Friday, August 04, 2006

NFL Network Back on Time Warner - For Now

UPDATE: 4:00 PM 8/4/06: We still haven't seen a banner from Time Warner with the notification that the NFL Network is going away. But NFL Network itself is running one of those top-screen crawls...warning Time Warner Cable viewers that the network is back, "but not for long". The NFL Network crawl is once again urging people to call a toll-free number to show they want TWC to keep the network...

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After taking most of the day to think it over, Time Warner Cable returned the NFL Network feed to its systems that were formerly owned by Adelphia and Comcast.

Broadcasting and Cable reports, however, that it's quite temporary.

TWC also filed its response to the NFL Network's plea to the Federal Communications Commission. And the giant cable MSO is now said to be running a crawl to fulfill the 30 day FCC-required notice - to allow dump the channel again if an agreement is not reached between now and then.

We can confirm that NFL Network is once again back in place on the former Adelphia system in greater Cleveland, though we haven't seen the notification crawl yet here. Time Warner customers on the company's existing Akron-based Northeast Ohio system have never had the channel.

The move means that local TWC customers on the former Adelphia and Comcast systems will get to see the bulk of the network's pre-season coverage, including most of the network's planned 52 pre-season games (mostly delayed).

But whether they'll see anything beyond that is anyone's guess, as the cable operator and the league-owned network still seem to be very far apart...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having the open mind that I do, I actually checked out nflgetreal.com. What a sham. TW's argument is for the NFL Network to go in a sports tier targeted to - who else - sports fans is ridiculous. Then I'd have to end up with one channel I DO want (NFL Network) and a bunch of garbage I don't want (The Tennis Channel? NBA-TV? As if I didn't get ENOUGH LeBron James coverage living in NE Ohio). Them saying they are acting for their customer's benefit is more than a bit disingenous.

Anonymous said...

Remember when I used to host cash explosion double play? We had a blast on that show. Although, ometimes I'd get a stern talking to after the show from Sharon Bicknell...just b/c I would look at a contestant the wrong way. I guess I never thought there was anything wrong with giving out "bonus cards" to the hotter contestants.

Anonymous said...

It's not on former Comcast people. It's just a screen saying we'll have it till 9/3

Anonymous said...

This must just be an Adelhpia thing I guess. I have called TWC and they tell me Comcast is not getting NFL back. No clue why. All we have on both NFL Network channels (180 and 275) is a message that we are losing NFL Network on 9/3. How can we lose something we don't have?

I've spoken with 5 or 6 CSR's that have said the same thing that we won't be getting it back. And calling Comcast has been useless as they have no clue about NFL Network.

How fun!