NFL Network Files Suit Against EchoStar Over Tier Downgrade
Legal Action Seeks To Prevent Network’s Shift To America’s Top 200 Package
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 2/26/2008 10:44:00 PM
The National Football League, which gained some legal yardage in its tiering battle with Comcast, has also taken aim at another disadvantageous packaging play by a key distributor.
The pro football league filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York to prevent Dish Network from moving NFL Network to its America's Top 200 package from its America’s Top 100 tier. The nation’s No. 2 satellite player made the play last week, one that cost the embattled network about 4 million subscribers, or half of its base, with the distributor.
EchoStar’s tier gambit stemmed in part from the simulcast of the Dec. 29 game between the then-undefeated New England Patriots and New York Giants. When the NFL Network could not convince cable operators, notably Time Warner Cable, to carry the service, the league drafted CBS and NBC to simulcast the game. Between the two broadcasters, local stations in the New York and Boston areas and the NFL Network, the game was watched by 34.5 million viewers, making it the sixth most-watched show of the 2007-07 TV season and its top regular-season contest since a Thanksgiving tilt in 1995.
"EchoStar's response to the simulcast of the historic December 29 Giants-Patriots game is unwarranted and not in the best interest of its subscribers,” said the NFL in a statement about the suit, which was filed Monday. “The NFL is the most popular sport in the nation and this decision is taking NFL Network away from millions of subscribers around the nation that are football fans and have been receiving NFL Network's quality programming. We are seeking to prevent EchoStar from violating the terms of its distribution agreement with the NFL Network.”
SportsBusiness Journal first reported on the NFL lawsuit against EchoStar.
At least one other operator, RCN Corp., publicly voiced displeasure with the NFL's decision to open the Pats-Giants game up to wider audience through the unprecedented simulcast.
On Tuesday, a panel of judges in New York appellate court reversed a decision made last May that enabled Comcast to migrate NFL Network from its second most widely distributed digital package to a sports tier. That decision, according to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell resulted in the network losing 8 million of its 9 million subscribers with the nation’s largest distributor. A trial is pending.
