NFL Network is an American
television specialty
channel dedicated to American
football. It is owned and operated by the National Football League (NFL) and
is also shown in Canada
and Mexico
. It
was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's
32 team owners voted
unanimous to approve
its formation. The league invested $100 million to fund the
network's operations.
NFL Films produces
commercials,
television programs, and feature
films for the NFL. It is a key supplier of NFL
Network's programming, with more than 4,000 hours of footage
available in their library. Thus, much of the network's highlights
and recaps feature NFL Films'
trademark
style of slow motion game action, sounds of the game, and the
talk on the sidelines.
Beginning with the 2006 season, the channel began to broadcast
eight
prime time regular season NFL
games, called the
Run to the
Playoffs. In addition to live games, the network has
covered the
NFL Draft since 2006; its
coverage has competed with
ESPN and
ESPN2.
The NFL Network logo changed to match the new NFL logo, which
premiered officially at the
2008 NFL
Draft. Unlike the updated logo for the league, the NFL
Network's new logo saw more subtle changes such as using a darker
shade of blue and changing the "NFL" font to match that of the new
NFL logo.
The NFL
Network works from studios in Culver City, California
, near Los
Angeles
, and broadcasts their world-wide feed from the
CNN
Center
in Atlanta,
GA
.
Executives
Live NFL games
The original NFL Network logo with the
curly "L", used from 2005 until 2008.
NFL Network televises eight live
regular
season games during the season. They run on either Thursday or
Saturday nights, beginning
Thanksgiving
evening. Five games usually air on Thursday nights and three on
Saturday nights. These games also aired on broadcast TV in the
primary
media markets of the
participating teams, although the home team's market broadcasts the
game only if it is
sold out 72 hours before
game time.
Veteran TV announcer
Bryant Gumbel was
the
play-by-play announcer, and former
Fox and current
NBC analyst
Cris Collinsworth was
color commentator for six games. In 2006,
Collinsworth missed two Saturday games due to his
NBC commitments.
Dick Vermeil was his replacement in that event.
Collinsworth won the Sports Emmy for best game analyst for his work
on the NFL Network telecasts.
Marshall
Faulk and
Deion Sanders replaced
Collinsworth when needed in 2007.
These
games are also broadcast on Westwood
One Radio in the United States and Canada, by Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, and usually by
TSN in Canada (except for
games involving the Buffalo Bills,
which are instead carried on CITY-TV
).
In August
2007, the network televised the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Game between the Pittsburgh
Steelers and the New Orleans
Saints due to NBC wanting to cover, the later cancelled,
preseason game in China
.
The 2007
schedule began on Thanksgiving night, November 22, with a game
between the Indianapolis Colts
and the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta's
Georgia
Dome
. Gumbel and Collinsworth returned as the
booth announcers.
On April 11,
2008, Gumbel
resigned as play-by-play announcer. Four days later, the
season schedule was released, with the Run
to the Playoffs schedule modified. It will now begin the first
Thursday in November instead of Thanksgiving and there will be no
game in Week 17.
Bob Papa, who is also the radio voice of the
New York Giants on WFAN
, has
announced the games since 2008. Until the 2008 season, Cris
Collinsworth also announced on the network. He has since been hired
to replace
John
Madden on
NBC games, who retired on
April 16, 2009.
Matt Millen, former
general manager of the
Detroit Lions,
was named Collinsworth's replacement shortly thereafter.
Other football
NFL exhibition season
NFL Network televises 54 NFL exhibition games each August. Some are
aired live, but a majority of these contests air on a tape-delayed
basis, using the home team's local broadcast for the first half and
the visitors' broadcast for the second half and overtime if
necessary. In 2007, eight live broadcasts were scheduled; two of
them were produced by NFLN using the
Run to the Playoffs
production crew and the other six used the format just
mentioned.
College football
NFL
Network televised the 2006 Insight
Bowl between Minnesota and
Texas Tech
on December 29, 2006, from Tempe, Arizona
. The game featured the biggest comeback in
NCAA Division I-A bowl history, with Texas Tech coming back from a
38-7 third-quarter deficit to win 44-41 in overtime. The network
has made the game available for free online viewing at its
site.
The network also broadcast the
Texas Bowl
in Houston, whose promotion rights are owned in part by the NFL's
Houston Texans. It was played
December 28, 2006.
