NFL Network Continues Its Not-So-Rosy Relations With Cable Providers

Ever since the NFL Network launched in 2003, there seemingly hasn’t been a moment it wasn’t embroiled in controversy involving its relationship with at least one major cable company. The offshoot of those controversies: a metaphorical middle finger from the NFL to fans all over the country (and there are many) who subscribe to a cable provider that doesn’t carry the network. The network might have great programming, but those millions of households around the country wouldn’t know it.

Take the current case of Buffalo Bills fans in the Rochester, NY area. Since Buffalo is only about 67 miles from Rochester, there are many such fans, but the long-lived NFL Network-Time Warner standoff will prevent every Time Warner subscriber in the area from seeing the game. The only people without the NFL Network who will see the game will be Buffalo residents (the network at least cuts deals to carry games in teams’ home cities), and people who get WPIX, which will pick up the game in the New York City area. In fairness, the network did manage to end a protracted struggle with Comcast earlier this year (though some Comcast subscribers already had the network).

The struggle is reminiscent of the New York Yankees’ YES Network’s battles with Cablevision (another provider that doesn’t carry the NFL Network), which blacked out most Yankees games for the entire 2002 season in a significant portion of the team’s backyard. The difference is, of course, that the two sides came to terms after a year. For the NFL Network and Cablevision, it’s been six – and that’s not even the network’s most highly-publicized fight. Plus, the YES-Cablevision fighting affected one specific subset of fans – a large one, to be sure, but just one. The NFL Network, on the other hand, alienates a different group of fans every time it shows a game.

Additionally, the New York Post reported two weeks ago that the network took to the Washington political scene to try and curry favor:

After years of fruitlessly trying to get subscribers to demand it be carried on their cable systems, the NFL Network is once again courting lawmakers.

The fledgling network yesterday went after Time Warner Cable with an ad in Politico, the Washington, DC, daily that is widely read by Beltway insiders.

“A primetime game each week on the NFL Network, but not for Time Warner Cable customers,” reads the ad, which notes that Time Warner Cable is the only distributor among the nation’s top five not to carry the channel.

The other distributors — Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network and Cox Communications — carry the network on a digital-service tier.

The article then notes a good point from a Time Warner rep:

“With regards to their top-five comment, actually, the NFL Network still hasn’t reached an agreement with the majority of the top-10 cable operators.”

So…the NFL Network: great for dish subscribers, but cable coverage is still severely lacking. suggested the network might be willing to alter its negotiating ways, but its continued bickering with Time Warner makes it appear that despite the Comcast agreement, nothing much has changed.

The quality of the NFL network garners significant Emmy recognition, but this SportsBusiness Journal article from earlier this year rightly calls the coverage squabbles a “black eye” for the league. Six years is an absurdly long time for so many to go without the flagship station for the nation’s flagship game.