Cable industry observers and the Federal Communications Commission will be looking to this Thursday’s Dallas Cowboys-Green Bay Packers game – the most significant matchup yet to air exclusively on NFL Network – to gauge consumer demand for the channel.
NFL Network execs are hoping the game will spark enough TV fan outrage in markets where it’s unavailable – almost everywhere except Dallas and Green Bay and many markets controlled by Cablevision, Comcast and Time Warner Cable – to compel the industry giants to renew talks about carrying the channel.
Currently, NFL Network can be viewed on satellite via DirecTV and the Dish Network, smaller cable companies, and on some telecom systems like Verizon FiOS.
“There is going to be great demand for that game, and very clearly there’s going to be a tremendous customer reaction,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a conference call last week.
The game, which features two storied franchises with identical 10-1 records, could determine crucial home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
“We want the customers to know that the game is not going to be available to them, and they should express themselves to the cable operators, or if they feel like they want to get it, change their service,” Goodell said.
Cable operators have been saying publicly and privately there isn’t enough demand for NFL Network to carry it on a basic tier. That would increase costs for all subscribers at a time when they’ve been shedding them at an unexpectedly rapid pace.
“It was the network and the league that made the decision about how games are packaged and where they are made available,” said a Time Warner Cable spokesman.
“We have not seen any kind of significant outpouring of complaints or disconnects related to the lack of the NFL Network. If anything, our customers appreciate us holding the line on standard-tier pricing.”
The FCC is scheduled to vote today on a number of issues, including the possibility of using binding arbitration to settle disputes between cable operators and channels like the NFL Network.
But even if this issue is taken up and passed, it will still be too late to have any impact on this year’s NFL season or the remaining seven games on the network’s slate.