Rutgers defeated
Kansas State, 37-10.
The network also showed a college all-star game after the season.
The
Under Armour Senior Bowl, in Mobile,
Alabama
which was played on January 27, 2007.
NFL
Network was also expected to show the Las Vegas All-American
Classic in Henderson, Nevada
on January 15, but the
game was canceled due to lack of sponsorship.
On April 14, 2007, the network showed the
Nebraska Cornhuskers' spring
football game.
The network again aired the Insight, Texas, and Senior bowls in
late 2007 and early 2008.
In addition, it showed two games between
historically black
colleges and universities in the 2007 season, one of which was
the Circle City Classic at the
RCA
Dome
in Indianapolis, Indiana
.
High school football
NFLN
aired two broadcasts of high school all-star games in June 2007: the Bayou
Bowl between players from Texas
and Louisiana
on June 9 (NFLN carried the
FSN Southwest feed live), and the
Big 33 Football Classic
between players from Pennsylvania
and Ohio
on June 16 (sharing its' feed with CN8 (now Comcast Network) and cable outlets in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
and Ohio.
Programming
International distribution
- Canada - NFL Network is also available on most major service
providers in Canada, including Bell TV,
Shaw Direct, Rogers Cable, and Shaw Communications. Regular-season NFL
broadcasts will be blacked out in Canada to protect TSN, which has purchased exclusive
Canadian rights to the Thursday-Saturday package.
- The United Kingdom- It was reported that the UK could have
received the channel in 2008. It has recently begun a test
broadcast on the Sky
Digital platform. However, due to program clearance issues and
the network's programming violating UK advertising guidelines the
launch was canceled.
NFL Network HD
NFL Network HD is a
1080i
high definition simulcast
of NFL Network that launched in August 2004.
It is available nationally on
DirecTV and
Dish Network, and regionally on
Verizon FiOS, and some
Comcast and
Cox
Communications cable systems.
Shows that air in HD include
NFL
Total Access,
Around the
League,
NFL GameDay,
Live Wire,
Sounds of the Game,
Starting 11,
Run to the Playoffs, and
NFL Replay.
In mid-October 2008, studio shows began to air in "enhanced HD",
and have contained extra scores and stats on the right side of the
screen that are only seen on the HD version of the channel. This is
similar to the format of
ESPNews HD.
Other content that's only available in
4:3
standard definition
is shown with
stylized
pillarboxes, or for some footage, blurred edges. On May 1,
2009,
NFL Total Access began to air in full HD without
pillarboxes or enhanced graphics.
NFL GameDay began airing
in HD the following September.
Red Zone Channel
The Red Zone Channel is a special channel with extended highlights,
available on Sundays, premiering September 13, 2009. It is hosted
by Scott Hanson, who explains and describes situations in
transition from game to game. So far
AT&T U-Verse,
Comcast,
Dish Network,
Verizon FiOS, and
Blue Ridge Communications have
picked up the new channel.
ESPN Partnership
In a report from
The Wall Street
Journal Steve Bornstein, chief executive of the NFL Network,
has been in “high-level discussions” with NFL and Disney executives
including CEO Robert Iger and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. An
analyst quoted in the report suggested combining NFL Network with
ESPN Classic which has a wide
distribution on expanded basic cable line-ups but attracts a modest
audience. ESPN could use its market weight and demand more than the
16 to 17 cents per month that it currently receives from ESPN
Classic. These talks are dead.
Distribution controversy
The NFL Network and various cable companies have been involved with
carriage or lack of carriage of the NFL Network. The NFL Network
has created controversy of its own with its site
IWantMyNFL.com by
encouraging cable customers to make the switch to
DirecTV to receive the channel instead of asking
cable customers to contact their cable provider and demand the
network. The site even goes as far as to ask Comcast customers to
switch because of their recent decision to place the network on a
digital sports tier. (IWantMyNFL.com has since been pulled from the
Web and now redirects to the NFL Network main site. However a new
similar website has been launched, visit www.iwantnflnetwork.com
for details.)
