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NFL Honchos Reduced to Tiers Over Comcast Move

By Paul Domowitch -- Philadelphia Daily News, 10/24/2007

It's only four blocks from the Center City Westin Hotel, where the NFL owners are holding their 2-day fall meeting, to Comcast's corporate headquarters at 1500 Market St.

Almost close enough for commissioner Roger Goodell to put his head out the hotel window and holler over to Comcast chairman Brian Roberts. Almost.

Certainly close enough for Roberts to feel his ears burning yesterday, because his company was a major topic of conversation at the owners' meeting. And not in a nice way.

The league is furious with Comcast and some of the country's other cable companies, including Time Warner, for restricting the distribution of the NFL Network. As the network prepares to celebrate its fourth birthday, the league had expected it to be in 50 million U.S. homes by now. Instead, the figure is a little less than 35 million, and it blames Comcast and the other cable companies.

Last year, the network was available to Comcast customers as part of its digital package in 9 million homes. But the cable giant took it off digital this year and is selling it separately to subscribers for an additional $6 to $8 per month, which has slashed the number of Comcast homes with the network to 1 million.

"That's a significant difference," Goodell said yesterday. "They have the rights to put us in 9 million homes. It's not a matter of negotiation. It's a decision they're making.

"We were very disappointed that they took this away from consumers, that they tiered us. And now are charging consumers more money to get it back. We feel that is inappropriate."

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