The NFL agreed today to allow the Patriots-Giants game to be broadcast on network TV instead of on its own NFL Network. (Ah, if only they’d done that for the Packers-Cowboys game.) The NFL Network is a bad idea because, as it is currently structured (with the NFL demanding high fees from cable companies to broadcast it), it takes football away from its fans, and results in a net decrease in revenues to the league. Sure, if the NFL can pull off getting its own network on virtually every basic cable package in the country it will work, but that means that it may have to accept less revenue from it than its models anticipated. Meanwhile, there’s a bunch of fifty- to sixty-year old guys with perpetually achy knees in Miami who will quietly be rooting for the Giants as they watch the game on regular network TV.
