Comcast Offered NFL Stake In Company For Regular-Season Games
The NFL in ’06 rejected an offer from Comcast that would have "given the league owners a stake in the cable company and would have shielded them from having to share cable-TV broadcast revenue with the players’ union,” according to Bob Fernandez of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Comcast Chair & CEO Brian Roberts “offered rights fees and a substantial ownership interest in [Versus], then called Outdoor Life Network, that could be converted into Comcast stock in exchange for broadcast rights to eight live NFL games per season.” Roberts in a recent FCC filing said that he structured the offer “at the direction of the NFL owners, who said they would not have had to share the equity interest with the players’ union as they would rights fees.” An NFL official yesterday confirmed that the league “discussed a stake in the sports network … but said the players’ union would ultimately benefit from an equity stake through dividend payments, or a sale of the asset.” NFL owners rejected Comcast’s offer and “instead used the eight NFL games for its start-up NFL Network.” After former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue "informed Comcast that it had lost any chance for an exclusive NFL package, [Comcast] relocated the NFL Network from a digital tier on Comcast to an extra-cost sports tier." In the documents filed to the FCC, Tagliabue said that when he told Roberts of the NFL owners’ decision to "keep the eight-game package, Roberts responded: ‘Your relationships with the cable industry are going to get very interesting.’” Tagliabue said that he “believed the statement foreshadowed the friction to come between the two organizations.” An NFL official yesterday said that the league will “file a response to Comcast with the FCC” (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 6/26).
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