U.S. Senators Implore NFL
To Expand Free TV Coverage of Games 
 
October 30, 2008
Bloomberg (NAT)
By Nancy Kercheval

Thirteen U.S. senators, concerned that the National Football League is moving toward pay television, are protesting the NFL Network's exclusive coverage of games.

"That the NFL would choose to have fewer viewers for select games again this year is an indication of its interest in moving toward a pay television model," the senators said in a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The eight primetime games on the NFL Network this season are similar to the "broadcast pattern" the league followed for more than 20 years, the NFL said in a statement late yesterday. In addition, the NFL offers all regular season and playoff games on free TV.

"The goal of our NFL Network games is to show them to a national audience," the league said. "However, that goal has been undercut by several of the largest cable operators that are discriminating against our network by either refusing to carry it or placing it on a much more costly tier than the sports networks that the cable operators themselves own."

The senators, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, reminded the NFL that it has an antitrust exemption conferred by Congress.

"We are concerned that the NFL is now leveraging the success of its over-the-air broadcasts to move games to pay television, to the detriment of NFL fans across the country that have made watching NFL games a ritual every fall," Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, and the other senators wrote.

Home Cities

Games will be restricted to the NFL Network beginning Nov. 6, the senators noted, even though the league had an audience of 34 million watching the final game of the 2007 regular season between the New England Patriots and New York Giants that was aired as a free broadcast in December.

The senators also criticized the NFL for its narrow interpretation of "home cities," where it televises free broadcasts. The NFL doesn't consider Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to be the home market of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the letter said.

The courts may ultimately decide whether NFL teams are using the NFL Network to restrict game programming in a manner that violates the antitrust laws, the senators wrote.

"We strongly encourage you to take prompt action that will ensure fans in every market receive the benefit of this over-the- air policy when their closest NFL teams, or the teams with which their areas have been historically aligned, are playing in games telecast nationally on the NFL Network," they wrote.

A U.S. administrative law judge will rule on the NFL's programming dispute with Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable operator.

The league had asked the Federal Communications Commission in May to order the Philadelphia-based cable television company to make the NFL Network more widely available on its systems. The agency said Oct. 10 in a decision supplied by Comcast that a judge will rule on the dispute in 60 days. 
 
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