Late this afternoon, the NFL Network announced that this Saturday night’s game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants would also be seen over the air on both CBS and NBC. This is earthshaking news in the world of TV. This will be the first simulcast of an NFL game since CBS and NBC both televised Super Bowl I.
This is a big deal. The NFL Network has been in not-so-successful negotiations with major cable operators Time Warner, Cablevision, and Charter to get the channel on their systems. Comcast currently carries NFLN, but got a favorable ruling this year from a judge, allowing them to move the channel from a general digital tier to a less-popular sports tier. The majority of NFLN viewers watch the channel on Directv or Dish Network. The cable companies are not willing to pay the NFL 50 cents per subscriber for the channel. It was not a major issue until last season, when the NFL started televising regular season games on NFLN. NFLN sells local broadcast rights to individual games in the home markets of the competing teams (this week, Boston and New York). NFLN does not sell the rights to local stations in surrounding areas that would be interested in the game (this week, for example, Providence, RI). This has millions of fans up in arms. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have threatened a congressional investigation of the NFL’s TV distribution practices. That was enough to force the NFL to consider alternate distribution methods for Saturday night’s game. The Patriots have a chance to become the first team ever to go 16-0 in a regular season with a win.
The NFL owners have been questioning the success of NFL Network. The league expected to have 50 million subscribers at this point instead of the 35 million it currently has. So, this year, the league put some marquee games (Packers-Cowboys, Patriots-Giants) on the channel and installed Jerry Jones as chairman of the NFL Network committee. Jerry has been out there selling NFL Network to cable companies. The league wants to put pressure on cable operators to carry the channel.
I have satellite, and watch NFL Network regularly. It is not the best channel in the world. They have shows covering the present-day NFL, old NFL Films reruns, and replays of recent games. They will also broadcast the Texas Bowl and the Insight Bowl later this week. It is not the best channel, but it’s not bad.
Cable operators will now have little reason to budge in their war with the NFL. For this reason, I would not be surprised to see NFL Network to go the way of NFL Europe: bye-bye. The NFL can sell the rights to those eight games to an existing cable network and make more money than they would by operating their own network.
Personally, I think it would be a good idea for ESPN to buy NFL Network and merge it with ESPN Classic. ESPN Classic has become a waste of bandwidth, as they have lost rights to a lot of historic sporting events that put it on the map. They show a lot of junk, including World Series of Poker marathons and American Gladiators. They have the distribution that NFL Network desires. It would be a healthy marriage between the NFL and one of its current TV partners. An ESPN Football Channel would be the bomb! I hope someone in Bristol is reading this and passes the idea up to the suits at the Worldwide Leader in Sports. They can even call it ESPN8-the Ocho! Oops, that name has already been used.
The NFL hasn’t become the world’s most successful and profitable sports league by being stupid. They will either make NFL Network a success, or shut it down.
This also has implications for the Big Ten Network. If the cable companies can shut NFL Network down, they can probably do the same with BTN. That won't sit well with school presidents and ADs in the Big Ten, nor will it sit well with adminstrators of other conferences exploring the same thing.
Meanwhile, I’ll be watching Patriots-Giants on Saturday night. It really won’t be much of a game. The Giants have nothing to play for, and will prepare for their playoff game with Tampa Bay. The Pats are trying to make history. I don’t care if they go undefeated, as long as they lose to the Cowboys in Super Bowl XLII.
2 comments:
The NFL Network sucks. Bryant 'Grumble' should be fired worse than Motorcycle Greggo. The overall quality of the NFL Network's games are on par with some local cable access broadcast of a high school football game. Kill the NFLN!
Someone should have a blog dedicated to the sorriness and suckiness of Bryant Gumbel. I'll never forget him on the 49ers' game two weeks ago when he called SF's running back Al Gore. Al Gore invented the Internet, but Frank Gore is the RB for the 49ers. Last week, he called the Cowboys' quarterback "Tony Romeo".
I agree with the lack of quality of NFL Network's production. The whole country will see it in full display in living color Saturday night on both CBS and NBC.
Perhaps the league will pull the plug on this thing. At least it's better than CSTV. :-)
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