Greed vs. Greed, Round 5
The FCC-imposed deadline for Time Warner Cable and the NFL Network to work out their little spat seems to have come and gone Friday, meaning that as far as we can tell, the cable company can now cut the league-supported channel from all its systems (including those just purchased from Adelphia and Comcast) and not have to worry about the government butting in.
But will free trade work here?
Do you care? Maybe you should. Maybe you shouldn't. In the long run, you get hosed. As usual.
Time Warner, which now controls about 2 milliion homes in Southern California (and 14.5 million nationally), says it wants the NFL Network on an optional tier of sports channels that would cost about $120 a year. The channel wants to be part of the basic cable package, which would forced the cable company to charge everyone extra just to have this speciality network.
On Aug. 1, Time Warner dropped the NFL Network from its lineup after the merger, but the FCC ordered them to restore it a couple of days later, and keep it for 30 days. They extended that by 15 more days in hopes of reaching a settlement and to give each company time to try to brainwash customers into believing their stance made more sense.
Maybe more dollars. But hardly more sense.
DirecTV, meanwhile, has no problems with the NFL Network and continues to offer it to its customers.