NFL, Time Warner Remain On Opposite Ends Of NFL Net Battle In NC

The NFL and Time Warner Cable yesterday "remained as far apart as ever ... and showed no hints of a reconciliation that would make the NFL Network available to Time Warner Cable subscribers" in North Carolina, according to Roger Van Der Horst of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. The two sides "took turns firing verbal shots at one another during a public hearing" before the state's Joint Legislative Utility Review Committee. NFL Senior VP/Business Affairs Frank Hawkins estimated that NFL Network, as part of a sports tier on cable, would "increase that tier's audience from 4[%] of Time Warner's customer base to [10-12%]." But Hawkins said the problem the NFL has is that sports tiers are "inconsistent with business objectives." Hawkins: "If they were to come up with a sports tier that included every sports channel, or even every sports channel but ESPN ... that's a different proposition. That's going to get taken by 40, 50, 60[%] of their customers, and that's fair." Hawkins and Panthers President and NFL Network Vice Chair Mark Richardson each said that the idea "wasn't to take more games off free TV but to offer just enough live games to broaden fan interest in its network" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 4/16).