If You Live in the IE and Get Cable TV ... You Aren't Watching Packers-Cowboys
This has been ugly and silly. Well annoying, too.
It's this battle of wills between two wealthy and completely unsympathetic industries -- the National Football League and national cable-TV operators.
The upshot of it is this: Most of us with cable TV are NOT watching the Thursday night NFL game, which is going on right now.
And, this time, it turns out it's an attractive game -- the 10-1 Packers vs. the 10-1 Cowboys.
Meanwhile, most of America is held hostage ...because the game can be seen only on NFL Network. Which most cable companies do not include in their basic plans.
Such as Charter and Warner ... which covers nearly the entire IE.
If you don't get DirecTV ... or didn't make a point to get to a sports bar ... you're just sitting around wondering what's going on.
Kinda retro, but kind of ridiculous, too.
So far, neither side is budging. The NFL wants more TV revenue (as if) ... and the cable companies refuse to pay the NFL for its network, which would cost them money and cut into their profits. Each side is trashing the other, and we lose.
So NFL fans just sit and wonder what the game might look like. Presumably you can tune in ESPN around 9 p.m. and see some highlights, anyway, of Favre vs. Romo, et al.
This has to stop, though. I think the NFL should just bag it. Go back to having all its one-a-night games televised someplace just about anyone can find -- a local network or at least ESPN.
Which reminds me ... I hate it when USC or UCLA show up on Versus -- another station not always available on basic cable. I mean, not all of us are ready to spend hundreds of dollars per month for TV stations we don't look at, 360 days a year.