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Greed vs. Greed
December 13, 2007
San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Editorial
You may not be aware of it, or be able to see it, but there is a National Football League game on prime-time television tonight. Curiously, the PR-savvy league that made Super Bowl Sunday a national holiday and "Monday Night Football" the gold standard of reality TV is bombing on Thursday nights.
The reason? Greed.
The NFL overestimated its appeal when it put a package of Thursday and Saturday night games - including tonight's lame match-up between Houston and Denver - on its own network and expected cable companies to pay 70 cents per month per customer for the privilege.
Not to be outdone in the gouge-the-fan department, Comcast and Time Warner then bundled the NFL Network with other second-tier sports channels at a higher monthly fee. For example, Bay Area Comcast subscribers must pay an extra $4.99 a month for the digital sports package that includes the NFL Network.
Both sides have been appealing for sympathy from fans or - better yet - state and federal regulators. Government should stay out of the way of this one: There is nothing in the Constitution about free beer or free football. If the NFL and Big Cable want to tick off their customers, so be it.
The free market seems to have delivered its verdict: With the exception of a recent Dallas-Green Bay game, few fans seem to care. Expect the howls to return, however, if the New England Patriots are going for an unprecedented 16-0 record in their regular-season finale against the New York Giants - on Dec. 29, in prime time ... on the NFL Network.
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