NFL Network coming back to COMCAST

[sandtrapjack]

This from the Sports Business Journal, although it specifically mentions COMCAST, it has the capability to affect all major cable providers. We could see NFLN on every cable provider this fall:

"The NFL Network deal would be much more surprising, given the public acrimony between the NFL and Comcast over the past year. Sources said the NFL dropped its 70-cent per subscriber license fee significantly in order to get digital-basic penetration, the same tier that houses MLB Network. Though a deal hasn’t been signed, sources said Comcast would not take equity in the network.

Sources credit Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for providing the impetus behind getting a deal so close. A digital-basic Comcast deal would account for more than 10 million homes, pushing total carriage for the network to more than 40 million homes.

But just as important for the NFL is that once Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, cuts a deal, that other cable operators generally will fall in line.

The status of both sets of negotiations is certain to be a topic of discussion at the NFL owners spring meeting this week.

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