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November 26, 2007
Showdown over NFL Network?
Expect the contrived controversy over cable carriage of the NFL Network to intensify this week as the FCC meets to push for greater regulation of cable.
As pro football fans know, the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers, who share National Football Conference-best records of 10-1, will play Thursday night. The game will be nationally televised over the fledgling NFL Network, a cable channel owned by the National Football League itself, and ratings of which the NFL is trying to boost by using it to air a slate of eight Thursday and Saturday night games this season. (Games will be available on free TV in their local markets.)
Trouble is, the major cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner, have elected to make the NFL Network available only as part of a higher priced sports tier, not part of the “expanded basic” packages that generally include CNN, ESPN, TNT, Nickelodeon and dozens of other cable channels.
In a case that could only happen because of the legacy of telecommunications as a regulated industry, the NFL has complained about this choice to the FCC. Worse, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seems willing to give the league a hearing.
Note that the cable companies are not attempting to suppress the NFL Network. They just believe interest in the channel is narrow enough that their cost to carry it (an issue that the NFL conveniently avoids in its FCC complaint) should be borne by those who are truly interested in watching out-of-town pro football. (By the way, isn’t this more in keeping with the a la carte programming idea Martin has been pressing cable companies for?)
In the second place, the NFL Network is part of the standard line-up on Direct TV and Dish Network satellite services, as well as on AT&T’s U-verse video service, a fact these parties are heartily promoting. It comes down to how well the cable companies know their markets. The Green Bay-Dallas game may be a test. Will cable consumers demand the NFL on their standard slate of channels? Will there be more defections to satellite? Will football fans be willing to pay more? Or is the NFL believing its own hype that every household in the U.S. is clamoring to watch an athletic contest, which in the grand scheme of things, means little?
Competitors in other industries face these market challenges all the time. And they are generally solved without regulation or government intervention. There’s no “right” to watch football as part of basic cable, and it’s disappointing to see the FCC act as if it there is. At the very least you’d think that Martin, as much as he prattles on about competition, would understand there’s no real consumer choice if regulators demand all competitors offer the same service the same way at the same price.
Posted by steve.titch at November 26, 2007 08:14 AM
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