Damn That Time Warner

Yes Matty, exactly what I said. The NFL Network wants to charge the cable companies a pretty high price for the network, but they want it on the general tier? You can't have your cake and eat it too. My last cable company, I had to pay a whole 2 dollars a month extra for NFL network. I don't see anything wrong with that at all. Same with the cable I have now, costs 2 bucks a month more. I'm curious how much money HBO gets and how much regular networks get.

So would you rather see it added to a premium sports tier so you have to pay extra for it?

I'd rather see if on a normal tier most definitely and readily available on every cable provider. However, I don't think it's fair that the NFL is trying to force a premium price on cable providers yet want the type of accessibility that the basic type networks want.

You need to choose which one. Either have it be a pay service, or drop your price to the cable companies. Truth is the NFL doesn't really care if people have it or not, as long as the maximize profits. Which is fine, but somehow I doubt this is it. How much more could they make off of advertising if it were available everywhere.

I'd rather see if on a normal tier most definitely and readily available on every cable provider. However, I don't think it's fair that the NFL is trying to force a premium price on cable providers yet want the type of accessibility that the basic type networks want.

You need to choose which one. Either have it be a pay service, or drop your price to the cable companies. Truth is the NFL doesn't really care if people have it or not, as long as the maximize profits. Which is fine, but somehow I doubt this is it. How much more could they make off of advertising if it were available everywhere.

I hear ya but as a consumer don't you just want the lowest price? What do you care about the logistics of it?

Truth is the NFL doesn't care because they pretty much hold the networks by the balls. The networks actually lose money on the NFL but it's such a huge draw they have to suck it up and swallow the loses. In the end I think this battle is less about money and more about the giant that is the NFL not giving any ground to the cable companies. In the end the fans are the real losers as this article points out:

Cable's fight with NFL, Big Ten networks leave fans in dark - Nov. 19, 2007 (http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/19/commentary/sportsbiz/index.htm?section=money_news_funny)

Matty -- as a consumer I don't care. I just hate seeing people blast the cable companies for not carrying it. As if they're just trying to screw the fans.

But we are in complete agreement, the people that hurt the most from this are the fans.

I switched to DTV 10 years ago when I moved from VA to NC. Originally I got it purely so I could watch the Skins games. Part of my original agreement was how much they could raise Sunday Ticket incrementally per year. So now I pay less than a new subscriber, but don't get the Red Zone, or the splitscreen of every game being played or the 30 minute games the day after. I don't have HBO or any other pay channels but I do get a lot of channels that aren't part of the local TIme Warner system (and Time Warner cost more). Up until a few years ago I did have cable and DirecTV because it was the only way to get the local channels. So I had the $5/month cable that gave me the local channels only. During the time I had both I lost cable service more than I lost DirecTV (though after a hurricane ripped apart the post that my dish was on I was without for about 5 days until someone could come out to fix it).
On a side note, several of the apartment complexes around here do have Dish or DirecTv. Sometimes individual apartments or condos get a dish but that is often against complex rules. Property managers often can play cable and dish companies against each other and get really good pricing.
Sorry this seemed to ramble a bit, but if anyone wants to switch to switch to DirecTv ask someone who has it to refer them because then both people get $50 (I think the same is true for Dish but not sure).

corporate america greed is what it seems like. just another way to take what people love and try to capitalize by making a buck out of it. whats next a buck for some water...what there doing that already?damn