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Football & Cable:
State Should Stay on Sidelines
December 17, 2007
Houston Chronicle
Column By State Senator Kyle Janek
Texas Legislature Has No Business Tackling Dispute
Although I enjoy watching football as much as any other Texan, I'm perplexed that one of the biggest public debates today isn't about affordable health care or private property rights, but about the TV broadcast of eight football games.
In fact, the dispute between the NFL Network and cable operators appears to have commanded the attention of a number of my fellow state lawmakers and other elected officials in Texas. We are being exhorted by both camps to take sides in this dispute.
First, let's be clear: It was the National Football League's decision to yank its eight games off the free broadcast airways and put them on its pay-to-view NFL Network. You once could watch the games for free on a local TV channel. Now you must pay for them one way or another, whether through satellite, cable or other means. Expect more games to migrate to the pay network next year.
In other words, the NFL Network is now in a situation of its own creation. If it is so concerned that all fans get to see all games, the NFL could let the broadcast networks have the games and be done with it.
At a recent hearing before the House Committee on Regulated Industries, NFL officials mentioned repeatedly that the cost per cable subscriber would be about 70 cents per month, but cable companies charge around $8 per month for each subscriber to the NFL Network. Notice the fancy footwork here: 70 cents for every home whether they want the games or not, versus $8 for those who want to watch the games. If only I could get every single homeowner in Houston to pay for my Astros season tickets.
Incidentally, that 70 cents is almost double what CNN costs. Of course, CNN is ready to go live anywhere in the world in an instant, while the NFL network carries eight regular season games, the draft (also carried by ESPN) and the always scintillating scouting combine.
In the Houston area, the NFL Network is available to subscribers to Comcast's Sports Entertainment Package. This is how other cable networks would like to carry the NFL Network, and it makes sense that only those who want to watch it should pay for it. If the NFL Network aired on basic cable, as it wants, every subscriber's bill — football fan or not — would increase in order to pay the carriage rate the network is demanding.
The NFL Network, however, doesn't like its home on the sports tier and challenged its contract with Comcast in court, unsuccessfully. When that contract expires in mid-2009, the NFL has made it clear it will strong-arm Comcast to move the channel to its basic tier and force all subscribers to bear the cost burden.
No matter which side you support in this debate, I argue that government intervention is not the answer. This is a dispute between private businesses. The solution needs to be found at the negotiating table, not in a court of law, state or federal capitol, or federal regulatory agency.
The Texas Legislature certainly is not the appropriate body to tackle this issue, even though state legislation is being discussed here and in other states. It would be illogical to pass a law in Texas that is guaranteed to raise everyone's cable rates after the Legislature already has adopted legislation with the intent to lower video rates by increasing competition. These kinds of interventions may have found a voice under the old rules of monopoly, but now are improper given that viewers have many more options: satellite, phone/Internet providers and high-definition broadcast.
At the federal level, the Federal Communciations Commission already has in place rules and procedures to govern disputes over program access. They must be working, as never before has the government had to intervene. To do so now would be a dangerous, and unnecessary, precedent.
Adopting new ones that favor the NFL Network would be unfair, especially as the NFL "enjoys just as many, if not more, government-conferred privileges as do cable operators," U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter recently wrote in a letter to the FCC. Among the examples he cites is the billions of dollars in public funds that NFL teams have won to finance new stadiums.
Bottom line: Texans want their football. The NFL needs to spend less time, money and energy drafting elected officials into their PR war and instead get serious at the negotiating table.
Janek, R-Houston, represents Senate District 17, which includes parts of Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria, Galveston, Chambers and Jefferson counties. He is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Emerging Technologies and Economic Development, and a member of the Committee on Business and Commerce.
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