[forumsfavoriteall]

The NFL really wants you to start paying for games

This year the NFL will be broadcasting 8 games on the NFL network and unless you live in that teams market you are not going to see them.

Think of what that means, you want to see the double header game featuring a division rival forget it unless your prepared to pay.

The word market is suddenly taking on an sinister tone. Let's say your like me a Packer fan who lives in Milwaukee, if they determine the home market is Green Bay people in Milwaukee could be forced to pay to watch the games.

Maybe that won't happen but we really don't know, California, Philadelphia and New York are already subdivided into home markets. In effect the NFL has already divided states.

What if you live in say North Dakota, Iowa, Rhode Island or Detroit places without an NFL team you might not be able to see a game at all without paying in the future. No home market after all.

The NFL is losing its way and its going to lose fans soon. Didn't MLB decide something similar to this was a great idea and put games on cable only in some markets? While the owners got a shit load of money the fans got fucked.

The short sighted view though may cost the NFL fans in the long run, if parents can't afford to buy the games will the kids grow into fans?

Do I think the NFL should have to broadcast every game everywhere?

No of course not but the markets should be better defined, divisional games should be available to rival markets for free and as far as the NFL network.

Free market so they should be allowed to exist but the games should be subscription based and availabe per selected game (like you buy a movie on demand now) I we should not have to pay a few hundred buck's to see the 3 games we want to.

NASCAR took note of the NFL model and used it to grow into the fastest growing fan sport in the US.

That model was more events on FREE tv NASCAR added races and targeted families.

For some reason the NFL has decided to move away from the very model that created the success they now enjoy.

The NFL like to many business' was not ok with massive success, it was not good enought to have steady growth, teams worth over a billion dollars and a fan base larger than a lot of countries. They are getting greedy and when that happens your well on the way to fucking your fan and ultimately yourself.

We as fans don't have much to say here. Coaches will say I need to worry about the game, players will say I just want to play, owners will say we need to evolve with the times and the league will say we need to do what's best for the league. In the end nobody will be talking about the fans, because the catch phrases only mean one thing. If I can get more $ that's what I want.

So you know what fuck you NFL network,I've bought tickets, jerseys, cards, plaques, programs and enough memorial crap to last 3 life times I'm not buying the games

ill watch womens kick ball.

[Evelinessa]

I'm going to miss the Eagles Thanksgiving game because the NFL network sucks donkey balls. Its not like the other Networks wouldn't pay the NFL for their games. Only way to describe it is greed. How dare somebody else make money off of our product...

[jokilewqs]

That's all it is and your right, why let fox carry the games and sell ads, we can charge the fans to watch them and charge advertisers up the ass to show their shit, hell its not like the fans will change the channel, they are paying us for this shit

[Dreaming]

That's all it is and your right, why let fox carry the games and sell ads, we can charge the fans to watch them and charge advertisers up the ass to show their shit, hell its not like they will change the channel, thay are paying us for this shit

It seems like most of the ads on NFL Network are for NFL Network programming.

Coming up, 12 straight hours of Brett Favre shows, followed by NFL Bloopers that aren't funny!

[Vkowefek]

That's now but its early, I remember when cable had almost no commercials or the same idiotic shit you mention...now look its as bad or worse than the networks

[darieBarexish]

That's now but its early, I remember when cable had almost no commercials or the same idiotic shit you mention...now look its as bad or worse than the networks

I was thinking that it was more of no one wanting to pay the money to advertise on a channel that most people will only watch on 8 nights a year.

Except those armchair QBs that think they gain any sort of insight by sitting and watching college football players run and jump around in tights 8 hours a day during 1 weekend in February.

[ThekvandoVideo]

That's all it is and your right, why let fox carry the games and sell ads, we can charge the fans to watch them and charge advertisers up the ass to show their shit, hell its not like the fans will change the channel, they are paying us for this shit

Problem is, sometimes, a middleman is a good thing. They do things better than the "supplier" ever could. Produce the product and make your money. Try to do everything and you'll just do many things poorly rather than doing a few things very well.

[Mqcawkzd]

Ultimately ill fall to the numbers but if they get 10 million people sigining up it will draw the ads in. I'm sure they already figured out the break even or acceptable loss.

This is a whole new animal, unlike baseball or basket ball we don't have 150 games a year. Notice how they are putting games on when the season starts to matter

Fuckers I even noticed they didn't allow ESPN 360 to carry shit and that's the NFLS main bitch.

