The NFL Package is included in your basic cable bill? It is not an add-on like HBO? If I want the NFL Network I have to pay an extra premium...if it were available to me. So, yes..that is paying for it.
NFLN is included in the Sports and Entertainment tier of my digital cable, which I signed up for when I first got digital cable before NFLN even existed, when they added NFLN I got it along with ESPNews and ESPNC and the other stuff in that section of the dial. Now maybe your cable company is one of the ones pissed at the NFL for how they're handling NFLN and made it an HBO style subscription channel, but that's your cable company charging you for it not the NFL.
The NFL is trying hard to get their network down in basic cable along with ESPN, they don't want it to be a subscription channel, they don't even want it in the extended digital channels, they want it down in the bottom end where even the cheapest cable subscriber can get it. That's one of the reasons they have games on the network now, they're trying to get subscribers to pressure their cable companies into moving the network further out into the open.
Right--NFLN is available on the lowest-tier packages on satellite right now, but NFLN is in a big fight with some cable companies over carriage.
Here's how cable/satellite programming works. Some cable channels (think ESPN) are enormously popular--pretty much the reason that most people have cable/satellite. When there is a cable channel like that, the cable channel pretty much defines the rules about how it will be carried on the network (and on what channel--for instance, in the days before digital cable, it was advantageous to be on a lower channel because the picture quality was better. This is why ESPN is channel 2--the lowest channel--on a lot of cable packages). The cable channels also charge the cable companies are certain price for the right to carry the channel; last I heard, ESPN charged cable companies around $2.50 per subscriber; the cable company must pay that fee every month.
Other channels, however, are less popular (think History International) and these channels have contract terms dictated by the cable companies. In order to get on the air, the channels must pay the cable companies a monthly fee per subscriber. Bad deal for the channels who are on the outside looking in.
NFLN doesn't want to pay the cable companies to be carried and it doesn't want to be carried on the "sports tier" with channels like Golf Network or CSTV or ESPNU. DirecTV and Dish have agreed to NFLN's demands and are carrying it on the lower tier channel packages, though TimeWarner and Comcast, notably, have refused to carry it unless it is on the Sports Tier.
Both sides have dug in pretty deep and are publishing propaganda. NFL's anti-TimeWarner website is www.iwantnflnetwork.com while TimeWarner holes up at www.nflgetreal.com.
Interestingly, I recently moved to a place where I can't get satellite. I subscribed to Adelphia, the local cable carrier. Adelphia was bought by TimeWarner and my cable package remained exactly the same, except that NFLN was dropped from my HD channels. Oddly, though TimeWarner's primary reason for not carrying the NFL network is to "save subscribers money," my rates didn't go down one penny when NFLN was dropped from my channel lineup. Funny how that worked...