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Originally Posted by irish
I'm sure some cable companies will add the NFL network to their choices (assuming the direct tv contract is non-exclusive) but it wont be for free. I suspect in 10 years the NFL network will carry all of the games.
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I suspect that in ten years all games will be on a pay-per-view basis. Moving the games away from the Networks to an NFL owned property is a prelude to this. Advertizing revenue will not be large enough to sustain the growth that the owners have become accustomed to. The success of the Sunday ticket will encourage them to begin marketing a team's entire schedule and also individual games.
I believe there was a recent court ruling as well which may force cable companies to sell channels on and individual basis rather than as a set package. This trend towards a-la-carte programming will mean more choice but not lower costs (as I suspect some naive consumers believe). For instance you may be able to enjoy games on a television, a computer, or a portable device with fewer commercials but at a higher cost. Hopefully they will supplement the games with expanded interactive, multimedia, coverage such as what is available on Redskins.com presently. Marketers are skilled at using things like this to make it seem like good deal when in reality we will be paying for what was previously free.
I myself would be williing to pay if there were no ads. During our two playoff games it was hard catching a play or two between the two hours of commercials.