Clash of the Titans: Cable industry rebels against NFL's new channel

As football season approaches, the cable industry is gang-tackling the fledgling NFL Network created by the powerful National Football League.

Comcast subscribers in Utah and across the nation have had the NFL Network yanked from their homes as part of a bitter battle. The NFL tried to stop Comcast Corp., the country's largest cable operator, by suing, but lost. The case is now on appeal. Since the ruling, Comcast says it has moved the NFL Network to a sports tier in all of its systems where it is available for an additional charge.

Other cable Titans — Time Warner Cable Inc. and Cablevision Systems Corp. — are refusing to carry the NFL Network, which originally debuted in 2003, on much friendlier and more favorable terms for the league. Even Charter Communications Inc., whose controlling shareholder owns the Seattle Seahawks, stopped carrying the network in late 2005 because of a contract dispute.

At the heart of the debate: how much pro football is enough for America's already robustly served TV fans. The NFL, which has long been able to command top dollar by packaging its games myriad ways, says viewers are still insatiable. But after years of budgetary woes caused by the skyrocketing cost of football, cable executives say they — and viewers — have had enough. Die-hard football fans can now watch as many as 16 regular-season games a week via broadcast, cable and satellite operators.

Complaints about the cost of cable, driven in large part by the cost of sports, have been escalating. "Not all our customers are passionate sports fans," says Steve Burke, Comcast's chief operating officer. "And many of them are not interested in paying more" for football programming. In New York City, roughly 20 percent of an average customer's standard cable bill goes to sports channels, regardless of whether the customer watches them.

Cable executives say the NFL finally got tripped up by its arrogance. "They believe no matter what they do, you have to have it," says Fred Dressler, who was Time Warner Cable's lead negotiator on programming before he retired late last year. The NFL network says it is currently available to 44 million homes, although Comcast says the figure is millions less than that; at least one team owner expected the number to be closer to 70 million.