DirecTV’s NFL Ticket Monopoly!

article

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2009-04-09T14:48:00-04:00

Playerpress

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700 2573 Last week during the cable industry’s annual convention in Washington, D.C., the president of one of the United States largest cable companies walked over to a reporter and told him a joke that has been being told throughout the many conversations going on during the convention.  The joke itself tells of the taunted relationship between the NFL and the countries cable companies. It is certainly not a friendship by any means. If anything, the best word to describe it would be an association with, and a strained one at that. It is an association that is on such thin ice, that the joke within itself tells it like is. Their association with each other is nothing more then a bad punch line. <o:p> </o:p> In addition, speaking of punches, the countries cable companies would love to take a few of them at the NFL and DirecTV’s monopoly concerning their exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket service. <o:p> </o:p> The joke making the rounds at the convention is as follows:   Set Up: What is the best way for DirecTV to market its exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket service?<o:p></o:p> Punch line: The Red Zone Channel.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The joke tells it all in bringing forth the true feelings on how the cable distributors look at the NFL’s proposed Red Zone Channel. The NFL is attempting to peddle this new channel as a completely new network to cable providers that will broadcast live peaks as well as live clips during the games when teams are in the red zone and in a position to score. <o:p> </o:p> Once the NFL officially announced its Sunday Ticket deal, they said they would offer the Red Zone Channel to cable company’s as a stand-alone channel and that it would be a separate channel from the NFL Network.  It would offer the cable companies kind of a “Diet Sunday Ticket” only offering fans live highlights of the leagues Sunday afternoon games when a team is in the Red Zone. Thus the title “Red Zone Channel”. <o:p> </o:p> For those of you that are unsure of what the “Red Zone” is, it is when a team is inside their opponent’s 20-yard line. <o:p> </o:p> NFL top executives are anticipating that they can use the Red Zone Channel to persuade cable companies into carrying the NFL Network. <o:p> </o:p> “We want both fan-friendly services available as widely as possible,” an NFL Network representative said. <o:p> </o:p> The Cable Show Convention last week was the first time the cable industry assembled as a whole since March 23 when the NFL announced its Sunday Ticket extension with DirecTV worth $4 billion. The Cable companies overpowering reaction to the deal was filled with a combination of abdication and dumbfoundedness. The extension will keep the highly regarded NFL Sunday Ticket service on DirecTV, the cable company’s biggest competitor, through the 2014 season. <o:p> </o:p> The cable companies still are unsure when it comes to knowing a great deal about the proposed Red Zone channel.  However, they are all very much in agreement in that they are cautious about carrying the Red Zone channel on their networks. <o:p> </o:p> Another issue on hand is that the cable companies still do not know much about the Red Zone Channel. They do not know what the cost of the channel will be to them. They do not have any idea of what the channel will look like. They do not have any idea of how the NFL is going to schedule the channel, or if it will be broadcast only during game times on Sundays and if they will have any other programs scheduled for the channel during the rest of the week. <o:p> </o:p> An NFL representative said that all of these questions would be answered over the next few weeks, as NFL executives meet with the cable, satellite and telephone companies. <o:p> </o:p> However, the cable company’s initial cynicism concerning the proposed new channel is not the news that the NFL Network wanted to hear. They are looking at the loss of about 2 million subscribers at the end of the month after its deal with Comcast, one of the nations largest cable companies, expires. <o:p> </o:p> A majority of the cable company’s executives that were contacted by SportsBusiness Journal last week were concerned that the Red Zone channel would become nothing more then a tease to their current customers. Once their customers viewed and got a taste of the Red Zone channel, why would they stay with cable when they could get all of the full games with the NFL Sunday Ticket service with DirecTV? <o:p> </o:p> “It’s an interesting idea,” David Cohen, the Comcast Executive Vice President said. “But I don’t think that it’s a fully baked idea. And we certainly don’t know or understand exactly what the NFL wants to do with it.” <o:p> </o:p> Nevertheless, the cable companies animosity with the NFL goes much further then just the Red Zone Channel. Cable executives are agitated that the NFL continues to offer its highly regarded NFL Sunday Ticket package, which broadcasts every Sunday NFL afternoon game, exclusively to DirecTV. This is a good question considering that every other professional league offers their out-of-market packages to both cable and satellite companies. <o:p> </o:p> Comcast’s Cohen mentioned that Comcast “made it crystal clear” to the NFL that it was interested in bidding for the NFL Sunday Ticket package on a nonexclusive basis, but was flat out rejected. <o:p> </o:p> “They have made it quite clear in every conversation where we have brought this up that we should stop focusing on their out-of-market package because they’re not going to make it available to cable,” Cohen said. <o:p> </o:p> It is one reason why numerous high-ranking cable executives professed that NFL relations with them as being at an all-time low. <o:p> </o:p> “It’s unfortunate that this issue with the NFL Network has been taken to the level it’s been taken to,” said Cox’s senior vice president of programming Bob Wilson. Cox is one of the few big cable companies that have a deal with NFL Network. <o:p> </o:p> Others are not shy about talking about how the lack of access to the NFL Sunday Ticket lowers the chance that they would be willing to carry the NFL Network. “Our members aren’t happy about it,” said the American Cable Association president Matt Polka, “They’d like access to that programming.” <o:p> </o:p> In conclusion, I thought business monopolies were illegal in this country. It sure looks and sounds as if the NFL and DirecTV have one going on here. <o:p> </o:p> Do not pass Go, Do not collect $200! <o:p> </o:p> 0.0.0.0

2009-04-09T14:48:00-04:00

directvs-nfl-ticket-monopoly

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DirecTV’s NFL Ticket Monopoly!

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DirecTV’s NFL Ticket Monopoly!

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