Comcast's Cohen Refutes Tagliabue's Claims Of Roberts' Threat
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Comcast Official Says Roberts Did Not
Threaten Former NFL Commish In '06 |
Comcast Exec VP/Content Acquisition David Cohen yesterday said that Comcast Chair & CEO Brian Roberts had "not made a threat" to former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue after the league decided not to sell eight regular-season games annually to Comcast's Versus net in '06, according to Richard Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES. Cohen said that Roberts was "reminding Tagliabue of his view that the league's assessment of how appealing the NFL Network would be to cable operators 'was a wildly aggressive, unrealistic assumption.'" Tagliabue in a FCC carriage complaint filed Tuesday by the league over Comcast's alleged discrimination against NFL Net said that after Comcast learned of the decision in '06, Roberts said, "Your relationships with the cable industry are going to get very interesting." Tagliabue alleged Roberts' comments "foreshadowed Comcast's retaliation" in relegating NFL Network to a sports tier, which requires an extra fee. The FCC filing also alleged that Comcast in negotiating for the eight games "demanded ... that the games not be simulcast on broadcast stations in the home markets of the teams playing." The NFL "rejected the demand, saying it would contradict its policy of making games available to fans without cable or satellite TV" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/8).
SUCCESS WITHOUT NFL, BIG TEN NETS: Mediacom reported its first quarterly subscriber gain in three years yesterday, and Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso said that comes amid analysts "wringing their hands over potential [subscriber] defections because the MSO isn't carrying" Big Ten Network or NFL Net. But Commisso said that the company is "'going to stay firm' and not carry those nets at the price and conditions now being sought" (CABLEFAX DAILY, 5/8).
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