New York Court Rules Comcast Can Put NFL Net On Sports Tier

By Eric Fisher & John Ourand

The New York state Supreme Court late Thursday issued a summary judgment granting Comcast the right to place the NFL Network on a dedicated sports tier instead of digital basic, providing the nation’s largest cable distributor a key victory in its ongoing fight with the league. Comcast immediately announced its plans to move the network to a sports tier within the next 60 days, pending notification of its subscribers and the NFL. The network said it would appeal yesterday’s decision, which would be a huge blow to the league-owned channel if it is allowed to stand. Cable operators were closely monitoring this case, and it is widely believed that ones that haven’t struck deals — such as Time Warner and Cablevision — would also demand NFL Network be placed on a sports tier, not wanting to grant more favorable terms than Comcast. Additionally, cable industry programming contracts typically have something called MFNs, which would give other MSOs that carry the channel the right to follow Comcast’s lead and put NFL Network on a sports tier. It is not known if other MSOs included those MFNs in their contracts.

IMPACT ON OTHERS: The decision also is a blow to other league-owned and conference-owned networks, as it will cause MSOs to push even harder to develop sports tiers. “This decision breathes new life into the concept of sports tiering,” said Comcast Exec VP David Cohen. “Niche, expensive sports programming belongs on a sports tier.”

BACKGROUND: The NFL sued Comcast last fall after the company sought to place the channel on a sports tier. But Comcast successfully argued before Judge Bernard Fried it had negotiated the right to make the move after it failed to gain carriage of either the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market package or a national package of NFL games for Versus. The league, facing the potential loss of millions of dollars per month, intends to appeal the ruling. “The final word on this issue is most likely going to come from the appellate courts,” reads a prepared statement from the NFL Network. “If this decision is upheld, the biggest harm will be to consumers. They will have to pay more for less.”