I just read perhaps the stupidest argument ever in favor of cable companies not including the NFL Network in their basic cable packages:
Cable companies are also used to having their way — not because they are liked but because, as insulated quasi-monopolies, they don’t see much advantage in being liked. In this particular dispute, however, they happen to be right. They’re saving millions of non-fans from an attempt by the NFL to pick their pockets.The reason the NFL Network is not on most cable systems is the league’s arrogance. It won’t let the cable companies put its channel on a premium tier, where the fans who want it would pay the NFL’s premium price. The network insists that it be included in a basic package, which spreads the costs to all customers, including those who don’t care a whit for football.The NFL wants an average of 80 cents per cable subscriber per month, according to media consulting firm SNL Kagan, making it the fifth most expensive cable channel among 159. Even to the NFL’s fans, that price might seem high for a network that provides about 24 hours per year of live NFL football and about 8,736 hours of filler. For people whose idea of good TV is cooking shows, it must seem downright insane.
Source.Of course, what isn’t mentioned (but what is shown in their graph) is that ESPN and FSN (Fox Sports Network) are the #1 and #2 most expensive channels available, so evidently sports programming (including ESPN’s Monday Night Football) is also “picking the pockets” of cooking-show fans. And TNT, for no good reason at all, is third.But the main flaw with this argument is that it ignores how cable television works in the first place. Here’s a list of the cable channels I can easily get here in Pullman:2 KREM 2 Spokane WA3 KLEW 3 Lewiston ID4 KXLY 4 Spokane WA5 QVC6 KHQ 6 Spokane WA7 KSPS 7 Spokane WA8 Public Access10 KWSU 10 Pullman WA11 Local Bulletin Board12 KUID 12 Moscow ID13 Government Access14 KGPX 34 Spokane WA15 KSKN 22 Spokane WA (CW)16 Educational Access17 KXMN18 KQUP 24 Pullman WA19 HSN20 TV Guide Channel21 CSPAN22 CSPAN 223 The Disney Channel (West)24 ESPN25 ESPN226 Fox Sports Northwest27 CNN28 USA Network (West)29 Discovery Channel (West)30 Nickelodeon (West)31 ABC Family Channel (West)32 AMC – American Movie Classics (West)33 A&E (West)34 CNN Headline News35 The Weather Channel36 VH1 (West)37 MTV: Music Television (West)38 TNT – Turner Network Television (West)39 Comedy Central (West)40 Spike TV (West)41 E! Entertainment Television (West)42 Sci Fi Channel (West)43 Fox News Channel44 CNBC45 TLC – The Learning Channel (West)46 Cartoon Network (West)47 CMT – Country Music Television (West)48 Northwest Cable News49 Animal Planet50 TV Land (West)51 Court TV (West)52 Travel Channel53 The History Channel (West)54 FX55 Bravo56 TBS Superstation57 HGTV – Home & Garden Television58 Lifetime Television59 Hallmark Channel60 Shop NBC61 Food Network62 Inspiration/EWTN63 MSNBC64 Oxygen65 BET – Black Entertainment Television66 MTV270 College Sports TVNow, since I’m a non-Christian white male, about four of these channels are of no interest to me right off the bat. Let’s take out Lifetime, Inspiration/EWTN, Oxygen, and BET. MTV is a waste of time lately so let’s take out both of their channels. I don’t have any children so the Disney channel can go (Cartoon Network stays because of Adult Swim). Nickelodeon is questionable, because the only two shows Nick at Nite still have that I would want to watch are The Cosby Show and Home Improvement. But let’s keep it anyway. I certainly don’t want to buy things from TV shows, so Shop NBC, HSN, and QVC are out. Fox News is out because I’m not interested in right-wing propaganda. All, told, of all those channels, here are all the ones that would “pick my pockets”:5 QVC19 HSN23 The Disney Channel (West)31 ABC Family Channel (West)36 VH1 (West)37 MTV: Music Television (West)41 E! Entertainment Television (West)43 Fox News Channel44 CNBC47 CMT – Country Music Television (West)51 Court TV (West)54 FX55 Bravo56 TBS Superstation57 HGTV – Home & Garden Television58 Lifetime Television59 Hallmark Channel60 Shop NBC62 Inspiration/EWTN63 MSNBC64 Oxygen65 BET – Black Entertainment Television66 MTV2Even worse, the channels that remain are clogged with ads 1/3 of the time during normal programming (a 30-minute program is slightly over 20 minutes in length, an hour program is in reality slightly more than 40 minutes), and all of the time at night. (Home shopping channels are by definition clogged with ads 24/7, and I’m not entirely sure why people even watch them. Honestly I would have more fun watching Ron Popeil infomercials than that dreck.) And half of the channels I am selecting, I’m only choosing for specific circumstances. I get all my news from the Internet—CNN is only valuable to me in rare circumstances, and the only thing I would really miss from losing a channel like CNN is being able to watch live coverage when something like 9/11 happens. SciFi is only valuable because of Battlestar Galactica. Spike is generally useful only for Star Trek reruns.The problem here is not with a greedy NFL. The problem is with the cable TV system. Am I really supposed to believe that there are fewer NFL fans in this country than criminal justice system fans?
