The biggest battle in the National Football Conference this season is scheduled for Thursday night at 8, but it won?t be played on the field.
On that night, Dallas (10-1) hosts Green Bay (10-1) at Texas Stadium, but the 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, which offers the channel along with NBA TV, NHL TV, CSTV, ESPN Classics, Fox Soccer Channel, GOL TV, 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 normally costs $5.95 per month, but now is just $1.99.
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 ESPN, CSN, MASN, Versus, Golf Channel and TBS, but the cable companies are lumping the NFL Network into a premium sports package that costs extra.
But this could be the beginning of a long battle in how fans are offered sports channels.
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, which would make customers pay for ESPN and the NFL Network
This past summer, Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) introduced “The Family and Consumer Choice Act,” a bipartisan bill that would allow cable subscribers to choose what they want to buy without limiting anyone?s viewing choices. Joining Rep. 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 Lipinski?s bill might besports giant ESPN which boasts over 95 million cable homes and is indeed the world wide leader in sports.
A year ago the Oct. 16th 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 sounds, it means just about 16.8% of the people who pay for ESPN actually watched the game. 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 advertisement, all from cable subscriptions who may or may not ever see one event on ESPN. The question remains: Why is more than 80 percent of the cable community subsidizing a network that they don?t watch?
The same can be said of the entertainment side, as USA, TNT, FX, Discovery, BBC America, Bravo and other?s log in at around $2.50 a month per subscriber with news channels like CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and CNBC coming in at about a buck a month per subscriber.
All networks 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 they never watch.
Congressional and cable industry sources tell me that the matter of a la carte programming will in some shape or form be enacted sometime within the next three years. It may not be the 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 may even lower cable bills. However with cable money so important to professional and college sports leagues, 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.