Comcast
On November 10, 2006
Comcast announced it
would add NFL Network on digital tiers in time for the eight-game
Thursday- and Saturday-night package. On August 6, 2007 Comcast
moved NFL Network from the digital tiers to the
Sports
Entertainment Package. This led to a courtbattle between NFL
Network and Comcast, with the ruling in favor of Comcast but the
NFL Network appealed the ruling. Comcast sent NFL Network a
cease-and-desist letter to stop encouraging subscribers to leave
Comcast. Comcast's agreement with the NFL Network ends in mid-2009.
In February 26, 2008 an appellate court in New York reversed field
on a judgment made in May 2007 that allowed Comcast to move the
network from its second most distributed tier to the company's
sports tier. At the time a court date has not been set. Four judges
at New York’s Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department,
ruled the language "concerning
additional programming
package was ambiguous and that
neither party has
established that its interpretation of the relevant contracts is a
matter of law." Comcast's deal with the NFL Network was set to
expire on April 30, 2009. According to messages sent out to
Comcast,
Midco, and
some Cable Systems customers with or without
set-top boxes, NFL Network may be removed from
some customers channel lineups. The message said: "In spite of out
efforts to continue carrying NFL Network/NFL Network HD, the
NFL may terminate our rights. As a result these
networks may be removed from lineups as soon as 5/1." On April 10,
2009 it was confirmed that Comcast would remove the channel on that
date due to failing to reach a carriage agreement. However, as of
April 30, 2009 NFL Network has posted that they would keep running
on Comcast so both sides can agree to terms on a good contract.On
July 30, 2009 NFL Network was made available to lower tiered
Comcast Digital Cable subscribers.
NFL Network later filed a discrimination case against Comcast with
the FCC, claiming that since Comcast doesn't charge extra for its
owned and operated sports channels
Versus and
The Golf Channel, it's unfair to charge
extra for NFL Network. On October 10, 2008, the FCC ruled as
follows:
The Comcast trial
The trial before an administrative law judge (as ordered above)
began on April 14, 2009.
On April 17, 2009, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts testified
that Comcast is willing to move the channel from the Sports
Entertainment Package to a lower priced base package if the
subscriber fee was reduced to 25 cents per month. NFL Network
currently charges a 75 cents per month fee. He claimed that
overall, Comcast saves $50 million a year in license fees by
leaving the channel on its Sports Package, which in turn leads to
savings for its customers.
On April 30, 2009, NFL Network Total Access correspondent
Lindsey Soto reported Comcast will continue to
broadcast NFL Network after their contract expires at midnight as
negotiations proceed.
On May 19, 2009, the NFL and Comcast reached a 10-year agreement to
place NFL Network on Comcast's Digital Classic package by August 1,
2009 for a price between 45 and 50 cents, instead of the 70 cents
the NFL originally requested. This deal has led to speculation that
other cable operators will end their hold outs and try to reach
deals that would bring the network to a wider audience.
As of November 30, 2009 the NFL Network is available only on the
Digital Preferred package on Comcast in Atlanta, GA and not on a
Digital Classic package (which does not exist). This is contrary to
the above mentioned agreement between Comcast and the NFL. The
Preferred Package is being advertised by Comcast as an additional
$9.99 per month for 12 months which includes the NFL Network in
high definition.
Cox Communications
Announced on November 10, 2006, Cox and the NFL Network made a
carriage agreement for Cox to carry the NFL Network on their
Sports & Information Tier. NFL Network had previously
insisted that it would only allow cable providers to carry the
network on basic tiers, Time Warner has stated it will only carry
the network on a digital-sports tier. This makes Cox the only major
cable provider to make a deal with the NFL Network by placing the
network directly on a digital sports tier without repercussions
from the network. When it was announced that NFL Network would
carry
Run to the Playoffs on Cox but not on a digital
basic tier, It was stated that Cox's
Sports & Information
Tier "has about 30% penetration across all Cox subscribers and
60% penetration among Cox digital-cable homes."
Insight Communications
Insight and the NFL Network made a carriage agreement for the
network to be placed on Insight's digital tier in 2004. The deal
also included NFL Network On Demand and NFL Network HD. At first,
Insight didn't carry the
Run to the Playoffs games due to
the extra surcharge providers pay to carry the games. Insight did
not show the first-ever game, between the
Denver Broncos and the
Kansas City Chiefs on November 23, 2006,
but the next week's game and future games were available thanks to
an agreement that was later reached.
