NFL Network Measure Scores Victory In Illinois Legislature

By John Ourand, Staff Writer

NFL Network scored a victory in Illinois when a state senate exec committee Thursday approved a bill that calls for mandatory arbitration to resolve carriage conflicts between cable operators and independent programmers. The bill now heads to a vote by the full Senate. NFL Net Dir of Communications Dennis Johnson said the vote is "in the interest of all those Illinois cable customers who are tired of Comcast and other cable companies blocking competition and raising rates simply to increase their company profits.” Illinois state Sen. Dale Risinger, the bill’s sponsor, said he decided to get involved in the dispute because it looked like NFL Net and Comcast would not be able to reach an agreement on their own. Risinger: “The main thing is that we get the cable company and the NFL Network together working on behalf of the consumer.” The bill is aimed mainly at Comcast, which is the dominant cable operator in the state. It is unclear how it would affect Comcast, though, since the cable operator has an existing deal with NFL Net that expires next April. Comcast believes the deal allows it to put the channel on its sports-and-entertainment tier. NFL Net disagrees, saying it has to be on a more widely penetrated tier. That dispute currently is in the courts.