Business

NFL in cable huddle

Hey, Manhattan sports fans, are you ready for some more TV football?

Time Warner Cable and the NFL Network have made substantial progress in their month-old negotiations and could be heading toward an agreement that will bring the football channel’s full slate of eight games to the TV sets of their 12.1 million subscribers, The Post has learned.

In an important move, the cable company has dropped its stance that the NFL Network be placed on a separate, extra fee, sports tier, one source familiar with the talks said.

Now, TWC is ready to put the eight-year old network on a basic, digital tier that will cost sports fans no more than they are currently paying — which is $78.99 a month in Manhattan for customers who get only TV service from TWC.

The source close to the cable company cautioned that talks with the NFL Network have started and stopped before, and that there is no guarantee they will be successful this time.

However, the movement by TWC to drop the requirement that it be placed on a sports tier is a good sign.

Also, TWC recently told one subscriber the company was “in the process of an agreement” with the NFL Network.

The subscriber had e-mailed TWC asking about the football-focused channel.

“We are in the process of an agreement with NFL, as soon as it is done, you would be able to view all the NFL matches on the Time Warner Cable platform,” the company wrote to the subscriber in an e-mail.

A TWC spokeswoman had no comment.

The $78.99 price is for stand-alone TV customers who don’t take either broadband or phone service.

TWC began new talks with NFL Network in August. At the time, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a speech in North Carolina, part of TWC’s footprint, that getting cable deals was a top priority.

“We’re trying to get that done,” Goodell said. “We believe it’s good for fans; we think it’s good for Time Warner.”

NFL Network is currently available on Verizon’s Fios service in the New York area. The NFL Network’s slate of exclusively televised games starts Nov. 10.

According to Sports Business Journal, cable operators have balked because NFL Network costs around 81 cents per subscriber per month to carry and because the NFL has two major exclusive deals with cable rivals — its Sunday Ticket service with satellite company DirecTV and Verizon’s $720 million deal to own mobile rights for games.