Game to be simulcast
The NFL just sent out the following announcement regarding the Patriots-Giants game:
The NFL has arranged with broadcast television partners CBS and NBC for an unprecedented three-way national simulcast of the NFL Network telecast of Saturday night’s New England Patriots at New York Giants game when the Patriots will try to become the first NFL team to go 16-0 in a regular season, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced today.
“We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans,” Commissioner Goodell said. “What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever.”
CBS and NBC will carry the NFL Network feed of the game with Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsowrth in the broadcast booth. The game also will be televised by WCVB-ABC (Channel 5) in Boston, WMUR-ABC in Manchester, New Hampshire (Channel 9) and WWOR (Channel 9) in New York. The telecast begins at 8 p.m. ET with kickoff set at 8:15 p.m. ET.
This will be the first three-network simulcast in NFL history and the first simulcast of any kind of an NFL game since Super Bowl I in 1967 when CBS and NBC both televised the first meeting of the champions of the newly merged National Football League and American Football League. CBS was the network partner of the NFL at that time and NBC televised the AFL. In that first Super Bowl – in which the NFL Green Bay Packers beat the AFL Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on January 15, 1967 – Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker and Frank Gifford called the game for CBS while Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman broadcast the game on NBC.
Against the 10-5 playoff-bound Giants, the 15-0 Patriots on Saturday night will seek to become the first NFL team to complete an unbeaten regular season since the Miami Dolphins went 14-0 in 1972. The Dolphins proceeded to win three more games, including Super Bowl VII, to finish 17-0 for the only perfect season in NFL history. The NFL regular season was expanded to 16 games in 1978.
The Patriots also are aiming for their record 19th consecutive regular-season victory dating back to the 2006 season. With six points, they also will become the highest scoring team in one NFL season, breaking the Minnesota Vikings’ total of 556 in 1998. Individually, quarterback Tom Brady (48) is in position to break Peyton Manning’s NFL record for most touchdown passes in a season (49 in 2004) and wide receiver Randy Moss (21) will set a new league mark if he catches two touchdown passes to surpass Jerry Rice’s 22 in 1987.
NFL Network is currently available on 240 cable systems, including Cox, plus satellite television providers DirecTV and Dish Network, and the telephone company TV services of AT&T U-VERSE and Verizon FiOS. But a few of the largest cable companies have refused to carry NFL Network on their most broadly distributed and affordable packages.
“NFL Network is a programming service of great interest to fans and should be broadly distributed by the cable industry,” said NFL Network President and CEO Steve Bornstein. “The only channel devoted 24/7 to America’s favorite sport is not programming that should be relegated to a poorly promoted, pay-extra sports tier that takes advantage of our fans’ passion for the NFL. A few of the biggest cable operators have refused to negotiate. We call on them to do what’s right for their consumers and negotiate agreements for NFL Network that make sense for everybody.”
this is the only way it should be. we will be witnessing history. prob will be the most watched reg season game ever
While that is wonderful, I certainly hope we see the Miami game first half Patriots and not the second half "record chasers".
Guess what, Big Cable? You are totally wrong. (Bet you hear that all the time.) I pay for the Aunt Tillys of the world to watch what I consider to be unwatchable: incessant shopping networks, soap operas, Oprah, Dr. Phil, idiotic reality programs, and all the other wretched programming cable stuffs down our collective throats in the basic package. There is no reason for cable to balk at basic access to the NFL Network except one: sheer unadulterated GREED. Cable wants to make more money on the NFL Network but the NFL doesn't want to give it to them. Tough. Cable should, no, MUST accommodate its viewers. If it means taking all those other banal channels off the air to pay for the NFL Network, good. Do it.
The NFL obviously blinked. Do CBS & NBC get to run commercials and charge for them or do they give up 3+ hours of revenue? If they give it up, how much is the NFL or NFLN compensating them for it? Follow the $$
"Guess what, Big Cable? You are totally wrong. (Bet you hear that all the time.) I pay for the Aunt Tillys of the world to watch what I consider to be unwatchable: incessant shopping networks, soap operas, Oprah, Dr. Phil, idiotic reality programs, and all the other wretched programming cable stuffs down our collective throats in the basic package. There is no reason for cable to balk at basic access to the NFL Network except one: sheer unadulterated GREED. Cable wants to make more money on the NFL Network but the NFL doesn't want to give it to them. Tough. Cable should, no, MUST accommodate its viewers. If it means taking all those other banal channels off the air to pay for the NFL Network, good. Do it."
Umm.. you really don't understand the dispute between the NFL and "Big cable" do you? The NFL wants to put their channel on a basic tier, but are charging the cable companies an ungodly amount for it. So as a result, EVERYONE's cable bill would go up wether they watch the NFL Network or not. That is why it is available on a sports tier. Those who want the channel can pay the extra for it. Don't like it? Well, complain to the NFL for charging such a high amount for the channel. At least understand both sides of the issue before you go on a rant against one side. Also, I love how you just want to get rid of channels in favor of the NFL Network that YOU may not like but other people do. I guess you're more important then other people, right?
From the NYTimes article on the deal:
"NBC and CBS will show the NFL Network’s production of the game, with the announcers Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsworth, and will not pay an extra rights fee. They will each get to sell 18 30-second commercial units."
So no, they won't give up ad revenue and they're not paying extra rights fees either.
This isn't really surprising to me. The NFL had one game which it could sell to the networks and make millions. Nothing would shock me more than if the NFL is not receiving millions of dollars from both CBS and NBC for letting them broadcast the game.
Big Cable is over charging Sports fans because they know we'll pay it. I pay an extra $9.95 for the Sports Tier when all I want is the NFLN. I heard on WEEI that the NFL is charging .60 a subscriber for the NFLN. So I'm paying an extra $9.35 to subsidize crappy programming. Big Cable does this because they know they can. I would love to see a la carte, where you only pay for the channels you watch. Instead of paying $100+ a month I would pay for the 25 channels I watch and my bill would be less. Then useless channels that nobody watches would die without being kept alive by cable welfare. BTW NFL fans ARE more important than other people!
The NFLN is all about the Patriots, and have been the focus all week. Even the NFL Network commercials star a Pats fan.
Here's the one that promotes Saturday's game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Iup24YBdg
Goddell is so full of crap I needed to put a diaper on my monitor while reading this.
The only reason NFL "caved-in" on this is because thier anti-trust exemptions were going to be looked into by Congress, etc. PERIOD!
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