bubba9497 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/05/17/comcast.nflnetwork/index.html Click link for entire article NFL closing in on deal with Comcast The NFL is about to solve one very, very large television headache, and get some momentum it hopes to carry over into negotiations for a new labor contract with the players. That isn't the only bit of good TV news on the horizon for the NFL. The league is also on the verge of reaching agreements with its two Sunday afternoon network partners, FOX and CBS, on contract extensions. The deals with FOX, CBS and NBC run through the end of the 2011 season, and it's likely the networks will have two years added to their deals. Added to the deal the NFL made with DirectTV in March -- a four-year extension of the current satellite deal for Sunday games, worth $1 billion a year from 2011 through 2014 -- the league is riding a strong wave of TV profitability in bad economic times. Rights fees with CBS and FOX, in addition to the specifics of the deal, were not immediately available. But it's likely the league will get small bumps up from the $622 million it earns from CBS annually, and the $712 million FOX is paying. Notably absent from the network news: Progress on a new deal with NBC, which wasn't a part of the talks with the NFL. Part of the league's motivation to deal with Comcast and the networks, surely, was its desire to be able to use the Red Zone Channel on cable instead of only on satellite, and NBC wasn't part of the Red Zone deal. (The Red Zone channel is a whiparound channel following teams' scoring chances over the six-hour Sunday period when FOX and CBS have rights. The NFL wanted to make the channel available to cable systems, but could do so only if the two networks agreed to allow it be used on digital cable. When deals got made with FOX and CBS, as Sports Business Journal reported Sunday afternoon, it allowed the NFL to move close to a deal with Comcast, because the league could give the cable giant a valuable chip in the Red Zone Channel to use on Sundays.) NBC has historically been more of a bottom-line entity than other networks. But it's likely NBC, which currently pays $600 million a year for a premier Sunday night package of games, will agree to a similar two-year extension through 2013 sometime this year. NFL Network had been carried on a pay sports tier for Comcast's 24-million subscribers, and the NFL for years has been arguing its channel should be on the regular digital cable package with the ESPNs and CNNs of the cable TV world. Now that is close to happening. The deal would mean that instead of paying about $7 per month for the channel and other pay-TV sports channels, Comcast subscribers will get NFL Network with its regular digital package -- and it will increase the number of TV homes the Network is seen in from about 35 million to close to 50 million. More importantly, it could well pave the way for the NFL to make deals with other cable companies similarly chapped at the league's demand for huge rights fees for a sports channel with only 24 hours of NFL regular-season game programming per year. How big is this? Well, some of my acquaintances who work for the Network feared that without wider distribution, some owners tired of the five-year fight for wider distribution of the Network would have soon moved to kill the channel in the current bad economy. Comcast and the NFL had been like Pete Rozelle and Al Davis, seemingly destined to never make peace, and some employees felt the channel would never get major traction as long as league insisted that NFL Network charge cable companies more to carry its product than CNN charged for its channel. I'm told the key player in the deal from the NFL side has been commissioner Roger Goodell, who has worked personally with Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts to bridge the major differences between the two sides. Comcast, and the rest of Big Cable, has found it ridiculous (as did most sane people) that the league wanted 70 to 80 cents per viewer household for a network that televised only eight live NFL games. "Roger," one league source told me Sunday, "has made it a personal project to build a great relationship with Brian Roberts. The logjam's been broken, and I think that really helped." Last month, an administrative law judge began hearing the dispute between the two sides, with the NFL seeking to have the channel moved from the pay tier to the digital tier. Roberts told the judge Comcast would accept the league charging a fee of 25 cents per subscriber per month. The league argued its value was much higher. I'm also told a deal between Comcast the league was close to being done on Thursday or Friday, but it never got done. The two sides were back talking Sunday, working on some final points. These two sides have been engaged in substantive talks that have broken off many times, so it's dangerous to say categorically that a deal will get done. But I think one is very close. As for what this means to my parent company, Time Warner, I can't tell you. I can guess. Time Warner Cable has 14.7 million cable homes, and the relationship between the league and Time Warner has been as noxious as the one between Comcast and the NFL. It could be that the league is intent on getting the deal done with Comcast first, then moving on to the second-biggest of the Big Cables, Time Warner, with the framework of a concept in place. The deal with DirecTV, and the imminent ones with Comcast, CBS and FOX, bode well for the start of talks between the league and players this spring on a new collective bargaining agreement. NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith is expected to begin serious talks with league officials this spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinfan2k Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Red Zone channel will be a nice addition on cable!