The cable companies didn’t want to do Sunday Ticket as a package deal the way DirecTV is selling it. They wanted to do it on an individual game PPV basis, the league insisted on the all or nothing pachage (with good reason, there’s more to Sunday Ticket than just the individual game broadcasts. Easterbrook outlined all this last month ( http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/071030 ).
Of course there’s a lot more to the NFLN than the live games. There’s excellent programming throughout the season (now that the pre-Sunday night game NFL PrimeTime on ESPN is dead NFL Gameday on NFL is hands down the best week in review show), plus for the football obsessed lots of programming in the off season. The games are part of the leverage against TW and Comcast, but there’s plenty more on the channel.
As for the fairness of them being willing to be on the digital tier for Cox and smaller carriers but wanting in the basic tier for TW and Comcast I think I’ll quote Goodfellas “f$%^ fair”. The contracts are negotiated individually, the NFL legitimately has different goals with different carrier, much like how the carriers legitimately have different goals with different networks.
Eventually somebody is gonna cave. Until then I’m just glad I live in a Cox town and get to watch the Steelers tonight.
The main thrust of the story, though, is how NFL is crying foul on access to NFLN but has no trouble limiting access to Sunday Ticket, which is easier to get in Canada, Mexico and by internet so long as you aren't in the U.S., then it is to American customers (I think this explains why I've seen links mentioned to NFL games on the net - they are links to torrents from international feeds!).
Easterbrook also says this:
Some cable executives contend there is little point in chasing Sunday Ticket because all the people who want the service already have migrated to DirecTV. Sure -- all the people who want it at $250 a year, plus bundled charges, plus the hassle of installing and maintaining a satellite dish. If Sunday Ticket were $50 a year and came hassle-free through cable or any other hassle-free electronic pipeline that might evolve, instead of 1.6 million households getting Sunday Ticket, 25 million might sign up. Then consumer costs would be lower but business revenues higher -- $1.3 billion instead of $400 million in that example -- and what was once a luxury for the privileged few could be possessed affordably by almost anyone. Just like what happened with cell phones! Come on NFL, let us choose which game to watch. We'll pay, you'll be richer and you can stop speaking out of both sides of your mouth, demanding public access to the NFL Network while restricting public access to Sunday Ticket.
The problem, of course, is that the NFL would want to charge everyone $250/yr for Sunday Ticket, not $50/yr. And the cable companies aren't going to fork over $400 million on Sunday Ticket if they can't make money off it. Even DirecTV isn't making money off it. For that matter, Fox, CBS and NBC are losing money on the NFL too but they do it because they can cross-promote their network shows and hope to recoup the money there. That's why the nets inundate us with ads for their other shows everytime you turn on an NFL game.