Schechter’s Lectures No. 5: Time Warner and NFL Network Finally Deal

This week, we begin talking about a deal that finally occured, nine years in the making. But should it really have taken this long?

School’s in session. Take your seats.

The NFL Netwrok is finally in millions of homes around the country, that have been without it in the nine years since it has existed. I am one of those customers, and I cannot tell you how exciting it is. I was practically weeping with joy when I turned on channel 176 on my television and saw the NFL Network. Congratulations, finally, to all NFL fans that were hamstrung by Time Warner all of these years. But, did Time Warner really need to make it take this long?

I mean, for God’s sake, James Dolan gave up and brought the network on Cablevision first. Really? The same guy that has run the Knicks into the toilet, figured out that it was in his best interest to put the NFL Network on, and still Time Warner hadn’t? I mean, seriously, you have the worst customer service already, and you already nickel and dime your customers every minute of the day. Nine years. If Time Warner didn’t have monopolies in their areas, they would have had no customers left by now!

And the deal seems really obvious. Now that the Redzone channel is out, the deal reached, was that the NFL Network would be on the basic tier, and the Redzone channel on the sports tier for extra money per month. Doesn’t that seem like an obvious compromise? Did it really have to take years to figure that out?

I guess when you are talking about a couple of bucks, and screwing over NFL fans, it DOES take years to figure that out. Oh well. Better late than never I guess.

Extra credit lecture on the next page.