NFL Boss To Clip Comcast, Time Warner
Goodell To Tell House Subcommitte That Cable Discriminates Against NFL Network
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 3/4/2008 11:36:00 AM
Washington – NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, in House testimony set for delivery Wednesday morning, plans to accuse Comcast and Time Warner of discriminating against the NFL Network while faulting the Federal Communications Commission for ineffectively patrolling program carriage laws designed to protect independent channels.
“Dominant cable operators have the motive and the means to discriminate against independent programmers. History demonstrates that they have done so and continue to do so,” Goodell says in testimony obtained Tuesday by Multichannel News.
Goodell is to appear before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet along with Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, ESPN president George Bodenheimer, and DirecTV executive vice president Derek Chang.
In his testimony, Britt says that the NFL can’t have it both ways: demanding broad access to cable homes for the league-owned NFL Network while denying cable access to NFL Sunday Ticket, the out-of-market game package available only on DirecTV.
“The NFL in particular is being especially disingenuous in appealing to the government to compel distributors to carry one of [its] services – the NFL Network – on broadly distributed tiers while simultane
ously defending its right to limit distribution of its more appealing service – the NFL Sunday Ticket Package – to a single distributor, DirecTV,” Britt says.
Bodenheimer, in his comments, calls for governmental restraint in the cable programming market. ESPN in recent years has been concerned about government-imposed a la carte mandates, which would allow consumers to pay for only those channels they wish to view.
“Given the fierce competition in both programming and distribution, I strongly urge you to refrain from intervening in these markets,” Bodenheimer says.
Goodell devotes much of his testimony to the NFL Network’s clash with Time Warner, which does not carry the network, and Comcast, which puts it on a sports tier.
The operators' refusal to put the NFL Network before all their cable subscribers was discriminatory, Goodell says, because the cable companies don’t threat their affiliated sports channels the same way.
“The cable giants’ bottleneck leverage gives them the power to discriminate unfairly against independent programmers, even those with programming as popular as that of the NFL,” Goodell says.
Goodell’s testimony fails to mention that the NFL Network had exclusive rights to just ei
ght regular-season primetime games near the end of the season and sought a premium license fee from cable providers.
Goodell says the FCC has the tools to protect independent programmers that can’t get cable carriage but has done a poor job of using them.
“The process adopted by the FCC 15 years ago — as it has been implemented — is ineffective. It is slow, expensive, and inherently protective of cable operators — in a phrase, it is compellingly in need of change,” Goodell says.
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NFL has become a coven of thugs.
James Moore - 3/5/2008 12:59:00 PM EST -
N F L Network has no case because there are in fact independent programmers who have carriage on the lower tiers with the big cable companies. N F L just doesn't have the broad programming or pricing to deserve the same carriage.
Time Warner offered to carry their programming at no profit to TWC and NFL refused because they know that their product, even if it were free, would not attract many eyeballs. They had to avoid the embassment.
J. Franklin - 3/5/2008 10:25:00 AM EST -
Agree with last comment. Cable had equal opportunity to bid for an exclusive package to carry the NFL's Sunday Ticket, but chose not to bid, or not bid as much as DirecTV. Cable continually tries to label their failure to win this bid as discrminatory.
As for the core issue here, I can't blame the MSOs for their position. They should not have to have a network shove its channel down its throat. However, I think the BIGGER QUESTION to address is whether the MSOs are more focused on protecting their OWN regional sports networks (RSNs) or upon the interests or preferences of their subscriber base.
I have to think the lion's share of Time Warner's and Comcast's customer would like to see the NFL Network on their basic digital lineup, & not relegated to an add-on sports tier. So the question becomes WHY are the MSOs so adverse to placing the NFL Network on their basis tier? That question feeds right into Goodell's argument. They feel smitted by not gaining access to Sunday Ticket, as well as wish to protect their own RSNs.
Jay Cable - 3/5/2008 10:04:00 AM EST -
Chris the engineer says cable has had the opportunity to bid on the NFL Sunday Ticket but has passed, that is not true they bid up to a point but were out bid by the dish company. But that isn't the issue here; the NFL claims that TW and Comcast are taking away potential viewers by not carrying or putting them on a sports tier. If the NFL was really concerned about getting their programming in front of as many viewers as possible then they would offer ST to everyone that wanted it for a negotiated per sub price. Dish has what 16+ million, what percent of those actually pony up the price, they must pay for the privilege to watch, just like the Comcast folks need to pay for the sports tier, poor NFL boo-hoo. You have believe that if both dish companies and most of the cable companies carried NFL-ST that number would easily jump four-fold. So it’s about the big up front bucks, which the NFL is entitled to ask for get and keep, but then they just need to shut up and stop whining like a little girl who wasn’t invited to the party ‘cause she doesn’t play well with others!.
John Drake - 3/5/2008 9:34:00 AM EST -
The argument over NFL Sunday Ticket is getting old. Cable has had opportunity to negotiate and declines so the NFL is within it's rights to offer exclusivity to an operator who does want to talk. Remember what happened with MLB?
Chris - 3/5/2008 8:51:00 AM EST
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