Another 4 million viewers to bite the dust for NFL Network
No matter how much I whine about Arlen Specter (see post below) there is no getting around the fact the NFL increasingly is looking like the loser in its war with Big Cable - and now even a key satellite provider.
Check out this alarming (for the NFL) story by long-time SportsWatch/WatchDog supporter John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal (I posted the text because I'm not sure whether the link works for non-subscribers):
EchoStar is planning to move NFL Network to a less penetrated tier, a move the satellite operator is expected to complete this week, according to several well-placed sources. The move, which would take the network from the America's Top 100 package to America's Top 200, would cut NFL Network's distribution by another 4 million subscribers, putting the channel in front of just 31 million homes. One of the reasons EchoStar is making the move is because it was disappointed in the league's decision to give the season-ending Patriots-Giants game to national over-the-air broadcasters. NFL Manager of Corporate Communications Dan Masonson said, "We're aware of Dish's unfortunate decision, which is not in the best interest of its many subscribers who are football fans, especially this week with NFL Net's exclusive coverage of the scouting combine, featuring incoming college football players from all over the country." EchoStar did not respond by presstime.
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Comments (4)
if there was no demand for the NFL Netwrok why did they have a game simulcast on 4 dif stations in December?
Why did they have politicians threatening all sorts of things for people to see it???
I think they proved that people do want it.
People wanted that game, not the network. It is smart a scummy big business (cable) verus dumb and lazy big business (NFL's media wing). Generally I do not give a damn who wins these types of brawls. Hate the NFL network, adds nothing to the equation, distribution was fine before then snatched and pimped the product.
People may want it but since the NFL was selling its exclusivity the cable companies had to be mad the "exclusivity" they were paying for was available to almost everyone at no charge.
Bottom line: I love the NFL, I wouldn't sit around and watch anything on it except for live games. I love hockey, I haven't seen more than one hour of the NHL Network. I don't love the NBA, guess what I don't watch? I love sports, I don't watch ESPN all day long, and usually only watch it for games. These networks probably promise their sponsors huge audiences and can't deliver them. They are niche networks only interesting to hard-core fans, just as home shopping is a niche network for old women with no taste in clothes and jewelry.
Of course with the NFL Network, it is a case of you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours and since the Sunday package wasn't available to cable and eventually cost the cable companies hundreds of millions of dollars in lost subscriber's fees, why would they ever want to do the NFL any favors in return? The NFL doesn't get it. They aren't omnipotent, the people who run the TV business are.