The answer to why Arlen is doing this can be found in the final quote.
He is doing Comcast's bidding.
Comcast owns Philly - he and Fast Eddie are both in their pocket. Comcast is pi$$ed that they can't get a chunk of the Sunday Ticket money for themselves, since the NFL does not make it available on cable (instead selling exclusive rights to DirecTV.)
Since they can't make a deal with the NFL, they are instead siccing their favorite Washington attack dog on them.
Nothing new under the sun - especially with regards to Philly politics.
Also Comcast is mad they couldn't get the Thursday-Saturday package for Versus and it went to NFLN instead. But they know they'll never leverage that one, so their going after the Sunday Ticket.
Now admittedly I think it's kind of stupid of the NFL to sell Sunday Ticket exclusively to DirecTV, I think they could make more selling it to both the satelite networks and all the big cable companies. But it's their package they can sell it how they want.
Nope - nothing new. For 8 years, living outside the Philly market, we tried to get Comcast sports on DirecTV. Comcast REFUSED to allow it forever.
When they finally started showing it - it was all of them BUT the Philly market & Philly sports.
Where was Arlen then?
You got it, Mr Ogletorp.
And not only does Comcast bitch about not getting the NFL ticket, they refuse to let their Comcast Sports Net be broadcast on Directv. Since I REFUSE to give Comcast one thin dime, I can't watch the Philles, Sixers or Flyers most games.
Some would say that's a good thing.....