Steve Bornstein
is the CEO of NFL Network
Amid the end of March Madness and the start of baseball, football fans across the country are eagerly anticipating this month's NFL draft, as well as all the other news they can follow closely year-round on NFL Network.
Unfortunately, starting May 1, Comcast will stop carrying the network - denying fans the unique access and special coverage of the NFL that only NFL Network delivers.
After the draft, the network will continue to cover the rookies and the rest of the players like no one else - 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Fans will get an inside look at minicamps, training camps, their favorite players and coaches, and, starting later this year, more than 60 regular-season and preseason games.
Based on fan interest, NFL Network should be broadly available to cable subscribers. Comcast, however, wants to continue to limit access to the network by charging consumers extra for it. Comcast collects this extra charge to provide NFL Network as part of its sports package.
We strongly disagree with this policy. But Comcast refuses to reach a new agreement with NFL Network that would make it available to a larger number of subscribers without the extra monthly fee.
Comcast discriminates against networks such as ours because we are independent. Do you know why you get the Golf Channel and Versus as part of your basic cable service? It's because both are owned by Comcast, which makes the company's channels broadly available.
Do you wonder why the recently launched MLB Network is, unlike its football counterpart, broadly available to fans without an extra monthly fee? Once again, the answer is that Comcast has an ownership interest in the MLB Network.
NFL Network and others like it are not owned by the big cable companies. But instead of negotiating with independent programmers, the cable companies discriminate against them in favor of their own services.
In October, the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau ruled that we had shown that Comcast discriminated and retaliated against NFL Network. The bureau ordered an administrative-law judge to conduct additional proceedings.
Our goal is for the major cable companies to negotiate fairly and not discriminate against us.
We have until April 30 to negotiate with Comcast a new agreement, like those we have with more than 300 other cable operators, phone companies, and satellite-television systems across the country. We hope that Comcast will act responsibly, negotiate with us in good faith, and keep the best interests of the fans in mind.