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 NFL 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 companies like Comcast, Time Warner and Cablevision are refusing to negotiate in good faith to give their customers access to NFL Network. |
| FACT: | Cable rates have increased by 41% in the last few years, and some cable companies still aren’t satisfied. They’re trying to cash in on the NFL’s popularity by charging football fans an additional fee to watch their favorite teams in action. |
| FACT: | It costs only 2 cents per subscriber a day for cable companies to offer NFL Network, yet they want to charge you up to $10 per month for the right to watch NFL Network. |
| 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: | Comcast, Time Warner and Cablevision have a double standards when it comes to sports channels. Channels they own, like Versus and the Golf Channel are included in the basic lineup. Independent channels like NFL Network get left out in the cold. This is unfair and anti-consumer. Consumer interest should decide what channels get carried – not inside deals among cable companies. |
| FACT: | Cable’s standard tactics stifle competition, by denying access to independent networks and by allowing cable to abuse their monopoly franchises. |
| 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. |