NFL Network Seeks Pay Hike
 

They only have to pay $.20 per subscriber and Time Warner says thats too much! Damn now its $.40 I'll never get to see it I mean I only pay $100 per month for service :harumph:


Dave

NFL Network Seeks Pay Hike
By R. Thomas Umstead 4/17/2006 6:08:00 AM

Armed with a new eight-game Thursday- and Saturday-night National Football League package, NFL Network is looking to score significant increases in affiliate fees and subscribers before the regular season begins in September.

Negotiations are under way with current affiliates of the channel and nonaffiliates on a new rate card that operators said carries a whopping 125% rate increase and a mandate that the network be carried on well-penetrated expanded-basic tiers if operators are to receive the live games.

The 35 million-subscriber network pitched operators the last week of March in an effort to sign up as many distributors as possible before the league’s regular season begins in September, individuals close to the network said.

Most current affiliation deals do not include the $300 million eight-game package, which begins Thanksgiving night.

Operators with knowledge of the deal said the rate card jumps from the current 20 cents to 25 cents per subscriber to 50-75 cents, including the live eight-game package. The fee also includes the channel’s popular on-demand fare.

Sources close to the league said only direct-broadcast satellite provider DirecTV Inc. -- which has exclusive rights to the league’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” out-of-market package -- has officially signed on to carry the live games. The channel is on its “Total Choice” basic package.

NFL officials would not comment on the matter and DirecTV officials could not be reached for comment at press time.

NFL Network vice president of national accounts Brian Decker said operators like Comcast Corp. that are currently carrying the network have a “mechanism” by which they could pay a surcharge for the eight games, but he would not disclose specific costs. He added that the network is offering great value to distributors at a reasonable cost, well below traditional sports networks like ESPN.

NFL Network president Steve Bornstein said he’s confident that the network will reach distribution deals before the games begin airing.

And network spokesman Seth Palansky cautioned operators that waiting too long to reach an agreement could lead even higher fees.

For more on NFL Network, please see R. Thomas Umstead’s story on page nine of Monday’s issue of Multichannel News.
:harumph:

Part of me is hoping that this blows up in their face, the other part of me is hoping that the cable providers are forced to bring it down to the extended basic level.

That is huge. NBC networks did that with the Olympics, charged an extra fee to receive that particular coverage. That means at the current time, if you have NFL Network through Dish or your local cable company, you're not getting those games... yet. Obviously plenty of time for them to work deals out but it'll be interesting to see how many cable companies refuse to pay that extra fee just to get the games.

Next bars will raise beer prices during NFL Network games to cover the cost....

I've been holding off getting digital cable package with Cox KS, in hopes they move it to a basic package. But then again, I really would like to have NFL Network before the draft, so I don't have to listen to Kiper for 8 hours Saturday.

Time Warner is so slow.......we'll never get NFL Network. (I can't do Satellite, Skip, b/c I live in a condo complex, the HOA decides things like that).

Right now, I'm just hoping to find a sports bar in Vega$ to watch the Denver game (w/o having to lay down a $1,000 bet) and thinking about staying in KC until the morning of 12/24 to make sure I can see the Faiders game.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

I have Dish! Hope they get this worked out before the games begin. I will get the Chiefs games on the local channel broadcast, but the other games I probably won't at this time.

I would think Dish would get a deal in place before the season. I'd be more worried about some of these cable companies that seem slow to catch on to the channel. I don't really know, that's just an educated guess.

Then again, Dish got rid of Outdoor Life Network because OLN tried to jack their prices up because they got the NHL package. So maybe they won't cave in to the NFL...

I'm going to hold off on digital cable as long as humanly possible. When I reach that point I will start debating whether I should switch to Direct TV or not.

Comcast plans to buy out the Kansas City market this summer, so it looks like the KC area will be getting the NFL Network.

Personally, I'd rather keep TW's superior internet services, pricepoint and cable box GUI instead of getting the NFL Network, but it doesn't look like I have a choice. At least Comcast makes efforts to expand their HD offerings.

Of course I think OLN is owned by Comcast, so that could have been another reason they decided to drop them, just blaming the cost made it easy.

morphius
another checkmark against Dish.

I keep hoping that Everest will get back into the expansion game. The things they forced TW to do to compete was great.

XFL got better ratings than the NHL. NFL brings in such good ratings it would piss too many people off.

Well I'm pretty sure OLN did go to the companies and say "We have the NHL now, pay us this or drop us", and Dish said no. Leaves the NHL fans in the dark though.

Yeah, that's why I think Dish will do it. I could see some cable companies being stubborn though.