NFL and Comcast’s Football Channel Flap, Take Two

Comcast TV Customers Still Caught in Crossfire

What a difference a year hasn’t made in the battle between the National Football League and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) as to how to offer its prized NFL Network channel to the cableco’s TV customers.

With the 2008 NFL regular season to kick off tonight, it appears nothing has been resolved between the league — which has pressed Comcast to offer the channel for free — and the cableco, which offers it as part of a now one-year-old, pay extra, premium sports package.

The league’s NFL Network channel carries eight regular season games starting in late November. However, if you’re a Comcast TV customer and don’t buy the package for about $8 a month, and you don’t live in one of the two team’s cities, you don’t get the games.

This is in stark contrast to other TV providers such as AT&T Inc. (T) with U-verse and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) with FiOS, which don’t charge extra for the NFL Network channel. The same goes for satellite TV operators.

The continuing impasse between the content owner and cable operator raises the question of what say, if any, subscribers have in the content packaging and pricing strategies of their TV providers. Judging from the loud consumer outcry over the NFL-Comcast flap last season, the answer would seem to be “little.”

The standoff between the NFL and Comcast came to a head late last season when it appeared many thousands of households wouldn’t be able to view a key matchup between the undefeated New England Patriots and the New York Giants. A boiling point was reached as legislators threatened investigations into Comcast’s offering of the NFL Network channel. That resulted in the league agreeing to simulcast the game on NBC and CBS.

"We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement, at the time of the decision.

In late February, a court ruling that allowed Comcast to offer NFL Network in a pay tier was overturned. Both parties were headed back to court to figure out how to handle the situation, but no resolution has been announced in the six months since. In May, the NFL Network filed a carriage complaint with the FCC on the matter, revealing that the two parties are still at odds over the issue of the channel being offered as part of a premium sports package.

If a mutually beneficial arrangement isn’t reached soon, the parties involved are simply setting the stage for yet another, high-profile dispute between the league and Comcast, and between Comcast TV subscribers and the cable giant.

Related Articles:

Comcast, NFL Network Head Back to Court

Everyone a Loser in Cableco-NFL Network Matchup

NFL Network to Simulcast Big Game

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