Dish Network
On February 20, 2008 Dish Network moved the NFL Network from its
"America's Top 100" package to the higher "America's Top 200"
package. Dish Network notified customers that the NFL Network was
"moving out of
Free Preview into
America's Top 200 package" on February 20, 2008. The move cost the
network four million subscribers. On February 27, 2008 the NFL
Network announced it would file suit against
Dish Network for moving the network to
"America's Top 200". The move stems from the NFL Network's decision
to simulcast the 2007
New England
Patriots-
New York Giants game on
CBS and
NBC in addition to
the game being shown on the NFL Network. As of March 3, 2008 the
NFL no longer encourages customers to switch to Dish Network on the
site
IWantMyNFL.com instead the network only encourages
customers to switch to
DirecTV,
Verizon FiOS or
AT&T U-verse if their provider doesn't
carry the network or has placed the network on a higher priced
tier.
On January 15, 2009 New York State Supreme Court Judge Rich Lowe
ruled in favor of NFL Network, claiming their 2006 agreement for
carriage on America's Top 100 package is still valid and Dish
Network violated it by moving it to the America's Top 200 package,
but he did not order Dish Network to move the channel to the lower
package immediately.
On April 10, 2009, it was announced that NFL Network and Dish
Network have reached an out of court settlement to place the
channel on the "Classic Silver 200" package.
Former agreements
Charter Communications
Charter Communications was
one of the first MSO's to provide NFL Network in 2004. Initially
the deal called for the network to be carried on Charter's
digital-basic programming and included NFL HD and NFL On Demand.
However in December 2005 the network pulled the signal from Charter
and filed breach of contract suit against Charter in New York
Supreme Court over contract language regarding distribution. It was
reported that NFL Network wanted a 125 percent rate increase and
placement on expanded basic tiers.
Major cable providers not carrying NFL Network
This list is organized from largest to smallest cable
companies.
Background
The NFL Network is embroiled in a dispute with several cable
companies.
Perhaps the most public controversy is over
its removal on some systems owned by Time Warner Cable, the second-largest
system in the United
States, which occurred in September 2006.
NFL Network has insisted that it be placed on basic service and
wish to charge the cable companies a monthly rate of $0.61 per
subscriber, while Time Warner and other major cable companies
wishes to place it on a sports tier. Cable companies feel that a
channel with such marginal interest and few live games with filler
programming would be tough to sell during non-football season
months. NFL Network's position is that demands are unreasonable and
many other providers place NFL Network on a basic tier without
subscriber backlashes.
2006 free preview
NFL Network offered a free preview from December 24 through
December 30, 2006 to West Texas area cable systems run by
Suddenlink Communications and to
New York area cable systems run by
Time Warner Cable and
Cablevision.
The package included
the Texas Bowl and Insight Bowl, but not that week's NFL game
between the New York Giants and
Washington Redskins, which was
shown on WNBC
. (NFL
policy dictates that games that originate nationally on a
cable/satellite network be simulcast on a
broadcast station in the
participating teams' market.)
However,
Time Warner Cable and
Cablevision were only interested in
showing the Texas Bowl, which featured the
Rutgers Scarlet Knights, who
developed strong local appeal in 2006 and barely missed a berth in
the
Bowl Championship
Series. The NFL denied that request and would only offer this
free preview if Cablevision and/or Time Warner make the entire
preview week available to customers.
Time Warner then offered to carry the free preview on a digital
tier. Cablevision, however, continued to refuse to carry any NFL
Network programming other than the Texas Bowl. They even announced
that they would put it on channel 14 (a TV listings channel used
for overflow sports from
MSG Network and
FSN New York) at 6:00 p.m. until the end of
the network's postgame coverage. The NFL, however, stated that it
would not accept that request..
On December 21, however, after New Jersey legislators threatened
legal action, Cablevision changed its mind and indeed showed not
only the game between Rutgers and
Kansas State, but also the entire free
preview schedule. Time Warner had made a similar announcement only
hours earlier. Suddenlink agreed on
December
22 to carry the entire free preview for their customers in the
West Texas area. The free preview did not lead to long-term
carriage deals, and the standoff continued between all three cable
companies and the NFL Network.
