Blackout Lifted

Update: Deal is Done

Written by Synergy Legal, Inc. on 12:02 PM

The NFL Network and Comcast have agreed on a 10-year carriage deal.

Comcast and the NFL said Tuesday that they had reached an agreement for the nation's largest cable TV operator to air the football channel on its second-most popular digital tier of service.

The deal spans 10 years and would cost Comcast 40 cents to 45 cents per subscriber, down from the NFL's previous asking price of 70 cents. By Aug. 1, the NFL Network will be carried throughout Comcast's service areas on a programming package called Digital Classic, which has around 10 million subscribers.

The NFL also threw in access to an upcoming channel, called RedZone, that will focus on touchdowns. Comcast expects RedZone to be carried in a premium sports package.

Sounds like it was the NFL that bent on the deal, by significantly lowering its per subscriber demand. I think they had to do it. Without the wide distribution the cable operators provide on their basic level service, the NFLN was bound to struggle; since anything that doesn't make the 32 owners enough money is quickly scrapped. And now, this deal should provide the structure that makes NFLN easily available in all of the other cable company homes in America.

For now at least, it should be a very good deal for Comcast subscribers, who now will not miss out on 8 televised games this season and will be able to watch exclusive NFL content, for those football junkies who just can't get enough. And shouldn't hit subscribers in the wallet either...but then again, this is Comcast we're talking about. And for those not yet familiar with it, I highly recommend the Red Zone Channel (or A.D.D. Channel, as I like to call it). It's the perfect place to go when the game you're watching locally goes to commercial or is at halftime. Hell, if you're not that interested in the game being shown locally, you just might want to watch the RZC for three straight hours!