a year ago the NFL Network and ESPN had some very substantive talks about folding the network into ESPN Classic with a new name and really expanding the reach. However the deal fell apart due to editorial control, among other things.

Ironically, the best partner for the NFL Network might be Comcast-owned Versus. They wanted the eight game package of football games that the league passed on to the NFL Network. A deal between the two would solve the problem for both companies -- if they could come to an agreement.

Could these two find happiness together? For Comcast subscribers a deal of any sort is well off into the future, so say goodbye to Rich, Mooch, Deion and the gang at least for a while.



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Neophyte


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Posts: 54
Date: Apr 29 10:36 AM, 2009
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KB24 wrote:


Fans, by the way, will have access to the NFL Sunday Ticket package via broadband as soon as the 2010-2011 season.



Love the sound of this!  It is the only thing keeping me with Direct TV at the moment and even then it might not be enough.  Last year I paid $200 for the Sunday Ticket so I wouldn't miss a single Skins game.  By the end of the year, due to the Skins national schedule I had paid $50 a game for the 4 that I needed Sunday Ticket for.

Direct TV is more expensive now than ATT U-verse and has fewer features.  I am starting to think that for just 4 games, maybe I can do without...

 



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Chris


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Posts: 68
Date: Apr 29 12:12 PM, 2009
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Call me crazy, but I bet a deal is struck before the second regular season game scheduled on the NFLN is broadcast.

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(a/k/a Monte51Coleman)
Whiskeypeet


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Date: Apr 30 11:54 PM, 2009
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Comcast to carry NFL Network past deal deadline

By DEBORAH YAO, AP Business Writer 6 hours, 16 minutes ago

PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Comcast Corp. said late Thursday that it will continue carrying the NFL Network even after their contract expires at midnight, as negotiations continue.

Without an agreement, the nation’s largest cable TV operator had said it would be required to pull the plug on the football network starting Friday.

“Comcast and the NFL are engaged in productive discussions toward a new agreement for NFL Network carriage on Comcast,” Comcast said in a statement.

Comcast and the National Football League are in a court battle over Comcast’s decision to put the NFL-owned channel in a premium sports tier rather than in a lesser-priced service package that has more viewers.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, said the NFL asked for a 350 percent increase in the fees it would pay to carry the network, according to documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

Since the fees are based on the number of viewers, Comcast was able to pay less to the NFL Network by moving the channel from a digital tier with 8.6 million subscribers to a sports package that has 2 million subscribers and costs an extra $7 per month. The Philadelphia-based cable operator said it was allowed to do so under their contract, signed in 2004.

The NFL said Comcast made the move in retaliation for not getting the rights to show eight live NFL games for its Versus sports channel.

The NFL pointed out that Comcast rivals such as Dish Network Corp., DirecTV Group Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. all agreed to the same rates to carry the network. The NFL Network also said that with a smaller audience, it couldn’t get sports packages like Pac-10 Conference college football games, which had a minimum viewership requirement.

In 2006, the NFL sued Comcast in New York state court to force the cable operator to move the network back to the more popular digital tier. The following May, the court sided with Comcast.

The NFL appealed. An appellate court partially reversed the state court ruling and sent the case back for discovery and trial, where it is pending today.

In the meantime, the NFL sought an FCC order on the dispute. Now the case awaits a ruling from an administrative law judge at the FCC.



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