Key Issues

This year, the NFL Network added eight Thursday/Saturday games to its line up, all of which will also be broadcast in the teams’ hometown on local broadcast networks (which are carried by cable companies).  For that, the NFL Network has demanded that cable companies like Time Warner Cable pay an exorbitant fee for the right to carry the NFL Network, amounting to $756 million across all cable companies and their subscribers.

Why It’s Way Too Much

While the NFL Network characterizes the cost as small change for each subscriber, carriage license fees quickly add up in people’s cable bills, and what the NFL Network is asking is an enormous monthly fee compared to other channels that are much more highly rated.

• It represents a 250 percent increase in the cost of the NFL Network from 2005 to 2006, despite the fact they’ve only added eight games, all of which will be available on broadcast networks in the home town of each team playing.

• At the prices the NFL Network is demanding, it would be one of the five most expensive channels Time Warner Cable carries, even though the NFL Network’s ratings are not among the top 30 cable networks.

• If every channel with ratings higher than the NFL Network’s demanded the same increase, cable bills would skyrocket.

• Through the NFL Network, the NFL is trying to charge cable subscribers another 20 percent in overall viewing fees to buy back three percent of the games, which were carried by broadcast networks last year and will be carried in teams’ home markets by broadcast networks this year.

• While 20 to 25 percent of cable subscribers are passionate fans of NFL football, the NFL Network is demanding that all cable subscribers shoulder the cost.  That won’t make non-football fans happy, but it should also frustrate football fans who live in their favorite team’s home town.  Those fans are already getting the games for no additional cost, and would be forced to pay extra to also get them on the NFL Network, too.
• Viewers are being asked to pay year round, yet for 357 days a year there is no live, regular season NFL football on the NFL Network.