As it turned out, the delay in an important FCC meeting that I wrote about Tuesday afternoon lasted only until Tuesday night.
The result was not so good for my soulmate, FCC chairman Kevin Martin, and not so good for the NFL Network (see the last paragraph of the linked story).
The NFL has been hoping to force big cable companies into binding arbitration, which it believes is one of its best chances for a resolution of the ongoing carriage dispute involving the NFL Network. Now it looks like that will be more difficult.
Sigh. In the long run, the NFL is going to win this war, because it controls the content. The question is how long the war will last, and how bloody the battles will be.
Comments (2)
please call chernoff.
Regarding the failure of cable companies to include the NFL Network on the basic tier availability I have two observations. The first is that the cable-media companies will always want to pass on the cost to the consumer in order to enhance profit margins. Second, and more importantly, this would not even be an issue if the NFL had not decided to get into the broadcasting business, and deny most of America from seeing games like the Cowboys and Packers Thursday night game. Gee, with all those fines, I would think that the NFL has more than enough money to line the coffers for years to come. Perhaps the NFL should re-open "spy-gate" and find more avenues for fines.