The ongoing dispute between the NFL and various cable companies is resulting in some belt tightening at the network owned by the league.
According to a media source, owners have been told during their meeting in Atlanta of looming cutbacks at the network. (In an e-mail message, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello says that he is aware of no planned cuts at the network.)
Per the source, it’s unknown whether anyone will be laid off. However, we’re told that moving forward there will be only two studio shows — Total Access and College Football Now.
That’s bad news for Jamie Dukes, whose Put Up Your Dukes offering apparently has been put down the drain. The full list of NFLN shows is available right here.
Budget cuts aren’t a new thing for the league’s in-house entertainment operations. NFL Films recently has seen layoffs as well.
Of course, all of this could change when (if) NFLN lands on basic cable with major cable systems. NFLN has been at odds with cable giants like Time Warner and Comcast, and many believe that the efforts of Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to poke his nose into the New England Patriots’ cheating scandal arose from the dispute regarding NFLN’s premium-tier placement on Comcast’s cable system.
The league wants to get NFLN onto basic cable because it will result in more households getting (and paying for) the channel. By pushing the network onto premium tiers, the NFL only gets revenue for the network when people order the package that includes it.
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May 20th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Good riddance to Jamie Dukes.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
yea i pay the sports package fee with comcast, its a great network but the package is kinda expensive but worth the money i think. If you dont have the NFLN i really might have to question your Fanhood
go stillers
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
i don’t understand this. the NFL is a huge cash cow, making insane amounts of money. How are they possibly requiring budget cuts? The network already is mostly stale. Cutting studio shows will only make the network more expendable in the eyes of the cable companies.
FAIL
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I don’t understand NFLN’s argument of why they think the cable companies should place their network on the basic tier. If it goes on the basic tier, then that per-subscriber cost will be pushed to all cable customers as part of their basic tier price. My understanding is that cable companies choose which channels to put on their basic tier based on a variety of factors, but largely due customer demand and clamoring (in the cable companies’ minds, if a large chunk of customers are clamoring for NFLN then they there won’t be a big uproar over the increase in the price of the basic tier to pay for adding NFLN). Apparently cable customers aren’t clamoring for NFLN on the basic tier or otherwise the cable companies wouldn’t be putting up a fight with NFLN. Where does NFLN get off thinking they can force their way onto the basic tier? To me its a matter of demand and economics. I don’t understand their rationale. I admit I haven’t followed the NFLN versus cable companies story, so maybe I’m missing something.
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Great news IMO. Jamie Dukes is a giant waste of space (pun semi-intentional).
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
GET RID OF EISEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
If the NFL Network was put on basic cable, wouldn’t that cause an increase in basic cable rates?
I can think of a lot of channels off of the top of my head that I would like to get rid of, if it meant lower cable rates. I get several channels now that I just don’t watch or have any interest in.
For me personally, I would only be watching the NFL Network during the NFL season. I would have no use for it in the off season and I don’t want to pay for that network just so I could see the one game that my favorite team plays in that the NFL Network will be airing.
In short, I have no interest in the NFL Network if it means a cable rate increase.
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
oh boy does this mean more Football Follies programming from 1978?
I guess its better than Deion’s yelling
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Let cable sell the Sunday Ticket.
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Bye Bye Jamie Dukes!
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Are you sure Jamie Dukes is being cut for budget reasons? Based on the tension on the set during the draft, I don’t know if Dukes is all that popular among his collegues.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
So fifty percent of their studio programming will be dedicated to kiddieball???
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Rating: Not yet rated
May 20th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Seriously, NFLN is on about the same level as ESPN Classic these days. They should be showing OLD TELECASTS every night, or once a week at least. Do they really get ratings from airing games from last season over and over again or their stupid Cheerleader reality show? Do they think people like to watch Rich Eisen 25 times a day??? Their programming lineup is almost smug, like we can throw anything on here and people will watch. It’s great that they put the old Super Bowls on there, but why only in January/February? I mean, if they came out with a schedule of old broadcasts from the 60’s/70’s/80’s/90’s, we’d all be interested. The network has been an absolute disaster from the get-go.
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Rating: 2 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I saw NFLN last fall while on a business trip - not impressed. I recently switched from Comcast to Direct TV - even less impressed by the off season programming (though I did miss the draft coverage, which I heard was OK). On the other hand, I’d rather have NFLN than all the other channels that sell useless crap. I wish they’d just let you pick what channels you want instead of packaging 150 of which only 40 are watchable. Honestly, TWO channels of MTV that don’t have music? What’s the point?
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Rating: 4.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I saw NFLN last fall while on a business trip - not impressed. I recently switched from Comcast to Direct TV - even less impressed by the off season programming (though I did miss the draft coverage, which I heard was OK). On the other hand, I’d rather have NFLN than all the other channels that sell useless crap. I wish they’d just let you pick what channels you want instead of packaging 150 of which only 40 are watchable. Honestly, TWO channels of MTV that don’t have music? What’s the point? Ten religion channels?
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
A classic case of the fan getting screwed here by both sides.
The NFL and the cable companies both suck here. Meanwhile, the network
rots away as the two sides squabble. Get the channel on the roster for a couple bucks extra a month you idiots — the real fans will pay.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I do pay extra for the sports tier on cable; it’s $5 a month extra. But they could get rid of the Spanish-language channels and other CRAP, and put NFLN on it’s regular channels.
Bring back the Game of the Week!
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I like “Put Up Your Dukes”. I’ll take Jamie Dukes over Deion “Lemme ax you a ketchin” Sanders anyday.
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
How did Jaime Dukes even get that job? I had to look him up in Wikipedia (and even there he takes up too much space), and he only started in 62 games for three different teams. WTF?
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
NFL Films got it’s budget drastically cut because of the rise of NFLN. While I’m thrilled that Jamie Dukes (and hopefully, panty waste, Tom Waddle) may be disappearing, I don’t understand why this is a financial necessity. They have been pretty successful with limited commercial interruption.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I have Cablevision & don’t have the NFL Network. I remember reading a while back that the NFLN wanted more money than the CNN package & many other bigger cable networks. I think they have a big set asking for that kind of money. Although I would love to have the NFLN,I really don’t blame cable operators for not carrying it putting it in a higher teir of programming. Maybe they should stop hiring the high priced washed up old players that don’t know what they are talking about to save some $$$.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I pay for it an I don’t mind there the only place besides here my Patriots don’t get torn apart on an hourly basis
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Get Deon off there. He speeke da samme lanwiage as do Emmit Smiff!
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 20th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I guess belt tightening means not putting the Draft or studio shows in HD anymore? Oh wait, that don’t do that anyways, never mind…..
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Rating: Not yet rated
May 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Would be happy to see Dukes get his walking papers. Dukes AND Eisen? I’d be estatic….
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Rating: 1.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)