2007 Packers vs. Cowboys controversy
2007 saw fresh controversy against the NFL Network. That year the
network turned out to possess the rights to matchups with major
implications. The first came in late November when one-loss
Dallas hosted one-loss
Green Bay. Green Bay's
Brett Favre was also having one of the best
seasons of his career and would eventually lead the resurgent
Packers to the
NFC Championship
Game. Most fans could not see the game because of carriage
restrictions, now even more noticeable because it involved
nationally respected teams in a highly anticipated matchup. This
controversy would pale in comparison to the final game the NFLN
would broadcast that season.
2007 Patriots vs. Giants controversy
In
December 2007, Massachusetts
Senator
John Kerry wrote a letter to NFL
Commissioner Roger Goodell asking for
the league to settle their differences in time for the New England Patriots-New York Giants game on December 29 that
would be broadcast on Saturday
Night Football. The game was the Patriots'
record-sealing win that made them the first undefeated team through
the regular season in 35 years. Kerry urged for a solution to be
decided upon in time so that Americans can witness "a historic
event." An agreement was worked out between the NFL and two of the
League's TV partners,
NBC and
CBS, to allow the NFL Network broadcast of the game to
be
simulcast on those networks, resulting
in the first NFL simulcast since
Super Bowl
I and the first three-network simulcast in the history of the
league.
In
addition WWOR
"My 9," the
MyNetworkTV affiliate in the New York City
area, and ABC affiliates WCVB
5 in Boston
and WMUR
9 in
Manchester, NH expressed dissatisfaction over the CBS/NBC simulcast
stating it violated the agreements. The stations had already
been scheduled to show the game, as per NFL rules. Greg Aiello, a
NFL spokesperson, stated that NBC and CBS would not have agreed to
present the simulcast without clearing the game nationally,
including the aforementioned markets.
WWOR came to an
agreement with the network and would air the game along with
WNBC
and WCBS
in the New
York City market. WCVB would still televise the game and
that it was still working toward resolving issues with the NFL
Network over additional coverage rights.
RCN Corporation, the twelfth largest
U.S. cable company, stated that the league's deal with CBS and NBC
"devalues its contract with the league’s in-house service." Greg
Aiello, a NFL spokesperson, said he was unaware of dissatisfaction
among NFL Network affiliates over the simulcast and if any were
seeking a rebate or other form of compensation because the game was
being more widely distributed. If that were the case, he said,
those discussions would “take place privately with our TV
partners.”
Suddenlink
Suddenlink Communications has a series of articles regarding NFL
Network on Suddenlink. Suddenlink claims that they want to carry
the network and be fair to the customer who want the network and to
the customers who don't want the network. The site claims that Cox
can carry NFL Network on a sports tier and Suddenlink wants the
same option and by placing NFL Network on the sports tier allows
customers who want the network to pay for it or a deal similar to
the agreement similar to Comcast. The site further claims that NFL
Network doesn't have the kind of year-long programming that
justifies putting it on basic cable services. Suddenlink claims to
be in active negotiations with the network and hopes to add the
channel prior to the start of their eight primetime games in 2009.
On November 4, 2009 Suddenlink stated that NFL Network made them an
offer that they verbally accepted. After the two started to
exchange contracts the deal fell through. Suddenlink claims that
the network returned a few weeks later with an unacceptable
proposal. Suddenlink has stated that they will accept any of their
past offers to the network or the most recent offer they verbally
accepted.
Binding arbitration
On December 20, 2007 the NFL Network proposed to
Time Warner Cable to enter binding
arbitration which will have a neutral third party determine the
price and tier for NFL Network on the operator’s systems, based on
fair market value of the service. The NFL Network noted that the
process could take some time will offer the network and the Dec. 29
game between the currently unbeaten New England Patriots and New
York Giants immediately available to Time Warner Cable, upon
“written agreement to participate in the arbitration process and to
be bound by its result.” The network is willing to make the binding
arbitration available to cable providers not carrying the NFL
Network and for an extension of Comcast's current contract.
Time Warner Cable denied the
binding arbitration proposal saying "the operator has successfully
reached agreements with hundreds of programming networks without
the use of arbitration. We continue to believe that the best way to
achieve results is to privately seek a resolution and not attempt
to negotiate through the press or elected officials.” Time Warner
stated that it would be willing to make the network available on
their sports tier, as a premium service, or make the game available
to its subscribers on a per-game basis, at a retail price set by
the NFL, with 100% of attendant revenue going to the league.
See also
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