NFL fans’ kicks are blocked

Cindy and Eugene Pacheco are die-hard Denver Broncos fans, like many people who live in Colorado. Eugene, a former Mile High Stadium vendor, proudly sports a Broncos tattoo.

This Thanksgiving, their plans were set. Family members would be coming to their Colorado Springs house for the holiday, and they would all settle in tonight to watch the Broncos take on the host Kansas City Chiefs, the first in an exclusive eight-game package on the NFL Network.

One problem. The Pachecos now can’t get the game.

They said their cable company, which is now under the Comcast umbrella, did offer a “silver package” that included the NFL Network on a digital tier but was charging for a digital box.

“I don’t want to pay $70 a month for a box just to watch the one game,” Cindy said.

“Now we’re scrambling. We’re trying to find a place to watch it, or we’ll just go to a bar. The family will have to leave. Our teenager will have to stay home and watch our little boy. It’s unfair. It’s some kind of ploy to make money.”

It’s worse for customers of Time Warner Cable, which has nearly 2 million subscribers in the L.A. market and also covers much of the Kansas City area. They currently can’t get NFL Network even if they are willing to pay for a premium tier.

Time Warner is one of three major cable providers mired in a stalemate over carriage issues with the 3-year-old league-owned network.

The months-long impasse over higher fees and cable tiers comes down to this: 50 million cable television households nationwide won’t be able to get tonight’s game. With no ongoing talks, an 11th-hour deal seems unlikely.

The Pachecos, like other disgruntled cable subscribers, could have switched to satellite -- both Dish Network and DirecTV carry the NFL Network -- but it’s too late for tonight’s game.

And though the NFL’s exclusivity arrangement allows local broadcasts in the teams’ cities, that didn’t help the Pachecos. They live in part of a large section of Colorado beyond the reach of Denver’s Channel 31.

The dispute has led to a nasty marketing war and even caught the attention of Congress.

Time Warner, Charter -- which has 374,000 customers in the L.A. market -- and New York-based Cablevision are among the companies that want to put the NFL Network on a digital sports tier, which costs about $5 a month more per subscriber. NBA TV, College Sports Television (CSTV) and the Tennis Channel are among the channels already on such a premium tier.

The NFL Network is demanding that it be part of the basic cable package, thus reaching more viewers.

Another sticking point is the rights fee the NFL Network is asking from cable companies, now estimated to be about $8.25 per subscriber a year, or about 69 cents a month. Before the NFL Network acquired the eight-game package from its parent company, the rate was around $3.

Time Warner spokesman Mark Harrad said the company simply does not want to pass the cost of carrying the NFL Network to all its customers, since “75% to 80% are not sports fans.”

NFL Network officials dispute that number, saying 135 million people watch NFL football each weekend and that last season, 200 million watched the regular season at some point. Yet Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, has carried the NFL Network for two years and still offers it, including in the Denver area, but only as part of a premium digital package.

Cox Communications, which has 243,000 subscribers in the L.A. market, mostly in coastal areas, worked out an arrangement similar to Comcast’s to carry the NFL Network on a digital tier.

Steve Bornstein, president of the NFL Network, was asked about the distribution problem during an interview at the network’s studios in Culver City.

“I don’t see it as a distribution problem,” he said. “I look at it as the glass half full. I think the growth we’ve had -- 40 million homes -- has been remarkable. I don’t think any other network has grown this fast.

“I’m hopeful by the end of the day we’ll be broadly distributed.”

And when will that be?

“I have a long horizon line,” he said.

NFL fans don’t.

Although tonight’s game will be televised by Fox affiliates in Denver and Kansas City, those teams have fan bases that stretch over multi-state areas beyond the reach of those stations. The outrage is expected to be intense.

The NFL Network is, in fact, counting on that.

Pat Bowlen, owner of the Broncos and chairman of the NFL’s Broadcast Committee, was asked by Sports Illustrated recently what he would do.

“Get a dish,” he said.

In Los Angeles, where there is no NFL team and thus no local broadcast of any of the eight games, fans expressed anger and dismay months ago.

The fight began when Time Warner Inc. joined with Comcast Corp. to buy the assets of Adelphia Communications Corp. That changed everything.

The fight in Los Angeles began Aug. 1 when Time Warner, which at the time served 400,000 homes in the market, took control of Adelphia’s 1.1 million households and Comcast’s 500,000 and immediately dropped the NFL Network.

Satellite carriers DirecTV and Dish Network went after those cable customers.

In the last month, millions have been spent on radio, TV and newspaper ads from the warring factions. In one, the NFL Network also publicized its website, iwantnflnetwork.com, that allows users to e-mail the cable company to complain or to click on a link to order satellite.

Dish and DirecTV also have been advertising quick installation, but DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer concedes that tonight’s game is a lost cause.

The satellite company has set its sights on the next game, when the Cincinnati Bengals play host to the Baltimore Ravens on Nov. 30, knowing that the Dec. 7 game between the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers could create even more demand.

This marketing war got the attention of Congress last week. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to look into the carriage dispute.

“We’re intrigued, to put it mildly, with what the NFL has in mind,” said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who asked how cable and satellite rates would be affected and whether the NFL Network’s limited distribution violates the antitrust exemption Congress granted the league in 1961.

Jeffrey Pash, NFL executive vice president and general counsel, told the panel that pro football’s popularity was justification for the rate hike. He also argued that the game package does not run afoul of antitrust laws because the games expand choices for consumers. Besides, he said, the league’s current television contracts make any significant changes impossible until 2011.

Yet, Time Warner Chief Operating Officer Landel Hobbs also testified, calling the NFL Network’s rates “out of whack” when compared with viewership ratings.

That was 10 days ago. And neither side has budged.

“You have to weigh upsetting all of your customers against not having eight games over six weeks,” Time Warner’s Harrad said, adding that most of its NFL fans probably have already switched to DirecTV because of its exclusive Sunday Ticket pay package that offers out-of-market NFL games.

The number of cable customers who have defected to satellite isn’t yet clear, but NFL Network’s Bornstein knows he is facing a tough battle.

“It is difficult to characterize the NFL as an underdog,” he said, “but we are an independent programmer. In today’s day and age, that’s a very rare breed.

“We just have to wait and see what happens.”

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larry.stewart@latimes.com

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Out of their league

A vast majority of cable subscribers in the Los Angeles market do not have access to NFL Network.

Breakdown of L.A.’s 4 million cable and satellite subscribers

Time Warner: 48%

Satellite: 30%

Charter: 9%

Other cable: 7%

Cox: 6%

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Source: NFL Network. Graphics reporting by Joel Greenberg