NFL Network Eyes News Corp. Dispute as Ticket to Cablevision Carriage

By Alex Weprin 

Update: Cablevision has responded to the NFL Network letter:

“This has nothing to do with broadcast network retransmission consent and if the NFL was serious about getting its network on Cablevision, it would make us a proposal for the NFL Sunday Ticket, a service the NFL only offers to a satellite competitor.”

Original story: As we have reported, News Corp. and Cablevision are currently in the midst of a carriage dispute, with the media company pulling its local Fox station, Fox Business network and Nat Geo Wild from Cablevision systems.

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The cable operator is calling for arbitration, which News Corp. has so far resisted, because it would likely result in a lower deal, which would then have to be offered to the other cable operators.

NFL Network, which has been unable to secure carriage on Cablevision, is looking to take advantage of the dispute by offering to submit to binding arbitration with the operator, according to The New York Post‘s Claire Atkinson.

NFL Network chief Steve Borstein, in a letter to Dolan, a copy of which has been obtained by The Post, calls on Cablevision to bring in mediators to resolve the dispute and get key games to viewers.

“I’m encouraged to hear that Cablevision supports binding arbitration and would recommend that approach in our own discussions with you for carriage of NFL Network,” Borstein wrote in the letter. “This is an ideal opportunity for both of our organizations to come to mutually agreeable terms for carriage.”

The letter puts Cablevision on the spot, because it wants to do arbitration with News Corp., and has offered arbitration for its MSG Network, which is having a carriage dispute of its own with DISH Network. In order to remain consistent, Cablevision will have to agree to arbitration with NFL Network.

It is a brilliant move on the part of the NFL, which may have just secured an additional 3+ million subscribers for its NFL Network.

It is bad news for Cablevision, which will either have to pony up the dough for NFL Network (based on whatever the arbitrator decides) or risks looking like a hypocrite if it declines the offer.

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