Football Fight Turns Political

Who says you can’t fight City Hall? You can if you’re Time Warner Cable, a division of the largest media company in the world. And the mighty NFL as well.

The cable television giant and NFL Network are in the midst of a bitter dispute, and the Los Angeles City Council is on NFL Network’s side, as evidenced by a resolution passed Friday.

But even with City Hall on its side, NFL Network faces a difficult battle that could keep it out of 2 million cable homes in the Greater L.A. market, and 600,000 homes within the L.A. city limits.

For three years, Time Warner Cable has refused to carry the league-owned network, which launched in November 2003.

And when Time Warner Cable recently replaced Adelphia and Comcast cable in the L.A. market, it took NFL Network away from those customers who were getting it.

The Federal Communications Commission ordered Time Warner Cable to put NFL Network back into those homes for 30 days, since it was taken off without warning.

The City Council resolution asked the FCC to extend the order to restore NFL Network indefinitely.

The FCC order drew a 67-page response from Time Warner Cable, and that, in turn, generated a 24-page legal brief filed by NFL Network on Monday.

The idea behind the FCC order was to give both parties more time to work out their differences.

Those differences, however, are significant.

Time Warner wants to put NFL Network on a sports tier that costs customers $2-$5 a month extra -- and maybe more down the road.

NFL Network wants to be carried as a basic service, along with CNN, TBS, USA, ESPN and so on, giving it much greater exposure.

The more viewers, the more NFL Network can charge advertisers.

That part also works for Time Warner, since it gets several minutes of advertising time each hour.

“We do want to carry NFL Network,” Time Warner Cable spokesman Keith Cocozza said Monday from the company’s corporate headquarters in Stamford, Conn. “We have made them offer after offer.”

But, he added, NFL Network is unwilling to be put on a sports pay tier.

Cocozza said that since NFL Network added an eight-game, late-season package, it had raised its rate to cable companies 250%. Sources say the rate went from about 25 cents per subscriber a month to about 70 cents.

NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky, although declining to confirm the rate, said, “For a year, it’s less than a movie ticket.”

But that’s per subscriber, and Time Warner has 14 million subscribers nationally. That amounts to more than a $100-million annual tab for the cable company.

“That’s $100 million for eight out-of-market games,” Cocozza said, specifying “out-of-market” because in cities that have NFL teams, those games must be televised on an over-the-air channel.

Cocozza, pointing out that NBA TV is among the channels on Time Warner Cable’s sports tier, said, “And NBA TV carries 88 live games, as compared to eight on NFL Network.”

NFL Network also offers an extensive schedule of exhibition games, midweek replays and game highlights during the season, the network’s video-on-demand content and round-the-clock NFL programming.

One NFL Network executive suggested the real reason Time Warner Cable doesn’t want to put the network on basic cable is because it would compete with the many Time Warner-owned networks, which include TBS, TNT, Turner Movie Classics, and CNN.

“That’s simply not true,” Cocozza said. “That’s a separate division, and those networks have to negotiate just like everyone else.”

Time Warner Cable, the country’s only major cable or satellite company without a deal with NFL Network, claims it is looking out for its customers in not having to raise rates for a network not everyone wants. NFL Network claims it is looking out for pro football fans who shouldn’t have to pay extra.

Can a deal still be worked out?

“I hope cooler minds will prevail,” Cocozza said.

Said New York sports television consultant Neal Pilson, “These things have a way of working out.”

*

Retiring NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue put NFL Network in the news Monday. Meeting with a half-dozen or so writers in his New York office, he was asked about Bryant Gumbel’s commentary on HBO’s “Real Sports” last week.

In an “open letter” to new Commissioner Roger Goodell, Gumbel said, “Before he cleans out his office, have Paul Tagliabue show you where he keeps Gene Upshaw’s leash. By making the docile head of the players’ union his personal pet, your predecessor kept the peace without giving players the kind of guarantees other pros take for granted. Try to make sure no one competent ever replaces Upshaw on your watch.”

Tagliabue told the writers, “What Gumbel said about Gene Upshaw and our owners is about as irresponsible as anything I’ve heard in a long time.”

According to the Associated Press, Tagliabue also said Gumbel’s role as the play-by-play announcer for NFL Network’s eight-game package would be a point of discussion between Goodell and NFL Network President Steve Bornstein after Goodell takes office Sept. 1.