Comcast Settles Dispute With NFL Network
The NFL Network will stay in Comcast Corp.'s TV lineup under a deal that also could open the door for the football channel to be shown by other major cable TV operators that do not yet carry the network.
Comcast and the National Football League said Tuesday they had reached an agreement for the nation's largest cable TV operator to air the football channel on its second-most popular digital tier of service.
The deal spans 10 years and would cost Comcast 40 cents to 45 cents per subscriber, down from the NFL's previous asking price of 70 cents. By Aug. 1, the NFL Network will be carried throughout Comcast's service areas on a programming package called Digital Classic, which has around 10 million subscribers.
"It's always been a matter of what's a fair price. ... I think we were able to work that out," Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said on a conference call with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. "I think both sides may have had to give a little more than they intended."
The NFL threw in access to DirecTV's Red Zone Channel, a part of the Sunday Ticket satellite package with live look-ins to games when teams are inside the 20-yard line.
The NFL also announced a two-year extension with broadcast partners Fox and CBS, taking those deals through the 2013 season.
In an unrelated move Tuesday, NFL owners voted to play the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans, the first time the championship game will be played there since Hurricane Katrina shredded parts of the Louisiana Superdome.
The NFL-Comcast agreement ends a fight that began in 2006 after Comcast announced that it was moving the NFL Network from a digital tier of service with 8.6 million subscribers to a sports programming package that costs $8 a month extra and has 2 million customers. Comcast said it didn't want to pay the higher fees the NFL was demanding after adding eight live games to the NFL Network.
The NFL sued Philadelphia-based Comcast and brought the matter before the Federal Communications Commission, where hearings before an administrative law judge just ended. The league claimed Comcast was punishing the NFL because Comcast didn't get rights to show eight live NFL games on its Versus sports channel.
The impasse nearly led to a blackout of the NFL Network on Comcast on May 1, when their previous, five-year agreement ended. The two agreed to continue airing the network as talks continued.
Talks intensified over the last two weeks, as the NFL agreed to reduce its price closer to the original fee, 15 cents per subscriber, that was in place before the rate hike.
With Tuesday's agreement, both sides have agreed to drop the lawsuits.
And the lower price also makes it more likely that other cable TV service providers will reach deals to carry the NFL Network. After its agreement with Comcast, the NFL Network will reach about 45 million subscribers - about half of the total pay TV market.
Goodell said the NFL will be working to resolve differences it has with other major cable operators that don't carry the network - including Time Warner Cable Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp. and Charter Communications Inc.
"I'm very hopeful we will get this resolved," he said.
Comcast also reached an agreement with ESPN to add ESPNU to its lineup heading into the upcoming college football season. Comcast will make ESPN360.com available to its Internet customers as well.
2013 Super Bowl In New Orleans
The NFL will conduct the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans, the first time the championship game will be played there since Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane caused 1,600 deaths and devastated the Gulf Coast four years ago.
New Orleans beat out Miami - which sought a record 11th Super Bowl - and 2008 host Glendale, Ariz., for the game. This is the 10th time New Orleans will be the site for the Super Bowl.
"It's a great day for our community," Saints owner Tom Benson said as he walked onto an elevator at a South Florida hotel, on his way to the formal announcement.
New Orleans last hosted in 2002, when Adam Viniateri's 48-yard field goal as time expired lifted New England over St. Louis
The naming of New Orleans as Super Bowl XLVII host in 2013 comes weeks after Benson, the Saints and the state of Louisiana hammered out a long-term deal that will keep the NFL franchise in the Superdome through 2025, reports CBS affiliate WWL in New Orleans.
That turned out to be the key to getting the Super Bowl. The NFL doesn't like to give the Super Bowl to a city without a lease, which for New Orleans, would have run out in 2010.
By the time the Superdome welcomes the NFL's top two teams on Feb. 3, 2013, more than $80 million in renovations will be finished. Combined with post-Katrina renovations, it'll be a new stadium inside the shell of the old one, WWL reports.
"This win shows that New Orleans is a premier host for major sports and entertainment events - and will be a perfect backdrop when the eyes of the world are upon us," Gov. Bobby Jindal said. "Indeed, Louisiana is committed to making sure the 2013 Super Bowl is unparalleled.
Still unclear: Where will the 2013 Pro Bowl be played? It's coming to Miami a week before this coming season's Super Bowl, then going back to Hawaii in 2011 and 2012.
It was not part of the bidding process for the 2013 Super Bowl.
"Where it (the Pro Bowl) goes after 2012 is something we'll decide later on," said Frank Supovitz, the NFL's senior vice president for events.
The Superdome upgrades will include additional seating, new suites, wider concourses and other measures for the New Orleans Saints to generate new revenue streams.
The Superdome played an iconic role during Katrina, which struck the city in August 2005. It was an evacuation center during the storm, housing thousands of people who had nowhere else to go, and the devastation was nightmarish. Within days, the building was tattered, filthy inside from mold, debris and raw sewage.
Over the next year, the Superdome was rebuilt, and slowly, New Orleans has tried to get back to what it once was. The stories of suffering are still everywhere - even now, some who lost nearly everything in 2005 are fighting to keep their federally provided trailers a bit longer.
One thing is back to normal: New Orleans still knows how to host an event. College football's national championship game was played there in 2008, followed about six weeks later by the NBA All-Star game.
Arizona also failed in bids for the 2011 and 2012 Super Bowls, which were awarded to new stadiums in North Texas and Indianapolis, respectively.