Key Issues

The NFL Network – Too Expensive

At the prices they’re demanding, the NFL Network on cable television would be the second most expensive place to watch NFL football, after ESPN, despite the fact that the NFL Network only offers eight games already available in teams’ local markets.

NFL Television Game Carriage Fees – In Order of Overall Cost
Source: Forbes, Jan. 20, 2006, and New York Times, Sept. 19, 2006

 

Licensee

 

Annual Fee

 

Number of Regular Season Games

 

ESPN

 

$1.1 billion

 

17 Monday night games

 

NFLN Cable Subscribers

 

$756 million**

 

8 games, all of which will be broadcast in teams’ home markets by CBS or Fox

 

Fox

 

$712.5 million

 

100 games regionally or nationally

 

DirecTV

 

$700 million

 

219 Sunday afternoon games

 

CBS

 

$622.5 million

 

100 games regionally or nationally

 

NBC

 

$600 million

 

17 Sunday night games

 

NFL Total

 

$4.491 billion

 

** Assumes full penetration to all US cable customers, 90 million households, according to the New York Times, September 19, 2006

The NFL wants cable to pay about the same for eight games on the NFL Network as DirectTV pays for its 219-game NFL Sunday Ticket package, which it gets on an exclusive basis.  Yet, the NFL Network is offering these 8 games to cable competitors as well satellite and phone companies. 

Finally, these games are not guaranteed to stay on the NFL Network. Three years from now, the NFL has the right to strip them out of the NFL Network and sell them back to Fox or CBS or whichever network wants to bid on them.  That would force viewers to pay a premium for them yet again.  And it would stick cable subscribers with a hugely expensive channel that carries no live, regular season NFL games.