Network
“Comcast threatened the NFL,” Gregg Levy said at a federal hearing into the leagues case against the largest U.S. cable company. Levy called Comcasts decision to move the NFL Network to a channel package that costs extra and is seen by fewer people “revenge” by the Philadelphia-based operator.
The NFL is trying to force Comcast to increase the number of its cable-television subscribers who get the leagues NFL Network. The hearing at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington is to determine whether Comcast acted properly in 2007 when it moved the network, including live broadcasts of football games, to a sports package that costs extra and is available to fewer viewers.
Michael Carroll, an attorney for Comcast, said the company had acted within its rights to move NFL Network to the less- watched package because the network charges three times as much as programming the league holds out as comparable.
“It is not discrimination to make choices based on price,” Carroll told Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel.
The NFL wants to be carried alongside Comcasts own sports programming, Versus and Golf Channel, which it says are available to at least 19.8 million of the cable companys 24.2 million subscribers.
Comcasts package that offers the NFL Network has 2.1 million viewers, the league said in pre-trial filings.
The NFL filed its complaint against Comcast in May. The FCCs media bureau in October made an initial determination that Comcast improperly demanded a financial interest in the NFLs programming. It sent the case to Sippels office for a recommended decision that would need approval by the FCCs appointed commissioners to take effect.
Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Comcast Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts are among potential witnesses at the hearing.