I hate the Bears and Vikes but I don't want to have to pay whatever the fuck they want just so I can see a few games like that and forget ever seeing Eagles/Boys or Eagles/Skins which I always like to watch not only are they out or market they are out of division

[makemoneyonli]

everyone will have it after the current contract with direct tv.

[k5wTvu9f]

everyone will have it after the current contract with direct tv.

What do you mean everyone, FOX, NBC,CBS,ABC?

[mazabotman]

What do you mean everyone, FOX, NBC,CBS,ABC?

everyone will have NFL network.

and I guess by everyone I mean, cable subscribers.

[wentscat]

Personally i'm going to redirect my FU to the cable companies. My carrier provides NFL network so i'm not in turmoil, but its the cable companies that are keeping NFL network off the lower tier of standard channels. And this is one of the reasons the NFL keep re-upping thier sunday ticket with direct tv instead of the cable companies(separate issue i know). This is a part of an article on espn.com:


Around the time of the 2004 Sunday Ticket renewal, the NFL Network had just gone on the air, and its finances came into play. The NFL wants to charge $7 to $9 per household per year for the NFL Network on basic, a fee the carriers strongly resist. This price would make the NFL Network, a seasonal product for a specialized audience, one of the most expensive items in the national cable universe. ESPN, which is to cable what cheeseburgers are to McDonald's, charges $30 to $35 per year for multiple channels with very broad appeal. CNN charges about $5 a year to the cable carriers, NBA TV about $4, and most cable channels charge far less or nothing at all. (The ones that charge nothing subsist on advertising.) Cable carriers want the NFL Network exiled to a premium sports tier so they will meet less resistance passing the price along to consumers, but that means a far smaller audience for NFLN, and hence lower ad revenues. While the money fight was going on, Comcast founded Versus, which is vaguely a competitor to ESPN, Fox College Sports and the NFL Network. Comcast features Versus on low channels. Channel 44, where I get Versus on my Comcast system, is considered highly desirable digital real estate compared with channel 180, where NFLN dwells, and channel 263, the lowest channel where Comcast airs Fox College Sports. This low-channel treatment of Versus is driving the NFL Network crazy because Versus ratings are lower than NFL Network ratings and, needless to say, not remotely in shouting distance of ESPN ratings.
So now the NFL and the cable carriers are blasting each other in public, suing each other in court (a federal judge ruled in May that Comcast is not legally required to put NFLN on basic cable) and running to Congress for special favors. Meanwhile, Sunday Ticket remains available only to the select few whose places of dwelling have an unobstructed view of the southwest sky, where the DirecTV satellites hang. And, as TMQ endlessly complains, Sunday Ticket is offered on cable in Canada and Mexico, plus offered via Yahoo broadband everywhere in the world except the United States. So most American taxpayers who paid for the stadia that make NFL profits possible can't watch the games they choose -- but anyone in Canada, Mexico or Liechtenstein is free to watch any NFL game.
Sunday Ticket might come to cable in 2010, especially if local affiliates' ads can be inserted into out-of-market broadcasts, and out-of-market viewing can be folded into local affiliate ratings. Neither of those sounds like an insurmountable obstacle. So is the real strategy to combine Sunday Ticket and NFL Network into a new mega-channel? "I can assure you there are no plans to make Sunday Ticket an NFLN product," NFLN spokesman Seth Palansky told me. Well, there might not be plans …


the whole article is much longer but an interesting read.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...erbrook/071030

[annouhMus]

The NFL Sucks as an organization, not just the NFLNW.

[scoundtrack]

everyone will have NFL network.

and I guess by everyone I mean, cable subscribers.

Thats the talk now I heard the same thing, but I also remember hearing TWCable was going to close a deal last year and that never happened because they (NFLNWK) want huge money.

I dont doubt it will be on cable, I know FIOS, Direct and Comcast have it now but its not part of the basic programming its still a premium package so even if you have cable you have to pay more for the NFL network with still leaves you ass out unless your paying.

I see 1 of 2 things happening, the NFL isnt as popular as it thinks so the channel dies, more likely they'll wind up pulling all of the games onto the network but you wont see any without cable and only on the NFL network

Roy made a good point, I think if you lose the competition you lose innovation, look at the new camers, the 10 yd mark line, the down and distance (I love the CBS version where its on the field) all of that came out of the need to one up the other guy, that kind of innovation goes out the window when you are the only player

[Poreponko]

The NFL Sucks as an organization, not just the NFLNW.

wrong.

it towers over the mlb, nba, etc...

