Comcast Sues NFL, Alleging Contract Breach
Cable TV Operator Wants to Block League from Telling Consumers to Drop Comcast Subscriptions
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 12/13/2007 12:56:00 PM
Washington – Comcast on Thursday sued the National Football League to block the league from blasting emails and running Web sites that tell consumers to drop their Comcast subscription because access to the NFL Network requires an additional charge.
In the suit, Comcast said that although it bargained fairly for the right to distribute the NFL Network on a sports tier, the NFL is conducting a “multimillion dollar marketing campaign” in a breach of contract designed to “diminish or destroy the value to Comcast of that right, and thus to coerce Comcast into abandoning the right.”
Comcast filed the suit in the Supreme Court of New York less than a month after Madison Bond, Comcast’s executive vice president of content acquisition, sent the NFL Network a cease and desist letter, which also reminded the NFL of Comcast’s court victory to place the network on a sports tier.
NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky issued a statement late Thursday that did not address the merits of the suit.
“It seems to us that, after repeatedly telling you and us that its customers don’t care about our channel, Comcast seems to be a little nervous about our perfectly legitimate efforts to make sure that consumers know all of their options for getting NFL Network,” Palansky said.
The NFL Network, an NFL-owned pay-TV channel with the rights to eight NFL games, is seeking cable carriage on nothing less than the most widely subscribed digital tier, claiming the sport’s popularity justifies broad carriage.
But Comcast and Time Warner, with 38 million subscribers combined, have fought the NFL Network on such carriage, arguing that the NFL’s demand for 70 cents per month, per subscriber was too rich to collect from millions of cable homes that are not diehard pigskin fans.
Comcast carries the NFL Network on a lightly viewed sports tiers while Time Warner is not distributing the channel at all, though TWC has offered to provide the NFL Network on a sports tier, as premium service like HBO, or show its games on a pay-per-view basis.
The battle between the NFL and the cable companies has produced no shortage of tough exchanges, with the tension mounting each week the New England Patriots preserve their perfect record.
The 13-0 Patriots need to beat the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins before they play the New York Giants in the Meadowlands on Dec. 29 in a game that could result in the Pats becoming the first team to go undefeated and untied in the regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
The NFL Network has exclusive rights to the Patriots-Giants tilt. Cable and broadcast-only viewers in the Boston and New York markets will be able to see the game live on local TV stations that rebroadcast the NFL Network’s game feed.
-
so how is the NFL network any different than ESPN. nobody complained when football moved to ESPN. is it just because your monopoly cable companies are trying to play the victim here that you rally to their cause. nobody complained when Disney/ESPN increased their carriage fee which gave your cable companies an excuse to raise your cable bill, so why take the Comcast/TW side now. either realize you have given tied your self to the big business of cable and dont complain about rates and which channels you get or see the light and dump your cable there are other options out there. If the Pats final game was supposed to be broadcast on ESPN would people be complaining it should be on a free channel cause not everyone can afford cable?
mike interbartolo - 12/15/2007 1:31:00 PM EST -
The NFL is good at organizing football but that is where they should stay. The money grabbing "set up their own network" is turning off many former fans.
They got where they are because of TV so please stay
on your side of the business. let the television
people run TV and NFL run football.
Remember Soccer can be as exciting and it's easy to become a fan and forget football and the NFL.
Dr.Bill Ryan - 12/15/2007 9:07:00 AM EST -
These games used to be free on the local networks and now that it is big business, they want to start charging me? The NFL Network is wrong.
Rob R - 12/15/2007 8:56:00 AM EST -
It is funny to see all you cable subscribers complaining about the NFL network, but not about all the other channels you are forced to pay for like HSN or LMN. I am so happy Directv realized with both the NFL and Big Ten network that it was a service people wanted and didnt raise rates. heck before I had kids, I was paying for all those kids channels that never got watched.
as for fixed income lady, there is such thing as the newspaper and radio to serve as lifelines, but honestly cable, newspaper nor radio are required necessities. the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed by the constitution no actual happiness contrary to popular belief.
mike interbartolo - 12/14/2007 2:14:00 PM EST -
When seeing the standoff between the NFL Network and Comcast and TWC, I think of the scene from the movie Braveheart. The big battle scene, where the English army is on the left, and the Scotts on the right. The two Scottish lords are waiting for the offer from the Kings generals to see if it is worth putting up a fight. The Kings general offers the Lords land in England, if they go home and don't fight (or in this case pay the affiliate fees). But, luckily, William Wallace comes to the rescue and says, it's about freedom, not the lords getting more land in England.
Thus is the standoff here. I hope the NFL doesn't give land (ownership in the channel) to Comcast and TWC and thus the people will once again go home defeated.
Lets draw the line right here and say, the NFL can't drive up rates any more. Cable rates started climbing with the NFL on ESPN. That was leveraged for more sports networks. Then Fox got the NFL and suddenly, there are so many sports networks...driven by the NFL.
If we analized our business and government as much as we discussed the NFL, we'd have peace on earth and solve all of our problems.
But we need a William Wallace. We need someone to protect the rights of Mrs. Smith. She is my customer on a fixed income who hates sports but pays up to 40% of her basic fee for them. If she can't afford her cable, she looses her lifeline to the world. Who is her William Wallace? Who can protect her from the greed of the NFL. Only you can Comcast and TWC.
Bob Green - 12/14/2007 11:58:00 AM EST
No related content found.
Featured Company
-
Digital Rapids
Digital Rapids is the leading provider of professional hardware and software tools, technology and expertise for bringing video to wider audiences and new viewing platforms. Continuing to set new standards in quality, productivity and versatility, our solutions span the critical ..more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
