Week 17 NFL Network game

[PatsFanInVa]

I live in Alexandria, VA... and are you kiddin' me??? Where do you think I'll be watching that game? Murphy's, Alexandria's own little piece of Patriots Heaven. If you feel like following up on general Pats Mania in week 17, drop by the place. 700 block of King street.

 

[DrLev]

I live in Alexandria, VA... and are you kiddin' me??? Where do you think I'll be watching that game? Murphy's, Alexandria's own little piece of Patriots Heaven. If you feel like following up on general Pats Mania in week 17, drop by the place. 700 block of King street.

Murphy's is fantastic. I drive down from Baltimore most games.

 

[PowerAlley.com]

I just realized that game is on the same night that I booked my band to play in PA. The bar doesnt even have a dish! I will have to be calling my wife during the breaks to get updates. What a bummer.

Happy Turkey Day

Mike

 

[NEfan32]

I live outside of Boston, but I am attending the game so it doesn't matter to me.

 

[PatsSteve1]

I've lived outside of Mass since 1991 and had NFL Ticket the last 6 years. Before that many Patriots games weren't on in the areas I lived so I had to go to a bar. Even if the game were on CBS and it was at 1:00Pm, people in other area's might be without the broadcast and either have to go to a bar or not see it. So I don't see what the big difference is whether you don't see it because it's on NFLN or you don't see it because it's on CBS but not in your area. If you don't get it you don't get it.

 

[hallfamebrady]

Mark my words: there will be some type of federal mediation on this well before the Pats / Giants game. This happened with MLB when they tried to move Extra Innings to MLB.

Both Time Warner and Comcast got double dinged by the NFL and I tink this is pay back. First, they gave the Sunday Ticket package to Direct TV. The prevailing though was they would open it up to all cable companies when the contract expired in 2005. Secondly, they both own networks who bidded to get te Thursday / Saturday package (Versus and TNT).

 

[PatsSteve1]

Mark my words: there will be some type of federal mediation on this well before the Pats / Giants game. This happened with MLB when they tried to move Extra Innings to MLB.

Why just before the Pats/Gints game? Why wouldn't angry Colts fans around the country be calling thier congress reps about tonight's game? The Packers/Cowboys game is also only on NFLN. I don't think anything is going to happen. There were NFLN games last year, too. There wasn't any mediation after last year. If your a Patriots fan and live outside the NE area, you don't get every game w/o NFL Ticket. Never have. As far as I know there's no right to get to see your NFL team on TV every week no matter where you live.

 

[hallfamebrady]

Why just before the Pats/Gints game? Why wouldn't angry Colts fans around the country be calling thier congress reps about tonight's game? The Packers/Cowboys game is also only on NFLN. I don't think anything is going to happen. There were NFLN games last year, too. There wasn't any mediation after last year. If your a Patriots fan and live outside the NE area, you don't get every game w/o NFL Ticket. Never have. As far as I know there's no right to get to see your NFL team on TV every week no matter where you live.

Because they (the feds) have before. In fact, it is my understanding that the two sides have already scheduled a mediation session.

 

[PatsSteve1]

Because they (the feds) have before. In fact, it is my understanding that the two sides have already scheduled a mediation session.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/19/commentary/sportsbiz/?postversion=2007112006

Here's a story from today on CNN that says mediation isn't scheduled yet. But may happen. It sounds like NLFN is more inclined to want the mediation than the cable companies.

 

[cincipatsfan]

Live in OH (yay me)

Finally ditched TWC for DIRECTV for three reasons

Wanted ST to watch the Pats
Got tired of waiting for TWC to do a deal with NFL network
Wanted more HD channels

The first two are the main reasons I switched.

 

[Nitro]

If you live in the Boston area, you'll get the game on over the air television. But if you live outside that market, you may be out of luck. I'd love to talk to some out-of-market Pats fans to get their thoughts on how they plan to watch the game if it's not available on their cable system. I'd also love to get some opinion on whether you think the league should move the game off of NFL Network to another broadcaster so the game can be seen nationally.

