According to a recent Wall Street Journal article the NFL Network may be exploring a partnership with ESPN to air the exclusive NFL Network games on ESPN classic – which has a much wider distribution than the NFL Network. While no deal is imminent – it appears talks have been going on for a while.
This entire situation is a mess. Looking at it objectively, you can understand what each side wants. Of course both sides are being greedy – cable is notorious for being greedy and the NFL is the most powerful sports league in America.
My parents have the NFL network at their house (via DirecTV) and I enjoy watching it when I’m bored and nothing else is on. But to be perfectly honest – there is nothing on that channel other than the 8 or so live games that I miss when I’m back at my apartment (service by Time Warner).
Hopefully the NFL has finally realized that the best way to get people to watch your channel is to make it available to everyone. Hopefully they’ll relent on some of their demands, and the cable operators can meet them halfway. It worked with the MLB Extra Innings package at the beginning of this season. Though I feel like i’m being to wide eyed and optimistic. More likely, this will drag out another year or so – and I will end up missing a handful of games that I would love to watch.
