Why is any legislature involved in this?
I am a football fan, but if I want the product, I have to pay for it. If it’s extra for NFL network, that’s fine, the choice is mine. The Big Ten network carries games I want to see, but don’t want to pay extra for watching. So, I find something else to do. Same with NFL network. Eventually, they’ll find that their fan base erodes as people discover a walk in the woods is more fun than watching a football game. But I digress.
No one has a “right” to watch games. It’s free market, let it sort itself out.
The plan is to move all games to the NFL network and dump the networks, watch and see.
The issue, I'm assuming, is that the NFL Network only gets that "base" amount of 60-70 cents (maybe even less depending how much the cable company takes of that), while it's the cable company that gets the "premium fees" (which in my area is like $5-10). So, in effect, the NFL Network is getting "robbed" of money that really they are responsible for generating.
Now, again, I'm assuming this is the issue (maybe someone more knowledgeable can comment), because if what I described above is not the case, then I can't understand what the fight would be about.
Tangentially, if the NFL Network was too stupid to not spell this out in writing before agreeing to be on cable, then I don't have much mercy for them. IOW, if they knew full well that the cable company *might* charge extra for their channel, but didn't specify in writing that this would not be allowed (unless they got a cut), and counted on people getting angry about the increase, then they underestimated the apathy of the typical consumer.
Except it isn’t a free market. Cable companies have a monopoly, and it stinks. The cozy relationship between cable companies and local governments must end, so we have real choice in cable TV.
Cox Cable has all these ads saying how wonderful they are for giving money to local schools (which like all business “charity” is really paid for by customers), while they enjoy their government protection from competition. Sounds like a sneaky way to tax people extra for public schools to me.
I hate the dang cable companies! If it weren’t for the problems with satellite (losing the picture when it rains heavily, etc.), we would switch.
You obviously haven't read the new US Constitution that a bunch of nine-year-olds recently wrote.
I agree with some of that, but here’s a question.
I don’t subscribe to any sports packages — what do they do during timeouts and such where the networks place commercials? I mean, I would be highly pissed to have to pay to watch whatever games and ALSO be forced to watch commercials.