I'm in western mass, but it doesn't matter I could be in warsaw poland. You can get the nfl network streamed on the internet if you know where to look

 

[Maroney TD]

Live in Williamsburg, VA
My digital cable has NFLN so I should be fine here. If I didn't get it I would watch it online with sopcast or go to a bar.
The NFL can do what it wants but I would think they would be better off moving the game to a main channel if the Pats are still undefeated. That way they can make money selling it to another network and still let everyone watch it for huge ratings.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

I live in Western, NY and have DirectTV (for the NFL ticket package). Luckily it includes the NFL Network too, so it's no sweat. I'd be forced to burglarize a neighbor's house if I didn't have it. I'M NOT MISSING THAT ONE.

 

[bradybunch]

i live in ct and i think i will get it on fox because i remember last year the same thing happened with a ginats game and it was on fox.

 

[alamo]

My understanding is that the NFL Network agreement allows local affiliates to carry the Game.

I've heard folks say that this means Ch. 5 in Boston - but remember, this is the NEW ENGLAND Patriots so that doesn't truly fulfill their obligation in my opinion... most subscribers in RI, CT, NH, VT and ME have other ABC affiliates on their cable and won't be able to see Ch. 5.

So they need to go a step further to ensure that all fans in the New England area have access to meet their obligation in my opinion.

The NFL long ago set up "primary" and "secondary" markets for teams for the purposes of blackouts, must-carry rules, and ESPN games. Boston metro area (Channel 5) is primary for the Patriots, most of New England is secondary. It looks like the NFL network games appear only in the primary market, as I believe ESPN games do.

If they allow over-the-air broadcasts in the secondary markets for NFL Network, they would probably have to allow it for ESPN, and ESPN would certainly complain. So it could potentially happen that they change the rules to allow secondary markets outside Boston to get the game, but it's not something they could do without a great deal of negotiation. And it weakens their bargaining position with the cable companies. Looks to me the real question is: is the NFL getting close to admitting the NFL Network exclusive games are a failure? If not then they will likely hold the line.

Tonight's NFLN game (Indy-ATL) was streamed on the NFLN website, maybe that's how they plan to solve the problem. Though that's doomed to failure if everyone who watches on TV tries to watch via the web.

 

[AirForcePatFan]

Atlanta, GA
Would love to have Directv but it won't go through trees, so I have Comcast and yes, I paid the $5 to to get the NFLN, could care less about the other sports it comes with... I think it's crazy what Comcast is doing and would switch to Directv in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the blasted trees but I will be able to watch the game...

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Ann Arbor, MI
NFL Network on DirecTV/Sunday Ticket.

There is absolutely no reason for any sports fan not to have DirecTV. It is the greatest thing in the world. SuperFan=awesome.

In New York City, most apartments and coops have rules against putting a dish out your window, so there are, literally, millions of us who can't pick up the bird. Same goes for Philly, San Fran, LA, Chicago, Miami...lots of big cities.

BTW, this is all due to the corrupt arrangement between the NFL and DirecTV, which keeps DirecTV in business and many of us in the dark for games we really want to see. If you read any Wall Street analysis of the DirecTV franchise, you will find that it has stopped increasing its HH penetration and is now declining in overall coverage vs. Cable. The only thing that keeps it going is the exclusive it gets from the NFL for the "Sunday Ticket" type package. This is largely due to the fact that any competitive advantage that the satellite had over cable in terms of picture quality a few years ago has now been wiped out by advances in cable technology.

 

[elandadem]

I'm in western mass, but it doesn't matter I could be in warsaw poland. You can get the nfl network streamed on the internet if you know where to look

Where do I look?

 

[Bigdogx]

Every single day there are more and more reason to ditch cable vs. a dish setup. Really the only thing stopping me ATM is on-demand which is either already available or will be soon for the dish and the fact that in some weather circumstances you can lose reception, other then those two points the dish owns every other feature vs. cable IMO! It is starting to get to a point were i question why the hell i do not switch over, for the most part it's cheaper, over twice the amount of hd channels and they have superiority when it comes to sports packages such as the NFL ticket.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

My understanding is that the NFL Network agreement allows local affiliates to carry the Game.

I've heard folks say that this means Ch. 5 in Boston - but remember, this is the NEW ENGLAND Patriots so that doesn't truly fulfill their obligation in my opinion... most subscribers in RI, CT, NH, VT and ME have other ABC affiliates on their cable and won't be able to see Ch. 5.

I get Comcast cable, the Boston feed with all the Boston channels broadcast and numbered (Channel 5) as they are in Boston. It still isn't clear to me based on the ambiguous and non-clarified statements from Comcast and the NFL that Comcast won't that day substitute some other ABC outlet here in Southern NH.