Goodell Says Consumer Will Win In NFL Net Carriage Dispute

By John Ourand, Staff Writer

Goodell Says NFL Will Stand Ground In Carriage Dispute

The NFL does not appear to be in any hurry to compromise with the cable operators that have refused to carry NFL Network, judging by comments NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made on Bob Costas’ syndicated radio show last weekend. “For 365 days a year, we’re producing great quality programming that our fans want to see. The cable operators have said that they don’t want the customers to have that ability at the price that we think is fair. So we have a commercial disagreement on that,” he said. Goodell dismissed cable’s argument that the network should be on a digital sports tier, saying that such tiers are available to a small number of homes at too high of a price. He added, “We think our customers want it, and we’ve gotten great reaction from them. And we assume that at some point, the consumer is going to win.” Listen to the full interview.