Word: nfl
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After becoming just the fourth NFL team to finish the regular season undefeated, following Saturday's determined 38-35 comeback win against the New York Giants, New England has sewn up an astounding achievement. (The Pats are the first squad to finish a 16-game season undefeated.) It's even sweeter for the team because prior to this year, many experts thought Belichick was losing his touch. He revamped a team that was just one win away from the Super Bowl by trading for All-Pro malcontent Randy Moss. But Moss has behaved, and he and quarterback Tom Brady...
...NFL hasn't backed down from its game plan to force cable giants Cablevision and Time Warner Cable (which is controlled by TIME's parent, Time Warner), to pay up something like 70 cents a subscriber and make the NFL Network part of the basic programming tier. That would in turn prompt the cable companies to raise rates by at least as much. The cable guys have refused that price, leaving the NFL Network either without a channel or relegated to the sports tier by Comcast for a monthly fee, potentially depriving the league of hundreds of millions in revenue...
...cable guys have refused to meet the NFL's asking price because other than the eight Thursday night games that the NFL Network broadcasts, the rest of the programming is second-string - and that's being kind. They also didn't like the fact that the NFL has so far refused to sell the cable outfits its Sunday Ticket package, available only on satellite, which lets viewers watch any NFL game. Goodell attempted a beautiful end around by offering the Pats-Giants game to Time Warner Cable and Cablevision in return for all parties entering into binding arbitration to resolve...
...Steel. So Specter shot off little note to Goodell co-authored by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, whose constituents were now faced with the prospect of watching the snow pile up instead of the Pats running it up against the Giants this Saturday. Their message: if the NFL would like to keep its antitrust immunity intact, perhaps it had better play ball with everyone. "Now that the NFL is adopting strategies to limit distribution of game programming to their own networks, Congress may need to reexamine the need and desirability of their continued exemption from the Nation's antitrust laws," warned...
...gave the game away to two of its national broadcast partners, CBS and NBC; as the league has done with all its Network games, the local stations in the home markets of both teams will also still get to air the broadcast. "We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever." In other words, Goodell is playing defense now, but the business game of NFL Network vs. Cable is far from over...