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sens11 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Good news! Bought time they figured this out. I will be happy to keep NFL Network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMOSS89 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Right on time as I'm about to get Fios....:doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvtbred Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Right on time as I'm about to get Fios....:doh: ...and I am going Dish so to hell with comcrap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedskinDan0557 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Too late comcast, i switched to fios, and haven't regretted it one bit. In fact fios is so much better i wish this would have happened sooner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedskinDan0557 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Right on time as I'm about to get Fios....:doh: Go ahead and switch, it is much better, the colors in hd are so much brighter and price is so much cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKM311 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 FIOS is amazing! Better than DirecTV and way better than Comcast. I have DirecTV and its not bad, but its not that great either. My GF has FIOS and it is amazing, but it is not available in my condo. I had Comcast, but hated it so much I had to get Satellite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadExField Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 I remember it NFL network used to be free, then they put it in the sports package, now they are bring it back? make up your dang mind Comcast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonoman Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 What is FIOS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ax Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 What is FIOS? For now, it's cheaper crack. Soon, it will be the just another way to pay too much to watch tv. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurntToast Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 How long until Comcast starting charging $10 for the NFL network and the Red Zone channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sempre_victrix Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 I wish that FOX would lose the right to carry NFC games. The only DC station that I don't get is FOX, so I miss at least 2, if not 4, games a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariusVT Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 ^^ or easier solution is comcast needs to bring back the washington fox channel on all of their location line ups. My parents in carroll county don't get it, but we do in howard county. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veretax Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Heck I get 2 Fox and 2 CBS and 2 ABC channels, but half the time the same games are on the fox or CBS channels, and even if they aren't many times I don't get the Skins games anyways :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinSabbath Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 FIOS is a fiber-optic digital TV service from Verizon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwpanic Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 i could care less about getting nfln. wake me when i can get sunday ticket without having directv. i'm getting pretty tired of soundless games at sportsbars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zCommander Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 FIOS is a fiber-optic digital TV service from Verizon ...and High Speed Internet and telephone service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 thank you comcast for not screwing this up. i now hate you a little less because of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stugein Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 It looks like the NFL was finally able to be convinced to step back from it's insane carriage fees a little bit in order to get this done. Thats a good thing. .70-.80/subscriber is ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pray4surf Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 I wonder if fios subscribers will be able to receive the NFL package? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heyholetsgogrant Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 It looks like the NFL was finally able to be convinced to step back from it's insane carriage fees a little bit in order to get this done. Thats a good thing. .70-.80/subscriber is ridiculous. As much as I hate Comcast, I agree the carriage fees the NFL network wanted were ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 As much as I hate Comcast, I agree the carriage fees the NFL network wanted were ridiculous. I agree too. They only show what like 8 games a year or something and for the other 8 or 9 months, there isn't much on there worth watching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoCalMike Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 I am still puzzled as to why the NFL continues to re-up it's Sunday Ticket package as an exclusive to DirectTV. They are losing out on a hell of a lot of business by not making it available to cable subscribers and those like me who have Dish Network. I prefer Dish Network over DirectTV, and right now I currently go to the sportsbar for 75% of the Redskins games because I live out of the Skins tv area. I really don't mind the sportsbars because the atmosphere is electric and you are basically seeing all the games happen at once without flipping channels. With that said though, if I could get the Sunday Ticket without having to switch satellite operators, I definately would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redshirtguy#45 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 I am still puzzled as to why the NFL continues to re-up it's Sunday Ticket package as an exclusive to DirectTV. They are losing out on a hell of a lot of business by not making it available to cable subscribers and those like me who have Dish Network.I prefer Dish Network over DirectTV, and right now I currently go to the sportsbar for 75% of the Redskins games because I live out of the Skins tv area. I really don't mind the sportsbars because the atmosphere is electric and you are basically seeing all the games happen at once without flipping channels. With that said though, if I could get the Sunday Ticket without having to switch satellite operators, I definately would. easterbrook on espn page2 rants on this very subject. he points out that iran can get games most folks in america cant get (have not verifed this myself). i have nfln, and i dont watch much of it. the reg season games on there have been.... AWFUL for the most part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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