The FCC has taken the side of the NFL Network in the network’s ongoing feud with Comcast.
In a nutshell, it goes like this: the NFL wants Comcast to include the NFL Network on its basic cable package. Normally, “contracts of carriage” between cable networks and cable providers state that each household pays a certain rate (say $1/month) for a channel, multiplied by the total number of households each provider has. So if, for example, Time Warner Cable wants E!, and E! costs $1.25 per household month, and TWC has 100 million households, then TWC must give E! $125 million a month to carry the channel on their cable systems.
Comcast thinks that the NFL wants far too much money for the NFL Network, so they want to put it on an optional “sports tier”, in which case Comcast would only pay the NFL for each household that subscribes to the tier. The NFL is opposed to this, as it effectively limits the number of people that will get NFL Network. The only problem for Comcast is this: the cable provider also owns Versus and the Golf Channel, both of which are sports channels that the company happily provides on their basic package.
Look, there’s more than enough blame to go around in this situation. The NFL is being greedy and demanding too much money for their product. But they also have a point in that the network will never get off the ground until it appears on basic cable tiers. And Comcast is being disingenuous when they whine that NFL Net costs too much money… all the while pimping two basic cable sports channels that they happen to own.
According to Ars Technica, the FCC on Friday sided with the NFL Network on at least two issues surrounding this bitter dispute. For starters, the Communications Act of 1996 “forbids a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) from discriminating against content providers ‘on the basis of affiliation or nonaffiliation’ with the MVPD”. This means that Comcast can’t offer programming by Comcast-owned stations while at the same time discrimination against channels owned by others. The FCC also found “evidence suggesting that Comcast demanded a financial interest NFL Network programming in exchange for carriage, another violation of the agency’s rules”.
According to FCC rules, the issues will now go before an Administrative Law judge, who will send recommendations for action to the full FCC within 60 days.
Maybe… someday… NFL Network will show up on Time Warner Cable!