NFL Net Accuses Comcast of Discrimination in FCC Complaint 

May 6, 2008
TV Week (NAT)
By Jon Lafayette 

NFL Network filed a complaint against Comcast with the Federal Communications Commission, charging that the nation’s largest cable operator is discriminating against the network.

The complaint claims that Comcast systems uniformly carry sports networks owned by Comcast on widely distributed tiers. Comcast put NFL Network on a sports tier bought by relatively few of its subscribers.

NFL Network also charges that Comcast is retaliating because the NFL decided not to sell Comcast an eight-game package of regular-season games. Comcast, the NFL Network said, did not want the games available in the participating teams’ home markets via broadcast under the league’s longstanding policy.

NFL Network said it is asking the FCC to order Comcast to stop discriminating and to carry NFL Network on a basis that does not impair its ability to compete fairly.

Sena Fitzmaurice, senior director of corporate communications and government affairs at Comcast, reiterated the company's position:

“Comcast makes the NFL Network available to all of our customers on a tier of service that the NFL agreed to by contract. The NFL has immense power in the marketplace, yet it keeps running to the federal and state governments to try to force changes in the deal it freely accepted in negotiations with Comcast. The agreement we have to carry the NFL Network is pro-consumer. It allows us to place this expensive channel on a tier of service for those who wish to pay for it, not on a tier where everyone must pay for it.”

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/05/nfl_net_accuses_comcast_of_dis.php