I would think thatNBC has to adhere to its NFL contract.
Who has the link to NBC to politely request that the football game be shown live.
FYI ...
FLASHBACK
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12/kerry_threatens_nfl_if_patriot.html
With the New England Patriots now one win away from finishing the regular season undefeated, Sen. John Kerry is stepping up his campaign to get the final game broadcast on national television.
The contest Saturday with the New York Giants is to air locally in Boston and New York. But outside those markets it is scheduled to appear only on the NFL Network, a cable channel that reaches just 35 million households nationwide while the league and cable operators dicker over pricing and distribution.
Kerry asked football Commissioner Roger Goodell today to move the game to NBC – and threatened Senate hearings if he does not.
“Under the unfortunate circumstance that this matter remains unresolved, leaving 60 percent of households across the country – including thousands in Massachusetts – without access to Saturday’s game, I will ask the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on how the emergence of premium sports channels are impacting the consumer,” he wrote to Goodell today in a letter released by his office.
The Massachusetts Democrat added that he would “consider what legislative measures may be necessary to ensure that consumers are more than bystanders in this process.”
Kerry, who had offered earlier to convene a meeting between the league and cable operators, is only one of several lawmakers attempting to intervene. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have threatened to reconsider the league’s federal antitrust exemption if the sides do not come to an agreement.
Time Warner rejected an offer by Goodell last week to submit their differences to an arbitrator.
“As a Bostonian, I couldn’t be more pleased that in just five days, the New England Patriots will attempt to become the first NFL team in 35 years to finish the regular season with an undefeated record,” Kerry wrote. “But as someone who represents all of Massachusetts and not just those in the Boston media market, I remain deeply troubled that today as many as 250,000 Massachusetts households, and millions of Patriots fans nationwide, may be denied access to this historic sporting event. …
“For a game of this significance to be used as a bargaining chip or point of leverage between corporations locked in a dispute would say a great deal about the esteem in which America’s football fans are held by the big interests,” Kerry wrote.
http://twitter.com/#!/chucktodd
28 minutes ago
Chuck Todd
chucktodd Chuck Todd
Gotten lots of Qs about what time POTUS speech would be Thurs. night 9/8; Am told WH/Boehner working on a time that won’t conflict w/NFL
33 minutes ago
Of course they will, there are many other networks who would be more than happy to show the NFL game.