I’m reading with a heavy heart today that what might be a historic game for my beloved Patriots won’t be shown on TV here in Maine.
Why? Because two giant corporations–the NFL and Time Warner–are having a pissing match over who’s the bigger dog. The NFL has placed the December 29th match up between the Pats and the NY Giants on their own NFL Network in their grand plan of trying to make it more difficult for the average fan to watch their local teams.
The NFL wants its fledging network on Time Warner’s basic cable…basically forcing everyone who gets cable in Maine to pay for football whether they like it or not. If the NFL had faith in it’s product it would allow Time Warner to carry the NFL network as part of a premium package and let those of us who are willing to pay for it pay for it.
Seth Palansky, the communications director of the NFL Network, and a man who obviously has never looked at a map, said,
The sad truth in this case is that if your outside the home market, regardless of whether you get the channel (on cable) or not, you won’t see it.
Ummm…they’re the freaking NEW ENGLAND Patriots.
It’s rare for me to get on the side of giant cable companies–just check out any of my posts on Net Neutrality–but the NFL is dead wrong on this deal. The last time they did something this bone-headed and fan-unfriendly is when they gave exclusive rights for the NFL video game EA, killing competition and reducing EA’s need to improve their product.
I know this post won’t do any good; I know that if the Pats go 15-0 I’ll be heading down to Boston to watch the game with my brother Doug.
However, the league should know that the only reason they make so much freaking money is because of the fans; fans they seem to be going out of their way to gouge. If enough of us get tired of being treated like the children in a messy divorce, we’ll go elsewhere. Hell, I’m just about ready to try and figure out NASCAR.
In the meantime, Doug, fire up the grill and I’ll see you on the 29th of December.
