I Can Watch The Packers Game If Jerry Says “Yes” » Brats & Beer

November 27, 2007
posted under: Cowboys, NFL Network, Packers, Time Warner Cable sucks

Here in Central Texas, as in Madison and other parts of Wisconsin outside Green Bay and Milwaukee, millions of football fans will be getting the business and missing the biggest game of the year because of the standoff between Big Cable and the NFL over carriage of the NFL Network. This is the second year in a row that Packer fans have gotten the shaft, but this season it’s more troubling because there’s so much riding on this game.

The dispute between Time Warner Cable and the league is far from black and white because there is no good guy in this fight, just two greedy corporations trying to maximize profits. Both sides are slinging the mud to sway the hearts and minds of cable customers: The NFL is running radio ads featuring Jerry Jones telling people to switch to satellite service, while Time Warner has set aside a blank teaser channel for the NFL Network with a message saying the league has refused offers to carry the game, but that TWC will show it “if Jerry says ‘yes.’”

I’ve made no secret here of my ill feelings towards Time Warner Cable, but it goes far beyond their refusal to really negotiate with the NFL on this issue. I dislike any kind of gatekeeper that dictates what content we can and cannot access; it’s an outdated business model that has reached the end of its usefulness, but the cable companies have refused to let go. If someone somewhere launched a competing television service that offered true choices to the customer it would all but kill Big Cable and any other service that limits consumers to a small slice of the content available.

The funny thing is the real villain in the dispute over access to pro football games isn’t Big Cable or the NFL; the problem is CBS and FOX. The league I’m sure would jump at the chance to offer a product like Sunday Ticket on cable and the cable companies would gladly carry it because of the huge pile of money they would all make, but the TV networks that pay billions a year to carry regular season games would throw a hissy fit because of the revenue their local affiliates might lose. They only allow Sunday Ticket on satellite because they know penetration will never be significant enough to dent their ad sales.

Until someone devises a scheme that ensures enough money gets funneled to all the right pockets while giving consumers real choice, football fans will continue to get the raw end of the deal. The only real winners here are the tavern owners only too happy to supply suds and grub to displaced fans just trying to watch the game. (And thank the heavens that they do.)