The biggest NFC battle of the season is scheduled at 8 Thursday night when the Dallas Cowboys (10-1) face the Green Bay Packers (10-1) and the vast majority of football fans will not see the game unless they subscribe to the NFL Network. The NFL Network is part of a sports package offered by local giant Comcast that also offers NBA TV, NHL TV, CSTV, ESPN Classic, Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV, The Tennis Channel and two horse racing channels as well as three Fox Regional Sports Channels that feature college football and basketball. The Sports Pack costs normally $5.95 but it being offered for now at $1.99 per month.
Much has already been written about the feud between NFL Network and cable giants Comcast, Time Warner and Cox. The NFL Network wants to be on basic expanded cable with other sports and sports-related channels like ESPN, CSN, MASN, Versus, The Golf Channel and TBS. The cable companies have drawn the line at putting the network pay “sports tier” with its current included cable sports outlets.
This is just the beginning for what, over the next five years, could be a new way sports fans are offered all-sports outlets by cable companies — not just the NFL Network.
Congress is working on at least two bills that would mandate what is being called “a la carte programming.” The legislation would allow cable subscribers to pay a base fee for service and then charge different prices for different programming thus opening the way for all-sports channels — from ESPN to the NFL Network — to end up being on a Sports Tier.
This past summer U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) introduced The Family and Consumer Choice Act of 2007, a bipartisan bill that would allow cable subscribers to choose what they want to buy without limiting anyone’s viewing choices. Joining Lipinski in announcing their support of the bill was Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin.
The best example of Congressman Lapinski’s bill might be sports giant ESPN — which boasts over 95 million cable homes and is indeed the world wide leader in sports.
A year ago, the Oct. 16 Monday Night Football game between the Cowboys and the Giants was the most watched cable television program in history. The ESPN telecast boasted an audience of slightly over 16 million homes. As impressive a number as 16 million is, it means only about 16.8 percent of the people who pay for ESPN actually watched the biggest event ever seen on cable TV. At a bit over $3 per month per subscriber (which is an average) the network brings in nearly $285 million dollars per month without selling an ad — all from cable subscriptions who may or may not ever watch one event on ESPN. The question remains, why is over 80% of the cable community subsidizing a network that they don’t watch?
The same can be said of the entertainment side — USA, TNT, FX, Discovery, BBC America, Bravo and others log in at around $2.50 a month per subscriber with the news channels like CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, CNBC and the like coming in at about a buck a month per subscriber.
All cable networks are raking in millions of dollars from subscribers who may not watch them. Cable, and satellite services like DirecTV, look to offer people as many choices as possible but the biggest complaint is that bills are high because people pay for channels the never watch and don’t want.
Congressional and cable industry sources tell me that the matter of a la carte programming will in some shape or form will be enacted sometime within the next three years. It may not be the Congressman Lipinski bill but it will be a system where you pay for the channels you watch. This could be good news for sports consumers; paying for the channels you enjoy the most and perhaps even lower cable bills. However with cable money so important to professional and college rights fees the days of the billion dollar rights fees could be gone.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.
