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Apparently the NFL Networks negotiations with Comcast are still going nowhere.
Seems to me that there's a whole lot more advertising money to be made by both the NFL and by Comcast (and Time-Warner) by placing the NFLN on a basic tier available to everybody than on a pay-extra tier. I may not be a CFO, but the real money is from the ad revenue generated by a larger audience and not from a subscription fee; that applies to a newspaper, magazine, website, - or yes, a cable company. In my opinion the NFLN should either lower the $.60 rate they want to charge, or give Comcast a few more 30-second spots on their shows and let them pocket that ad revenue. As an added bonus we not only all get the NFLN, but we don't have to pay extra for it.
A couple other comments of note:
Several of the nation's cable operators keep insisting on making NFL Network available only on a pay-extra sports tier, but NFL Network president Steve Bornstein said this week the league never will accept that. (Comcast, which services much of South Florida, already moved it to a tier without the NFL's permission -- the matter is now in court. Cost for the tier locally is $5 per month, Comcast says.)
So is it time the NFL accepts a tier? Commissioner Roger Goodell said no, and Bornstein said, ``We'd shut it down before we ever did that kind of deal. We're all about mass distribution and wide availability of our product. and there's no reason we want to make this an elitist product.''
The NFL simulcast NFL Network's coverage of the Week 17 Patriots-Giants game on CBS and NBC, but ''I don't anticipate doing that again,'' Goodell said, adding there have been no talks with the major cable operators recently.
Seems to me that there's a whole lot more advertising money to be made by both the NFL and by Comcast (and Time-Warner) by placing the NFLN on a basic tier available to everybody than on a pay-extra tier. I may not be a CFO, but the real money is from the ad revenue generated by a larger audience and not from a subscription fee; that applies to a newspaper, magazine, website, - or yes, a cable company. In my opinion the NFLN should either lower the $.60 rate they want to charge, or give Comcast a few more 30-second spots on their shows and let them pocket that ad revenue. As an added bonus we not only all get the NFLN, but we don't have to pay extra for it.
A couple other comments of note:
• NBC Sports chairman **** Ebersol, on whether he has considered pursuing retired Brett Favre: ``I can't say the thought hasn't crossed my mind. [But] Favre has made it abundantly clear he's not going to do anything this year. That gives me more time to decide if there's anything that works for us.''
• USA Network, Versus and Spike TV have expressed some interest in carrying a version of Inside the NFL, which was dropped by HBO. But the multimillion dollar cost for NFL Films highlights discouraged at least one potential suitor.
• ESPN announced Thursday that Tony Kornheiser will return for a third season in the Monday Night Football booth. Play-by-player Mike Tirico quibbled with former analyst Joe Theismann's claim that MNF is, essentially, Kornheiser's show.
''It's not Tony Night Football,'' Tirico said at the owners meetings. But, he said, ``You have to pay more attention with what you're doing with Tony because he's not qualified to get on there and talk about pulling guards.''
Tirico, who will host when ESPN carries first- and second-round Masters coverage for the first time next week, said, ''I'm the happiest person'' about the decision to continue reducing celebrity guests in the MNF booth. ``I'm a nuts-and-bolts football guy almost to a fault.''