I’ve long been amazed at the NFL’s increasing popularity, but in the back of mind wondered when it would all come crashing down. I think I’ve seen the tip of the iceberg that will crash this Titanic, and its name is the NFL Network.
What started out as a harmless self-promotional cable station grew into something of a monster last year when the league decided to set aside a few games late in the season for exclusive broadcast on the channel. Satellite customers got it for free, as did subscribers to digital cable. Regular cablers like me got shut out. But whatever. We’re also not allowed to order HBO anymore, so I sort of expected the punishment for my “cheapness” – the unwillingness to pay $90 instead of $60 a month for a billion channels I hardly ever watched.
This year the NFL is intent on squeezing more money out of the majority of its audience and has given the similar shaft to those who shell out the big bucks for digital cable. On top of their exorbitant monthly fees, digital folk now must shell out $5 more a month to get the channel, which now nailed down most of the preseason games and two games a week during the crucial final (post-Thanksgiving) weeks of the season. Straw, meet camel’s back.
I understand the economic reasons for shaking down customers for the extra cash. The NFL can make more money by withholding certain games from broadcast and charging viewers a monthly pittance for them. I’d imagine the next step will be full-fledged pay-per-view like what we see in boxing.
Gordon Gekko famously said greed is good, but it’s only true to a certain extent. It fuels ambition, confidence and growth, but eventually it turns into a blood-poisoning toxin that kills you from within. One of the reasons the NFL has achieved monster success is the quality of the product on the field, and the other is the access it allowed to the masses, making its games available on network TV and, when a large enough portion of the nation had ditched its rabbit ears, basic cable.
Now that the league has begun choking off access in favor of squeezing more blood from the stone of its fanbase, it may have started down a path to boxing-like selfishness and inevitable obscurity.
I still love you, NFL, and I always will. But I truly despise your new friend/pimp, the NFL Network.
— robert winkler 08/17/2007 07:48 AM #
Not only do you get to see all of the preseason games, but there are also some other good NFL news shows that you would not have seen in the past.
Subsribe, if you like football, its cool.
kp
— KP 08/17/2007 11:51 AM #
This reminds me of Fox Sports Net. They claim to be home of Arizona sports. Yeah right, more like home of the Big XII. What really bugs me. The Diamondbacks have been a franchise sine 98’, and they finally decide to broadcast all the DBack games…starting next year! I want to see the 1st place DBacks…come on FSN.
— Clarence(Basic Cable) 08/17/2007 05:47 PM #
— Dave 08/18/2007 11:42 AM #
Like any other channel, the NFL Network has a per household charge applied to the cable company to carry the channel. When the Network first came out, it pushed Comcast and the other major cable providers to put the channel on their normal lineups. However most large providers view it as a “second-tier” channel and won’t provide it to their customers who won’t pay extra.
In fairness to the cable companies, their argument is the NFL Network’s per household cost is too high and would force them to raise rates for everybody, meaning people who could care less about the NFL would have to pay additional anyway.
A similar battle is now being waged between major cable providers and the Big Ten Network, only this is much more ridiculous. The Big Ten would like their network to be on basic cable packages in all homes in Big Ten country, but the per household rate is over a dollar and Comcast and others refuse to subject their customers to charge. One quote had an executive point out that he doesn’t think the average person cares much about Iowa’s women’s volleyball team. The end result is football games people have seen for free for years will be impossible to view without the new channel.
This is a long comment, but one more note on games televised on the NFL Network… the NFL did not originally decide to move their games to their own channel. They shopped the package of Thursday and Saturday games to TV networks, as they’ve done for years, and nobody picked them up most likely because the steep price tag. The league was left with the choice to either slash their price or take the opportunity to grow their own network a little, and clearly it’s a wise move as it forces big time fans to go out and order the channel.
Hope that clears some of this up for everyone.
— Kulp 08/18/2007 11:57 AM #
— Jason 08/18/2007 12:31 PM #
It is not, the NFL went with the DirecTV bucks.
OK, that takes care of the goobers in the trailers and the farmers.
Dishes don’t work well in urban areas for many reasons.
If the NFL “gives in” and allows the cable ops to take the out of market package, I’ll bet there will be a compromise that will put the NFL Net on digital sports tier cable, as it already in on some Comcast systems.
Hell, we in NY already get to see all 16 games of both of our area teams, plus all 4 preseason games, on free tv. NFL Net or not.
That’s enough for most, including me.
— Dave 08/18/2007 01:19 PM #
This is the NFL Network’s fault. Cable companies have to pay per customer for the rights to the network. And the NFL Network tripled and quardupled their charges when it funnelled the games to the network. So NFLN spiked its charges for what, 5 games? Who but the hardcore, “I have no life” NFL fan is going to watch the network during the other 10 months?
The cable companies can’t win. They give in to people like you, cable rates for everyone else will go up for something they absolutely don’t want. Then, everybody will bitch that it’s “just the cable company taking more money from us.” Well, all that extra money is going to one place—the NFL.
— Jeff 08/19/2007 07:40 AM #
— Fred 08/20/2007 02:37 PM #