In case you’d be living in a cave, the major cable companies are currently at odds with the NFL and the Big Ten about how to carry their respective networks in local markets, with consumers stuck in the middle.

Basically what’s happening is that the cable companies want to carry the NFL and Big Ten Networks as part of special sports bundles that their customers would pay more for, reducing viewership and ostensibly add revenues. Well the NFL and the Big Ten want the cable companies to carry the channels as part of basic packages, no different from channels like ESPN, MTV, Comedy Central, etc.

What’s interesting about this whole issue, for me, is that I think both sides of this argument are being equally petulant and silly. The argument the cable networks have pitched is completely without merit. Their claim is that it’s unfair to tack the networks onto basic cable and require customers to pay for channels they don’t want. Well the last time I checked, I’ve never watched HGTV or Discovery Health, Telemundo or any of those channels that broadcast church services but I still pay for those channels and as a consumer, I have an expectation that I’m going to pay for channels that I don’t watch, it’s just a fact of life. Cable isn’t one of those make your own six-packs. You get the whole case or you get nothing at all. The contingent that cable companies are trying not to aggravate are the heady academics (the “.edu guys” as ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd refers to them). The people who think we overemphasize athletics in our society and flat refuse to contribute monetarily in anyway.

Meanwhile, the Big Ten and the NFL refuse to let their networks and their programming (which aside from the actual game broadcasts is pretty useless) exist on fringe pay-for sports bundles. On basic cable, they will get more viewership which will drive up their ad revenues. While I can’t blame them for that, I can blame them for holding games hostage and irritating people who love their product. Doesn’t seem like the best business model to me. When you take something that I could normally watch and enjoy hassle-free and charge me for it, I get pretty grouchy.

The cable companies and the NFL and the Big Ten can play the blame game all day but the reality is that no one comes out of this mess clean.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 10:40 am and is filed under Big Ten, NFL, The NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.