NFL Network is as of December 2006 embroiled in a dispute with several cable companies, including the U.S.'s second-largest cable provider, Time Warner Cable, over carriage. NFL Network insists it be placed on basic service and wish to charge the cable companies a monthly rate of $0.70 per subscriber during the NFL season, while the cable providers wish to place it on a sports tier so as to avoid passing the cost onto those subscribers who do not wish to receive it. [6] NFL Network's position is that Time Warner's demands are unreasonable and many other providers place NFL Network on a basic tier without subscriber backlashes.
The dispute has been going on a while, it's one of the reasons the NFL decided to put the 5th package on NFLN, they want the leverage to use against Time Warner and Comcast. It's a pretty entertaining pissing contest. ESPN was in a big fight with the cable companies a couple of years ago, which they basically won thanks to getting MNF moved to them, none of the cable companies were bold enough to cut people off from the most popular sports program in the country (and now the most popular cable program in history).