Richard Sandomir has an update on the continuing battle between Time Warner and the NFL Network.
It’s a fight that began before the channel even started in 2003. But Sandomir is reporting that Time Warner is no longer demanding that the NFL Network be placed on a digital sports tier (for which subscribers have to pay extra).
So now that this obstacle has been removed, it’s just a matter of negotiating the final dollar amounts, right?
It has rarely been that simple — especially in a feud between Time Warner, which controls 14 million subscribers nationwide and about 1.3 million in the New York area, and the N.F.L., the most popular sports programming in the United States. Time Warner does not believe the league’s channel is a priority, and the league believes its channel is essential.
“It’s like the lockout,” said Corey Behnke, a co-founder of Cheesehead TV, a Packers online network, who cannot get the NFL Network in Manhattan. “Who do you side with: the billionaires or the millionaires? I’m sorry. I’m a thousandaire.”
Extra point An analyst is quoted as saying that carrying the NFL Network “just isn’t a big deal” to Time Warner. If you don’t have NFL Network, is it a big deal to you?
No comments:
Post a Comment