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Hypocrisy in the NFL Network dispute
I just read perhaps the stupidest argument ever in favor of cable companies not including the NFL Network in their basic cable packages:
Source.Of course, what isn’t mentioned (but what is shown in their graph) is that ESPN and FSN (Fox Sports Network) are the #1 and #2 most expensive channels available, so evidently sports programming (including ESPN’s Monday Night Football) is also “picking the pockets” of cooking-show fans. And TNT, for no good reason at all, is third.But the main flaw with this argument is that it ignores how cable television works in the first place. Here’s a list of the cable channels I can easily get here in Pullman:2 KREM 2 Spokane WA3 KLEW 3 Lewiston ID4 KXLY 4 Spokane WA5 QVC6 KHQ 6 Spokane WA7 KSPS 7 Spokane WA8 Public Access10 KWSU 10 Pullman WA11 Local Bulletin Board12 KUID 12 Moscow ID13 Government Access14 KGPX 34 Spokane WA15 KSKN 22 Spokane WA (CW)16 Educational Access17 KXMN18 KQUP 24 Pullman WA19 HSN20 TV Guide Channel21 CSPAN22 CSPAN 223 The Disney Channel (West)24 ESPN25 ESPN226 Fox Sports Northwest27 CNN28 USA Network (West)29 Discovery Channel (West)30 Nickelodeon (West)31 ABC Family Channel (West)32 AMC – American Movie Classics (West)33 A&E (West)34 CNN Headline News35 The Weather Channel36 VH1 (West)37 MTV: Music Television (West)38 TNT – Turner Network Television (West)39 Comedy Central (West)40 Spike TV (West)41 E! Entertainment Television (West)42 Sci Fi Channel (West)43 Fox News Channel44 CNBC45 TLC – The Learning Channel (West)46 Cartoon Network (West)47 CMT – Country Music Television (West)48 Northwest Cable News49 Animal Planet50 TV Land (West)51 Court TV (West)52 Travel Channel53 The History Channel (West)54 FX55 Bravo56 TBS Superstation57 HGTV – Home & Garden Television58 Lifetime Television59 Hallmark Channel60 Shop NBC61 Food Network62 Inspiration/EWTN63 MSNBC64 Oxygen65 BET – Black Entertainment Television66 MTV270 College Sports TVNow, since I’m a non-Christian white male, about four of these channels are of no interest to me right off the bat. Let’s take out Lifetime, Inspiration/EWTN, Oxygen, and BET. MTV is a waste of time lately so let’s take out both of their channels. I don’t have any children so the Disney channel can go (Cartoon Network stays because of Adult Swim). Nickelodeon is questionable, because the only two shows Nick at Nite still have that I would want to watch are The Cosby Show and Home Improvement. But let’s keep it anyway. I certainly don’t want to buy things from TV shows, so Shop NBC, HSN, and QVC are out. Fox News is out because I’m not interested in right-wing propaganda. All, told, of all those channels, here are all the ones that would “pick my pockets”:5 QVC19 HSN23 The Disney Channel (West)31 ABC Family Channel (West)36 VH1 (West)37 MTV: Music Television (West)41 E! Entertainment Television (West)43 Fox News Channel44 CNBC47 CMT – Country Music Television (West)51 Court TV (West)54 FX55 Bravo56 TBS Superstation57 HGTV – Home & Garden Television58 Lifetime Television59 Hallmark Channel60 Shop NBC62 Inspiration/EWTN63 MSNBC64 Oxygen65 BET – Black Entertainment Television66 MTV2Even worse, the channels that remain are clogged with ads 1/3 of the time during normal programming (a 30-minute program is slightly over 20 minutes in length, an hour program is in reality slightly more than 40 minutes), and all of the time at night. (Home shopping channels are by definition clogged with ads 24/7, and I’m not entirely sure why people even watch them. Honestly I would have more fun watching Ron Popeil infomercials than that dreck.) And half of the channels I am selecting, I’m only choosing for specific circumstances. I get all my news from the Internet—CNN is only valuable to me in rare circumstances, and the only thing I would really miss from losing a channel like CNN is being able to watch live coverage when something like 9/11 happens. SciFi is only valuable because of Battlestar Galactica. Spike is generally useful only for Star Trek reruns.The problem here is not with a greedy NFL. The problem is with the cable TV system. Am I really supposed to believe that there are fewer NFL fans in this country than criminal justice system fans?
Tags: cable television, nfl network
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 22:25 and is filed under Commentary, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.