Clock ticking on NFL Network, Comcast deal

(Report 4-1-09-1)

Network set to pull plug on Comcast

by Donna Goodison
DNN Reports!
Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2009

The NFL Network will no longer be available to Comcast subscribers as of May 1 unless a last-minute deal is hashed out by month’s end.

At issue is the cable company’s 2007 decision to switch the NFL Network from its basic package to a sports tier that costs subscribers an additional monthly premium. In the Boston area, that extra fee is $7.95 a month.

Comcast’s contract with the NFL Network expires April 30, and the network says it will pull the plug on its signal unless Comcast agrees to terms similar to those it has with 300-plus other cable, telecommunications and satellite companies. The NFL network wants to be part of a more widely distributed level of service, without the monthly fee, like Comcast’s own sports networks, Versus and the Golf Channel.

Comcast has an estimated two million sports tier customers.

“Comcast had carried NFL Network to a larger number of homes without the extra fee during the first three years of our agreement (which began in 2004),” the network said in a statement.

The NFL Network is challenging the switch through litigation filed with the Federal Communications Commission and the New York Supreme Court.

Comcast said it has offered to carry the network under the terms of its current agreement while the litigation continues. “We believe our proposed extension is in the best interest of our customers and NFL fans so that they can continue to have the same access to the network that they now enjoy,” a spokesman said.

But Comcast has started warning customers of the potential loss of the NFL Network through newspaper ads and customers’ bills and cable boxes.