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NFL Network airs the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game Today

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oldvnewschool

The NFL Network kicks off the NFL Preseason today with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game which was on last year on NBC.

Because of a trade for the China Bowl, which never got played, NFL got the game for itself.

But my feeling is that this is the beginning of a revolution of NFL TV broadcasts.

I believe once the next significant contracts come up in 2011 and 2013, both the Sunday Night and Monday Night telecasts

will be on the NFL Network as a plan to put all nationally prime time games on the network to give it some much needed exposure.

Maybe it will increase the spread of availability of the network if that happens.

I would like to see it myself because I've never had seen it only once at a resturant during this year's NFL Draft.
 
As of this summer, Comcast in the Philadelphia area has placed the NFL Network in the "Sports Tier" - meaning that you have to purchase the sports package to get it. In other words: extra money. Since you still get ESPN, ESPN2, vs., and regional CSN with the basic package, only the hard core fans are going to pop for the extra dough.

This channel was formerly in the digital plus tier, which is purchased by most customers with digital cable. This type of move - if done nationwide - would seem to severely limit the NFL Network's viewership and appeal.

I know that all involved see dollar signs in doing something like this, but I see it as being the first step in the direction of boxing. All big boxing matches are on (expensive) PPV and the popularity of that sport has never been lower. Remember when ABC used to carry those big Muhammad Ali bouts back in the '70s? Everyone watched those. Since the advent of PPV, hardly anyone does now. Don King made a mint out of it, but what once was a mass-appeal sport has become tightly niched as a result.

Is this where the NFL is headed? I truly hope not - but every move they've made with the NFL Network seems to indicate it.
 
It seems highly doubtful it's headed that direction. With NFL Network, you're talking about, what, eight regular season games that ordinary fans would care about and some handful or preseason contests that few but die hards care about?

And what's more, the regular season games are already on over-the-air TV in the cities that play in the games, so those fans can see them anyway. All they really did was swipe some regional games that wouldn't have been available to the whole country anyway from Fox and CBS and stuck them on their own channel.

Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN don't seem to be going anywhere when it comes to NFL games, so the lack of appeal of some possibly meaningless games on one cable channel doesn't portend a shift to only PPV-type coverage.
 
imhomerjay said:
It seems highly doubtful it's headed that direction. With NFL Network, you're talking about, what, eight regular season games that ordinary fans would care about and some handful or preseason contests that few but die hards care about?

And what's more, the regular season games are already on over-the-air TV in the cities that play in the games, so those fans can see them anyway. All they really did was swipe some regional games that wouldn't have been available to the whole country anyway from Fox and CBS and stuck them on their own channel.
Click to expand...

Actually, they swiped the old late-season Saturday doubleheader games that came after the end of college football season, that WERE available to the whole country on free TV.

Those games are available OTA in the immediate primary markets of the teams concerned, but not in any secondary markets. When the Browns have an NFL "Network" game, nobody in Toledo, Columbus, or Youngstown can see it if they don't have access to the NFL "Network". It's ridiculous, IMO.

I doubt the NFL would be stupid enough to put Sunday or Monday night games on that channel unless a major reversal happens and it's carried widely on basic tiers by 2011. More likely, the cable carriers will keep saying no to the NFL, and the NFL "Network" will go away.
 
I, too myself a ComCast viewer, and NFL-TV has finally landed on ComCast Houston. The only way to get is to subscribe to Digital TV, and you pay extra for the sports package. It don't come cheap.
 
oldvnewschool said:
The NFL Network kicks off the NFL Preseason today with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game which was on last year on NBC.

Because of a trade for the China Bowl, which never got played, NFL got the game for itself.

But my feeling is that this is the beginning of a revolution of NFL TV broadcasts.

I believe once the next significant contracts come up in 2011 and 2013, both the Sunday Night and Monday Night telecasts

will be on the NFL Network as a plan to put all nationally prime time games on the network to give it some much needed exposure.

Maybe it will increase the spread of availability of the network if that happens.

I would like to see it myself because I've never had seen it only once at a resturant during this year's NFL Draft.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't make business sense for the NFL to pull all the prime time games over to its own network. Keep something in mind, the networks lose money on the NFL. In other words, they pay more to the NFL for the games than they get in advertising revenue. Assuming the NFL could sell the same amount of ads the networks do (which would be a tall order), the NFL would get less money than having the networks broadcast the games. The cable rates for the NFL network would go up, but probably not enough to match what the NFL gets from the networks.

Beyond that, the anti-trust implications of such a move would raise hell in congress. The NFL does not want congress involved in its business - at all.
 
Until the NFL ditches their own channel and puts the games back on free or widely available cable TV I will not buy any NFL merchandise. I'm voting with my dollar.
 
Man, I'm glad I've got DirecTV, that offers it with their regular package!
 
The NFL will lose money substainially if It could the right thing and make NFL-TV available to every cable company and put it on a must-carry tier, like NBA-TV. NFL is available on Comcast-but you WILL pay extra money because it has put The NFL on its sports tier package-along with GSN (The Game Show Channel). I think the gamble will become lose-lose situation for BOTH The NFL AND Their Loyal fans who have followed the game religiously on Sundays.
 
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