Britt To Kerry: Patriots Finale Belongs On Broadcast TV

Time Warner Cable CEO Sends Letter to Sen. Kerry on NFL Fight

' -- Multichannel News, 12/13/2007 5:03:00 PM

Washington -- Time Warner Cable’s leader thinks the National Football League should reach a deal with a major broadcast network to ensure that everyone in the country may easily watch the New England Patriots play the New York Giants on Dec. 29 in a game that could seal an unbeaten regular season for the Pats.

In letter Thursday to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), TWC CEO Glenn Britt pointed out that if every cable company in the country carried the NFL Network -- a pay-TV channel which has exclusive rights to the Patriots-Giants contest – it would still shut out the 14% of TV homes that rely exclusively on free, over-the-air broadcasting.

“It is clear that the only way all Americans will have quick and easy access to the Giants-Patriots game would be for the NFL to make it available through a national broadcast network, which would allow all viewers to see it either directly over the air or through their multichannel providers,” Britt said in a two-page letter.

The NFL is sticking to its position that it wants to focus on a long-term deal with big cable companies, not a quick fix just to get past a potentially historic Pats-Giants game in the Meadowlands.

“We’ve cleared [NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s] calendar to meet anytime and anywhere to negotiate an agreement. We certainly aren’t surprised Time Warner continues to be unwilling to negotiate or provide programming of interest to their customers,” said NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky.

Britt’s proposal cleverly relied on Federal Communications Commission rules that normally are the bane of cable’s existence.

Under FCC rules, TV stations either demand cable carriage or bargain for it. In addition, the rules force cable subscribers to buy local TV stations before any other programming on a cable system. Britt’s proposal would, if adopted, mean universal cable access to the Pats season finale without any involvement by cable operators.

The Patriots, who are 13-0, first need to beat the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins in order for the Giants game to have the meaning so many are pumping into it. No NFL team has gone unbeaten and untied in a regular season since the 1972 Dolphins.

Cable and broadcast-only viewers in the Boston and New York markets will be able to see the Pats-Giants battle on local TV stations that provide the NFL Network’s game feed.

Earlier in the week, Kerry asked officials from the NFL, Comcast and Time Warner to meet with him next week to hammer out a compromise. Britt did not seem eager to parley, the same reaction Kerry got from Comcast executive vice president David Cohen in a letter Wednesday.

“Given that carriage on a national broadcast network is the best and fastest way to achieve the broad availability of the game, and that any arrangement for such carriage would by necessity be between the NFL and a broadcast network, we’re not sure that a meeting between the NFL and two cable operators would advance our mutual goal,” said Britt, who agreed to talk with Kerry anytime.

The NFL Network, an NFL-owned pay-TV channel with the rights to eight NFL games, is seeking 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 NFL fans.

Comcast carries the NFL Network on a lightly viewed sports tiers while Time Warner is not distributing the channel, though it has offered to provide the NFL Network on a sports tier, as premium service like HBO, or show the games on a pay-per-view basis.

The battle between the NFL and the cable companies has produced no shortage of tough exchanges.

In his letter, Britt said the NFL Network’s stance that only carriage on widely distributed tiers was acceptable “shows again that the NFL always puts its own interests ahead of the public.”