Truth About Cable Monopolies
The truth is simple: Comcast, Time Warner and Cablevision raise rates and stifle competition -- and are now denying you access to football 24:7 on NFL Network. Football fans are being held hostage: either they pay extra to subscribe to the cable company’s “sports tier” and spend hundreds of dollars a year for additional channels they don’t want – or they’re totally blocked from receiving high-quality football programming on NFL Network.
| FACT: | A number of the largest cable companies – including Comcast, Time Warner and Cablevision – have either moved NFL Network to a pay-extra sports tier or refused to carry it at all. |
| FACT: | Cable rates have increased by 41% in the last few years, and some cable companies still aren’t satisfied. |
| FACT: | Although more than 222 million Americans watched NFL football last year, the cable companies argue that NFL Network’s audience is too small to justify a spot in the basic lineup. Yet they manage to offer less popular sports channels they own, like Versus and the Golf Channel, on basic cable. |
| FACT: | Cable subscribers that live outside their favorite teams’ home markets won’t see their teams play on NFL Network unless they pay extra fees to their cable provider. NFL Network games are broadcast free over-the-air in the team’s local market – but Dallas Cowboys fans in San Antonio and Green Bay Packers fans in Madison, for example, will miss seeing their favorite teams play. |