The NFL Network, Please
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I don’t know what’s more surprising, that the Colts-Cowboys preseason game last week drew better ratings than Barry Bond’s 756 th home run, or that the nation’s second-largest cable provider (Time Warner), still refuses to carry the NFL Network, when clearly American’s can’t get enough of the NFL.
Now I don’t know what unreasonable demands the NFL is making that prevents Time Warner from including the network in it’s package, but Comcast has been able to negotiate a deal which allows customers to purchase the Network as part of a sports entertainment package that would include at least three other sports channels. I will not pretend to understand what prevents Time Warner from offering the channel in this way when it already offers most of the other channels in Comcast’s sports entertainment package. It would seem to me that if a cable station was going to choose only one extra sports channel to carry (besides the standard ESPN and FSN) it would be the NFL Network due to NFL’s unquestionable dominance in general popularity and TV ratings. With the huge numbers of fantasy football participants, which appears to be on the rise, football is the number one sport for those who desire to watch out-of-market games. The NFL Network has exclusive rights to 8 regular season out-of-market games and 52 pre-season ones (perfect for preparing for the draft). These numbers will only rise as the NFL seeks to have more control over their game telecasts. Besides live games, the NFL offers a variety of programming that will appeal to football fans in all shapes, sizes, and levels. In-depth training camp coverage of every team, the coaches show for every team, high school football, college football, even the New York Fire Department vs the Police Department game! And perhaps the one nugget that appeals to me more than anything else, an opportunity to view the outstanding NFL Films Presents more frequently.
And I sit here and become angry about the prospect of another season spent without the NFL Network I can’t help but wonder why we as consumers put up with such treatment from our cable companies. As Americans are we not supposed to stand up to and defeat monopolies in all forms? How can a company like Time Warner force us to buy CSPAN and CSPAN2 as part of their cable package and then deny us the right to more football than we can handle? Why are we not allowed to choose the channels we want and don’t want to pay for? There are probably a good 100 channels included in my package that I would be willing to trade for the NFL Network. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a set value for each channel based on ratings and you could swap channels in and out of your package as you desired? Sure, ShopNBC might only cost $0.50 towards my monthly bill, but if I never watch it why should I pay for it? All I really want are the sports channels, and maybe a few others for an occasional break. Throw in enough of these channels that I am forced to pay for, but never watch and I just might have enough money to meet whatever the NFL demands. Wouldn’t this option give the cable company some leverage in its negotiations as well? They would have a very clear and accurate picture of just what their customers want to watch, arguably better than our current Nielsen ratings system, which could be still used as our system wouldn’t measure single episodes. But of course, any system that doesn’t involve me sitting here helplessly wishing for the NFL Network would be a good start.
