Joined
·
6,901 Posts
By JOSEPH WHITE
AP Sports Writer
WASHINGTON - The NFL is about to start airing live regular-season games on its own network, and that has Congress a bit curious.
"We're intrigued, to put it mildly, what the NFL has in mind," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The NFL Network will air eight live games this season, starting Thanksgiving night when the Denver Broncos play the Kansas City Chiefs. Some broadcast companies, including Time Warner, have balked at paying the higher fee the league is charging to carry the network because of the games.
Time Warner chief operating officer Landel Hobbs testified that the NFL Network's rates are "out of whack" when compared to viewership ratings.
Pash responded that the NFL Network has indeed increased its fees, but he cited the popularity of the league's product as justification. He said other NFL Network carriers - including DirecTV, EchoStar, Comcast and Cox - have not passed along the price increase to their customers. However, Comcast wants to start offering the network as part of a premium sports-tier package, which has sparked a legal challenge from the NFL.
Pash also noted the NFL is the only major pro sports league that broadcasts all of its games on free, over-the-air television in participants' local markets. The NFL Network games will be aired by local stations in the participating teams' markets, using the same arrangement that exists with ESPN telecasts on Monday nights...
----
( The entire article is at the following source: http://www.statesman.com/sports/con..._Congress_NFL.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=1&cxcat=0 )
AP Sports Writer
WASHINGTON - The NFL is about to start airing live regular-season games on its own network, and that has Congress a bit curious.
"We're intrigued, to put it mildly, what the NFL has in mind," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The NFL Network will air eight live games this season, starting Thanksgiving night when the Denver Broncos play the Kansas City Chiefs. Some broadcast companies, including Time Warner, have balked at paying the higher fee the league is charging to carry the network because of the games.
Time Warner chief operating officer Landel Hobbs testified that the NFL Network's rates are "out of whack" when compared to viewership ratings.
Pash responded that the NFL Network has indeed increased its fees, but he cited the popularity of the league's product as justification. He said other NFL Network carriers - including DirecTV, EchoStar, Comcast and Cox - have not passed along the price increase to their customers. However, Comcast wants to start offering the network as part of a premium sports-tier package, which has sparked a legal challenge from the NFL.
Pash also noted the NFL is the only major pro sports league that broadcasts all of its games on free, over-the-air television in participants' local markets. The NFL Network games will be aired by local stations in the participating teams' markets, using the same arrangement that exists with ESPN telecasts on Monday nights...
----
( The entire article is at the following source: http://www.statesman.com/sports/con..._Congress_NFL.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=1&cxcat=0 )
