Weird crawl on NFL network -- some cable providers not carrying live games

If you are in one of the team's markets (i.e. K.C. or Denver this week), a local station in that market can pick up the game.

That used to also happen for ESPN games (not sure if that's still the case or not).

However, I do love the part about the NFL Network message ... hell, if you're watching NFL Network then you likely are getting the station already. If you don't get NFL Network, how are you to see that message?

 

I think the point is that the games won't be shown on many systems currently getting the NFL Network.

 

Yes, NFL ruled years ago that a cable game has to be offered to an on-air station in a local market -- always on the road, home if its a sellout.

 

It will be shown locally. The NFL has always allowed local affiliates in the teams' markets to bid for and carry a game scheduled for cable. That has not changed with NFL Network carrying the game.

Re: cablevision: This is the exact same conflict they had with the YES Network the season of the network's debut. Cablevision feels it should be on a sports tier, NFLN thinks it should be part of basic.

 

Yeah, the dishes are a great deal.
You pay a premium price to pick up the sports package, about $12 a month, and then they randomly black out games with no advance warning.
At least cable gives me what they say they're going to give me.

 

I upgraded to digital cable (can't get a dish, apartment faces the north, and lease won't let me put dish anywhere other than on my deck).

When the guy came to hook it up the other day, he said the NFL Network wanted to charge the cable company $1.50 per subscriber. Cable folks said that's fine, we'll put it on digital cable. NFL told them no, had to be on expanded basic cable. So, we won't be getting the NFL Network.

People here will live with it this year. There's no Bears or Rams games (the two most popular teams in the area). However, if they're on there next year, there will be some howling.

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Iowa been chosen for the Insight Bowl, which is on the NFL Network. Iowa fans were already pissed that three football games were put on ESPNU (which is now on digital cable), they would have really been pissed if they couldn't have watched the bowl game, even considering how bad the Hawkeyes were this season.

 

It been a topic in the Buffalo market as well. Time Warner is doing the payment avoidance thing. Fans in this area weren't able to watch UB play their last 2 games either. Now TW is saying that customers will be losing the local FOX affiliate around the start of playoffs as well as what used to be the UPN affiliate.

 

I'd still rather have it than not, but I had all kinds of problems with my NFL ticket package last season. I missed parts of four different games, and at least twice I had to yell at people until they got the games I wanted on my TV (the other two times, the games came on while I was on hold). In a 16-game season, that is a ridiculously high ratio of errors, especially if your team might be on national TV four or five times, so you really only need the NFL Ticket for 11 or 12 weeks out of the season.

The best was week 17, when for reasons nobody was able to tell me, they simply cancelled my package, which I had already paid for in full. Then they told me they couldn't compensate me for my trouble because they had already given me the things they were approved to give (Free movie stations for 3 months, etc).

So, basically, if they screw up enough, they can't do anything for me because they ran out of things to do? That one obviously didn't fly. I eventually got something (I think it was Showtime for 3 more months), but that wasn't a good day for my blood pressure.

 

The only Thursday night game I care about is Vikings-Peckers, er, I mean Packers.

 

When cable can't be bothered to offer channels I want even on the highest tier (NFL Network, VERSUS, and um, oh, yea, CourtTV), dish becomes a much better option.

 

DirecTV here. The only way to go.
As for NFL vs. Cablevision/Time Warner.

Before the NFL Network added games, it was charging 20 cents a subscriber. Now with the games, they want to charge I think 75 cents a subscriber AND be placed on basic, not a sports or digitial tier.

The Broncos-Chiefs game won't be on in the New York area. The NFL is banking on a flood of phone calls to the cable companies.