[Infowarrior] - Fight looms between NFL and Big Cable

[Richard Forno]

(of course, the bit about how Comcast owns and offers the Golf Channel to
all customers speaks volumes.....I don't want Golf, I want Football, but to
Comcrap, if THEY own the channel, they don't care what you want.   Same old
monopolistic cable company crapola.......rf)


http://tinyurl.com/yqcbnc

Fight looms between NFL and Big Cable
By: Barry Horn Posted: 11/30/07

DALLAS - The NFL knew it had something special when its scheduling formula
spit out a Packers-Cowboys matchup this season. While the league could never
have anticipated they would rank as the top teams in the NFC, it did know
the value of tradition and could document each team's enormous drawing power
on national television.

So when the schedule maker divvied up 2007 games among the league's
television partners, it decided the Packers-Cowboys would not go to Fox, the
network of the NFC, or the prime-time packages on NBC or ESPN, a trio which
anted up $2.41 billion in rights fees this season. Instead, the NFL looked
in the mirror and delivered the game to its own fledgling NFL Network, which
will deliver the game to only one-third of the country.

It's part of the league's plan to help transform an ugly duckling into a
cash cow. "It's no accident we have Green Bay-Dallas," Jerry Jones, the
recently appointed chairman of NFL Network, confirmed in an interview last
week.

"And it's no accident that there are two Dallas Cowboys appearances in the
network's eight games," added Jones, who doubles as the proud Cowboys owner.

The NFL hoped the promise of a Packers-Cowboys extravaganza in its second
season of broadcasting games would ignite a run of viewers demanding their
cable carriers offer the network. But a funny thing has happened to the most
irresistible force in the sports universe. The NFL has run into an immovable
object: big cable carriers.

Time Warner, Dallas' cable provider with more than 2.3 million subscribers
across Texas, and Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, have proven
to be All-Pro run stoppers. Along with the likes of fellow cable giants,
Cablevision and Charter, they have refused to yield to the league's demands
to carry NFL Network on their basic digital tiers. Comcast does offer the
network but on a sports tier, a cable no-man's land.

When the Packers (10-1) visit the Cowboys (10-1) at Texas Stadium on
Thursday night, the game will be available in only 35 million homes across
the country. Most are satellite subscribers. Throw in the home markets of
Dallas-Fort Worth as well as Milwaukee and Green Bay, the only ones able to
watch the game on local over-the-air TV stations, and that ups the total to
about 38.7 million homes.

Put another way: the game will not be available in about 74.1 million of the
country's 112.8 million homes with televisions.

With few exceptions, those 112.8 million homes would have had access to the
game on Fox or NBC. Almost 97 million could have seen it on ESPN.

Cable homes in Cowboys-crazed markets across Texas such as San Antonio, Waco
and Austin will be shutout. Same for Packers fans in Wisconsin who live
outside Green Bay and Milwaukee.

Finger pointing

Not surprisingly, the big cable companies blame the NFL for the eclipse
while the NFL points its finger at Big Cable.

In a battle where billions of dollars ultimately may be at stake, each has
launched a public relations campaign claiming it alone is acting
altruistically for the public good.

In a conference call with reporters last week, NFL commissioner Roger
Goodell relentlessly repeated the NFL mantra. He knows fans may be angry
they will miss NFL Networks' eight-game schedule, which began Thanksgiving
night and ends with what may be the New England Patriots' quest for a
perfect 16-0 season. But, he maintained, the NFL Network was created simply
as a vehicle to bring "more football to fans." Blame the cable carriers for
not allowing it, he said.

Big Cable says the NFL Network is asking it for 70 cents a month for each
cable home. That cost would have to be passed on to all subscribers,
including non-NFL fans. Big Cable says year-round NFL Network programming
other than the eight games is pedestrian with little value to its customers.

"We will protect our customers from having to pay for a network that we
don't think all of them would necessarily want to view," said David Cohen,
executive vice president of Comcast.

Left unsaid is that Comcast charges its customers, albeit lower rates, for
sports channels likeVersus and Golf Channel it distributes on the basic
digital tier the NFL seeks to be placed.

Comcast owns both channels.

Jerry's message

Since becoming NFL Network chairman soon after the start of the season,
Jerry Jones has become a televangelist preacher of sorts. His demons are the
cable companies.

Jones has traveled the country imploring NFL fans to drop their NFL
Network-less cable and embrace satellite or the telecoms such as Verizon,
which offer the network.

At every opportunity, he points out that 240 smaller cable companies, with a
combined 8 million subscribers, are carrying the network and have not passed
on increases. He's lobbied state legislators and the Federal Communications
Commission on the evils of Big Cable monopolies.

Jones, the league's master marketer, didn't volunteer for the duty. He was
drafted by his fellow owners.

"I welcomed it," Jones said. "I certainly believe what we are going to
accomplish with NFL Network."

Big Cable maintains that its refusal to carry NFL Network has had minimal
effect. There has been no mass exodus to satellite or the telecoms.

"This is a very competitive market, and we are sensitive to our customers'
needs," said Ron McMillan, Time Warner vice president of governmental
affairs in Texas. "We're not hearing from our customers about this."

NFL options

The NFL had options when it decided to implement a new eight-game,
late-season, prime-time package. It could sell the rights to the games to a
network as its does its Sunday and Monday night offerings, or it could keep
the rights in-house and use the games to help grow the 4-year-old NFL
Network.

Comcast bid $400 million a year to carry the package that would help build
the identity of it's Versus network. The NFL decided to network build,
leaving Versus with NHL games as its major attraction.

To recoup the lost rights money, the NFL needed to charge cable providers a
fee, The league determined the tony 70 cents per customer per month cost for
distribution on the popular basic digital tier. If the NFL could sell its
network to cable companies across the country, including Comcast and Time
Warner's 38 million subscribers, the rate would generate more than $300
million in subscription fees annually. That would be before a single second
of commercial time was sold.

Satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network, telecables and small cable
made their deals with NFL Network.

Big Cable balked. Instead, it offered to put the NFL Network on their sports
tiers, home of the likes of NBA TV and NHL Network. For whatever reason -
lack of marketing, lack of public interest, high cost, low value - sports
tiers have not captured nearly the market share that has basic digital.

Bottom line: There's not nearly as much money to be made.

Interestingly, when Major League Baseball launches its cable TV network in
2009, it will be on the digital basic tier that football seeks.
Coincidentally, baseball has sold equity interests in its network to big
cable carriers. The NFL adamantly claims it has no interest in such an
arrangement.

Also, baseball also offers its out-of-market "Extra Innings" package to
cable and satellite. Much to cable's displeasure, the NFL's similarly
conceived "Sunday Ticket" package is the exclusive property of satellite's
DirecTV. The NFL and Big Cable offer different versions of how that
happened.

During his conference call, NFL commissioner Goodell reiterated several
times that no resolution to the conflict appears imminent even if the FCC,
as is expected, does takes the issue under consideration and state
legislators continue to press for a solution.

"We are trying to reach a compromise," Goodell repeated several times.

Never considered for compromise was flexing the Packers-Cowboys and
season-ending Patriots-Giants to network television. They will remain
casualties of the business.

It is difficult to imagine that the dispute will not be settled before the
NFL's network TV contracts begin to expire after the 2010 (DirecTV) and 2011
(Fox, NBC, CBS) seasons. But what if the conflict lingers?

"We anticipate broadening the number of games on NFL Network," said Jones,
willing to give the cable carriers what they say they need - more solid
programming. "The cable companies are screwing with our fans, if you will.
And we've got to stop it." © Copyright 2007 The Triangle