Business

NFL THROWS A HAIL MARY

Not unlike last year’s Rutgers University bowl game, the NFL Network and Time Warner Cable are using the upcoming, potentially history-making match-up between the New England Patriots and New York Giants against each other.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell used the Dec. 29 game – which could see the Patriots become the second team in NFL history to finish the regular season undefeated – to fire the latest salvo in the ongoing distribution dispute with Time Warner Cable.

In a letter sent late yesterday, Goodell asked Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt to sign a term sheet “for a binding final-offer, ‘baseball style’ arbitration process.”

Goodell goes on to say that, if agreed to, he would make the NFL Network available to all Time Warner Cable subscribers in time for the Patriots-Giants game. Without access to the NFL Network, which averaged 5.3 million viewers through its first four games this year, only viewers in the New York and Boston television markets will be able to see the game.

The NFL Network and cable operators like Time Warner and Cablevision have been fighting over pricing and distribution of the channel.

The NFL Network wants to be placed on a basic tier available to all subscribers, while the cable operators argue that the channel should be placed on a digital tier available only to subscribers willing to pay for it.

In “baseball style” arbitration, both parties submit proposals and agree to be bound by the decision of an independent third party who decides which offer is best.

“You should know, Glenn, that we do not view this proposal as a way to ‘force’ NFL Network carriage ‘on our terms,’ ” Goodell wrote. “We view it as a way to make sure that your customers can view our programming on fair terms, which the arbitrator could decide are those proposed by us, or those that Time Warner proposes.”

In response to Goodell’s letter, Britt said in a statement that it has been able to reach programming agreements with “hundreds of networks” without resorting to arbitration.

“We have offered to carry the NFL Network on a sports tier or premium basis,” Britt wrote. “We would also be willing to make the NFL Network games available to our customers on a per-game basis, at a retail price set by the NFL, with 100 percent of the revenue” going to the NFL.

Time Warner also said it would be willing to offer the game on a digital channel on a “freeview” basis, if the NFL agrees.

peter.lauria@nypost.com