The NFL Network and Comcast will part ways on May 1. As you have read in this column, I have spoken to both sides about their differences. I offered each the opportunity to speak, un-edited, to the fans, to tell their story in their words. As fans you can make up your own mind as to who is right on this issue. Later this week I will write a column giving you my thoughts and offering both sides a few of my own suggestion on how this issue can be resolved.
NFL NETWORK
Football fans across the country are eagerly anticipating this month’s NFL Draft, team minicamps and all the other news that they follow closely all year round on NFL Network.
Unfortunately, as many of you are aware, starting May 1 Comcast will not carry NFL Network — denying you the unique access and special coverage of the Redskins and the NFL that only NFL Network delivers.
Following the NFL Draft, NFL Network will continue to cover those rookies this spring and the rest of the NFL like no one else — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Fans will get a unique inside look at minicamps, training camps, their favorite players and coaches, and more than 60 regular season and preseason games later this year.
Based on the fan interest in the NFL, NFL Network should be broadly available to Comcast subscribers. Comcast, however, wants to continue to limit access to NFL Network by charging consumers extra for it. We strongly disagree. Comcast refuses to reach a new agreement with NFL Network to make it available to a larger number of subscribers without the extra monthly fee that Comcast now sets and collects for our network on its sports tier.
Comcast discriminates against networks like NFL Network because we are independent. Do you know why you get the Golf Channel and Versus on a basic level of cable service? Both are owned by Comcast, which makes its own channels broadly available.
Do you wonder why the recently launched MLB Network is broadly available and offered to fans without an extra monthly fee? Once again, the answer is Comcast has an ownership interest in the MLB Network.
Networks like NFL Network and other programming options are not owned by the largest cable companies. Instead of negotiating with independent programmers, those cable companies discriminate against them in favor of their own services.
In October, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Media Bureau ruled that we had demonstrated that Comcast discriminated and retaliated against NFL Network and ordered an Administrative Law Judge to conduct additional proceedings. Our goal is for the major cable companies to negotiate fairly and not discriminate.
We have until April 30 to negotiate a new agreement with Comcast similar to the contracts NFL Network has with more than 300 other cable operators, Telco and satellite companies across the country. We hope that Comcast will act responsibly, negotiate with us in good faith, and keep the best interests of the fans in mind.
You do have options. Log on to IWantNFLNetwork.com to find out how to get NFL Network and your Redskins.
Steve Bornstein is president & CEO of NFL Network
COMCAST
The NFL has been misleading the public by accusing Comcast of depriving cable customers of its network. I would like to set the record straight.
The truth is that Comcast wants to carry NFL Network, and we have been working hard to come to an agreement to do just that before our current contract with the NFL expires on May 1. In fact, we have offered to continue to carry the network under the terms of our current contract, but the NFL has refused.
The NFL is the most sophisticated, lucrative, and powerful professional sports enterprise in the world, with a special exemption from antitrust laws that helps it maintain its monopoly on televised football. The NFL already makes over $20 billion through long-term deals with ESPN, CBS, FOX, and NBC — more than the television-rights fees collected by the NBA, NHL, and NASCAR combined.
But the NFL wants more, and it’s trying to use its enormous market power to force millions of our customers to pay for games they have always seen for free (and it denies tens of millions of cable customer’s access to hundreds of games provided exclusively to DirecTV).
Comcast currently makes NFL Network available on the dedicated sports and entertainment tier. We view this as the best and fairest way to provide NFL Network’s expensive programming, because viewers who want to watch the channel can do so, while those who prefer not to aren’t forced to cover the network’s high costs.
Because the NFL doesn’t like the terms of the contract it signed, it has repeatedly asked the courts and government authorities to require that the terms be changed. Contrary to the NFL’s recent claims, however, the Federal Communications Commission has made no final determinations as to whether the NFL’s claims of discrimination by Comcast are valid or bogus.
But despite our offer, we anticipate that the NFL may terminate Comcast’s right to carry NFL Network. No matter what happens, fans will still see all the NFL games on CBS, FOX, NBC, and ESPN. In fact, we carry more than 250 NFL games across the country every year.
Nobody can doubt Comcast’s passionate commitment to giving our customers the best sports programming. We own two professional sports teams, and we bring thousands of professional, college, and local sporting events to our customers each year.
We have reached hundreds of agreements with other cable networks, and we typically renew our network agreements without any interruption of service. We would like to continue to carry NFL Network. But we will do so only on terms that are fair to our customers.
The NFL should join us in putting the interests of fans and the viewing public first.
David L. Cohen is the executive vice president of the Comcast Corporation