[justashonglefan]

didn't I also see an ad during the world series for the new MLB network?? After that gets off the ground I can see the same thing happening with baseball games.
especially with markets that don't have big tv deals. And then after thier contracts are up whats to stop them from keeping playoff games for themselves and going with a major network.

[diegogo]

Personally i'm going to redirect my FU to the cable companies. My carrier provides NFL network so i'm not in turmoil, but its the cable companies that are keeping NFL network off the lower tier of standard channels. And this is one of the reasons the NFL keep re-upping thier sunday ticket with direct tv instead of the cable companies(separate issue i know). This is a part of an article on espn.com:


Around the time of the 2004 Sunday Ticket renewal, the NFL Network had just gone on the air, and its finances came into play. The NFL wants to charge $7 to $9 per household per year for the NFL Network on basic, a fee the carriers strongly resist. This price would make the NFL Network, a seasonal product for a specialized audience, one of the most expensive items in the national cable universe. ESPN, which is to cable what cheeseburgers are to McDonald's, charges $30 to $35 per year for multiple channels with very broad appeal. CNN charges about $5 a year to the cable carriers, NBA TV about $4, and most cable channels charge far less or nothing at all. (The ones that charge nothing subsist on advertising.) Cable carriers want the NFL Network exiled to a premium sports tier so they will meet less resistance passing the price along to consumers, but that means a far smaller audience for NFLN, and hence lower ad revenues. While the money fight was going on, Comcast founded Versus, which is vaguely a competitor to ESPN, Fox College Sports and the NFL Network. Comcast features Versus on low channels. Channel 44, where I get Versus on my Comcast system, is considered highly desirable digital real estate compared with channel 180, where NFLN dwells, and channel 263, the lowest channel where Comcast airs Fox College Sports. This low-channel treatment of Versus is driving the NFL Network crazy because Versus ratings are lower than NFL Network ratings and, needless to say, not remotely in shouting distance of ESPN ratings.
So now the NFL and the cable carriers are blasting each other in public, suing each other in court (a federal judge ruled in May that Comcast is not legally required to put NFLN on basic cable) and running to Congress for special favors. Meanwhile, Sunday Ticket remains available only to the select few whose places of dwelling have an unobstructed view of the southwest sky, where the DirecTV satellites hang. And, as TMQ endlessly complains, Sunday Ticket is offered on cable in Canada and Mexico, plus offered via Yahoo broadband everywhere in the world except the United States. So most American taxpayers who paid for the stadia that make NFL profits possible can't watch the games they choose -- but anyone in Canada, Mexico or Liechtenstein is free to watch any NFL game.
Sunday Ticket might come to cable in 2010, especially if local affiliates' ads can be inserted into out-of-market broadcasts, and out-of-market viewing can be folded into local affiliate ratings. Neither of those sounds like an insurmountable obstacle. So is the real strategy to combine Sunday Ticket and NFL Network into a new mega-channel? "I can assure you there are no plans to make Sunday Ticket an NFLN product," NFLN spokesman Seth Palansky told me. Well, there might not be plans …


the whole article is much longer but an interesting read.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...erbrook/071030

I think we should all send nasty messages to Madnova!!!

[MeverikcNils]

didn't I also see an ad during the world series for the new MLB network?? After that gets off the ground I can see the same thing happening with baseball games.
especially with markets that don't have big tv deals. And then after thier contracts are up whats to stop them from keeping playoff games for themselves and going with a major network.

Thats already happened, The Brewers put all of their games on cable (but they appear on basic) at the time they did it 22 % or something of people in Wisconsin didnt have cable, the number now I think was 16-17 %

Could you have imagined 10 years ago, not a single one of your teams games being on network TV

[ebonytipchik]

wrong.

it towers over the mlb, nba, etc...

I agree there, frankly I surprised the NBA can still hand out those 60 million dollar deals the way they do. If I go to a game or two a year now thats a lot.

Unlike football where fans are climbing out of the woodwork, you have to go looking for an NBA fan

[gIWnXYkw]

I think you are going to start seeing alot of changes as to how companies bill for certain items. People are not going to be able to afford these "luxuries" anymore and will not pay for them.