NFL Network Still Battling Comcast

The NFL won a minor court victory yesterday, as an appellate court in New York ruled a case involving Comcast should be “remanded for further proceedings.”  The ruling gives the NFL Network hope of being restored to many more Comcast customers.

Comcast moved the NFL Network to a sports tier, which customers must subscribe to and pay extra each month for, after a prior ruling in May 2007.  Customers thus were moved from the second most distributed Comcast package, to a virtual no-mans land.  The NFL claimed it lost more than 8 million potential viewers because of the decision by Comcast.

The NFL Network has been on offense against Comcast and Time Warner, promoting through their network website alternative providers DIRECTV, Verizon, AT&T, and Dish Network.  Yet the network has yet another dispute, as it has taken Dish to court over the satellite television provider’s decision to move the network to a higher priced programming tier.

No further court dates have been slated at this time, and it may just be the beginning of a larger battle between the NFL and Comcast.  The parties have NFL Network carriage agreements through the 2008 season and up through April 2009.  However with the continued acrimony between the parties, upcoming negotiations will no doubt be difficult.