NFL Network Files Suit Against EchoStar Over Tier Downgrade
Legal Action Seeks To Prevent Network�s Shift To America�s Top 200 Package
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 2/27/2008 3:44:00 AM
RELATED ARTICLES
February, 25 2008
Fair Harvard? Hardly. Martin Sandbags Comcast
Washington – Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin dragged his agency all th...
More
February, 16 2008
Comcast's Voice Plateau
Apparently, behind Comcast's 134% year-over-year growth in digital voice subscribers (from 4Q06-4Q07...
More
February, 14 2008
Comcast 7.0 and 0.25
Last month, Brian Roberts would have the world believe that Comcast was going to be the next big inn...
More
February, 7 2008
Blame the Super Bowl
The chief suspect in the case of the disappearing HD set-tops? Super Bowl XLII. Both Verizon and ...
More
� VIEW ALL BLOGS
Shortly after the Academy Award nominations were announced, nearly 40 award-winning writers gathered for a press conference in support of the Writers Guild of America.
Versus set up an exhibit of its Professional Bull Riding tour outside
Nearly 1,0000 people attended a rally in Manhattan Nov. 27 held by striking TV writers.
� VIEW ALL GALLERIES
UFC President Dana White talks with MCN about recent developments, such as the mixed martial arts company's recent deal with Yahoo for online distribution.
The National Football League, which�gained some legal yardage�in its tiering battle with Comcast, has also taken aim at another disadvantageous packaging play by a key distributor.
The pro football league filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York to prevent�Dish Network�from moving NFL Network to its�America's�Top 200�package�from its America’s Top 100 tier. The nation’s No. 2 satellite player made the play last week, one that cost the embattled network about 4 million subscribers, or half of its base, with the distributor.
EchoStar’s tier gambit stemmed in part from the simulcast of the Dec. 29 game between the then-undefeated New England Patriots and New York Giants. When the NFL Network could not convince cable operators, notably Time Warner Cable, to carry the service, the league drafted CBS and NBC to simulcast the game. Between the two broadcasters, local stations in the New York and Boston areas and the NFL Network, the game was watched by 34.5 million viewers, making it the sixth most-watched show of the 2007-07 TV season and its top�regular-season�contest since a Thanksgiving�tilt in 1995.
"EchoStar's response to the simulcast of the historic December 29 Giants-Patriots game is unwarranted and not in the best interest of its subscribers,” said the NFL in a statement about the suit, which was filed Monday.�“The NFL is the most popular sport in the nation and this decision is taking NFL Network away from millions of subscribers around the nation that are football fans and have been receiving NFL Network's quality programming. We are seeking to prevent EchoStar from violating the terms of its distribution agreement with the NFL Network.”
SportsBusiness Journal first reported on the NFL lawsuit against EchoStar.
At least one other operator, RCN Corp., publicly voiced displeasure with the NFL's decision to open the Pats-Giants game up to wider audience through the unprecedented simulcast.
On Tuesday, a panel of judges in New York appellate court reversed a decision made last May that enabled Comcast to migrate NFL Network from its second most widely distributed digital package to a sports tier. That decision, according to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell resulted in the network losing 8 million of its 9 million subscribers with the nation’s largest distributor. A trial is pending.
