Out House Networks May Jam Bucs Fans
April 20th, 2011
[CLARIFICATION: Per Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, the NFL allows NFL Network games to be simulcast on a free broadcast station in the markets of the participating teams, as always, provided there is no blackout.]
[CLARIFICATION II: NFL Network spokesman Dennis Johnson returned one of Joe’s e-mails this afternoon and confirmed the broadcast feed of the Saturday night game with Dallas will be offered to an over-the-air station in the Tampa Bay area.]
Now that the Bucs schedule has been released, Joe finds it more than a bit interesting one of the prime time home games will be on the Man’s Channel, the NFL Network.
Loyal readers of Joe know how much Joe worships the NFL Network. If Joe was given the choice of a lengthy, sweaty, heavy-breathing, late-night tryst with Rachel Watson or giving up the NFL Network, Joe would have to think and ponder quite a while, and lean toward passing on Rachel.
That’s how good the NFL Network is.
It’s comfort food for the thinking football fan. In the throes of an offseason with no NFL games in sight, when the powers that be who proudly fly the hammer and sickle in Bristol are doing their best to try to ram down your throat the non-basketball association, the NFL Network is a pure oasis.
There are, after all, other busty Bucs cheerleaders to enjoy a moment of rapture with; there is only one NFL Network.
Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, the Saturday night game against the Cowboys is sold out. That means a great percentage of the Tampa Bay area might not see the Bucs play on a Thursday night.
And the villain in this all but true tale is the satanic Out House Networks.
Column intermission: Joe knows many people who work for this outfit. This has nothing to do with them, good people all. This has everything to do with the suits who run that syndicate.
Out House Networks has long been hostile to football fans in this market and holding the area hostage from not having the NFL Network borders on racketeering in Joe’s eyes. Just like the mob in Little Italy strong-armed innocent citizens to cough up cash each month all for the sake of protection, Out House Networks may actually serve the good football fans of the Tampa Bay area, so long as they can take both naive consumers and cable operators to the cleaners.
But the strange dance partner in all of this is Team Glazer. Out House Networks is a pewter partner, a corporate sponsor of the Buccaneers. How rich will it be that the very same corporate sponsor of the Tampa Bay area’s favorite sports team will prevent the very same fans from watching the game, for reasons that are not quite clear.
In fact, there are no reasons. If Out House Networks can cram every godless, boring, vapid shopping channel onto its basic cable packages — channels that consumers involuntarily pay for through the nose — and Out House Networks can boast at every commercial how it cares for the community, and burn countless dollars (fronted by customers) and electricity to break such Pulitzer Prize-winning stories such as how the Brandon city park has a new swing set and a ditch in Largo needs widening, then this same outfit can surely add the NFL Network.
Lest anyone forget, Team Glazer owns a 1/32 piece of the NFL Network. So one of the Buccaneers corporate sponsors is doing its best to keep the Bucs themselves from making a profit and growing its brand. Can you imagine?
Last week Team Glazer explained, through both confidential sources and rock star general manager Mark Dominik, how the team was going on the offensive in order to ensure the Bucs are marketed to hungry football fans. One step was offering to play a home game in London. Yet one of its own corporate sponsors will prevent a large swath of its own fan base from watching the game, for no valid reason.
In short Bucs fans, if you want to guarantee you see the Bucs play the Cowboys on the glorious NFL Network and the game is sold out, there are four cable TV carriers available in the Tampa Bay area — five if you include Sarasota — and only one does not have the NFL Network.
If ever there was a time for Bucs fans to disable this corrupt cable, it is now Bucs fans.
Once you watch the NFL Network, you can’t imagine why you deprived yourself for so long. It’s like living without running water.
Joe doesn’t need to know what the damned temperature is every five minutes.
Joe suspects area football fans need the NFL Network.
April 20th, 2011 at 8:46 am
Joe, the game will still be shown in the home and away markets, so the Tampa market will still see the game on a local channel.
April 20th, 2011 at 8:50 am
The NFL season package is exclusively on satellite, TW/BrightHouse do not want the NFL channel on their network because they are greedy. Since they could not get the season package they are not allowing the NFL network to grace there wonderful lineup. I bet if they got their fat greasy fingers on that contract the NFL network would be in.
That is how I like to think about it anyhow. I mean they have had to have had a ton of calls asking for it yet not peep.
April 20th, 2011 at 8:55 am
Good insight, nice job Joes.
April 20th, 2011 at 9:07 am
Well maybe it won’t be sold out and so no big loss!
Won’t get a TV package that does not have the NFL network (and a few others that they also don’t offer) so no bright house for me.
April 20th, 2011 at 9:59 am
Dropped Outhouse just for these reasons….. That and crap equiptment and would’nt upgrade me cause i’m not a new customer.
April 20th, 2011 at 9:59 am
“League policy allows ESPN and NFL Network games to be simulcast on a free broadcast station in the markets of the participating teams”… Shaking my head at those who do not research.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:05 am
Actually did research. NFL contacts have not responded. We emailed the Bucs and they did not know.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:18 am
“Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, the Saturday night game against the Cowboys is sold out. That means a great percentage of the Tampa Bay area might not see the Bucs play on a Thursday night.”
Wrong. If it’s sold out, it will be shown on a local station.
From Wikipedia (and common knowledge to many football fans):
“Local simulcasting of cable games”
To maximize TV ratings, as well as to protect the NFL’s ability to sell TV rights collectively, games televised on ESPN or the NFL Network are simulcast on a local broadcast station in each of the primary markets of both teams…However, the home team’s market can only air the game if it is sold out within 72 hours of kick-off.”
“Blackout procedure
If the blacked-out nationally televised game is on a cable television network such as ESPN or the NFL Network, all cable and satellite television providers in the affected markets must black out the cable network’s signal to customers in the affected markets during the game (this is a condition of the channels’ agreements with both the league and the providers). In addition, the game is not simulcast on a local broadcast station in the blacked-out markets. Local stations would still be able to show highlights on their newscasts after the game has concluded. In areas where the game is blacked out, ESPN and the NFL Network would generally offer alternate programming; local stations originally scheduled to carry the game would either show their own alternate programming or, if a network affiliate, show the normal network schedule for that night.”
So it will either be shown on BOTH the NFL Network and locally or neither.
So…isn’t this whole post null and void?
April 20th, 2011 at 10:21 am
Note: I believe this rule, at it’s core, exists because the NFL states that if a game is sold out, those locally have a right to be able to see it if they have a TV. Since local broadcasts are still over the air, one can view it without ANY cable provider.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:23 am
LOL well that’s a damn shame on our Bucs for not knowing. Just like when they played on ESPN, those who did not have the channel saw it on ABC. We send out these memos every NFL season to customers if they do not have ESPN/NFLN. MLBN has similar rules but they are not as open to it as some teams have their own agreements with local channels/flagships. The FCC regulates balance to some extent.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:24 am
Matt:
Joe knows for a fact ESPN farms out its games in both the home (if not blacked out) and visiting team’s markets to the local ABC affiliate, since both are owned by Disney.
What was it, two years ago when the Jets had a home game on NFL Network and since the two major cable carriers in greater New York did not have the NFL Network, there was a near riot in the streets.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:27 am
I tried to simplify it but Matt did good the full details on it. Good job sir.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:32 am
And “admin”, that was up to your carrier to turn it down. NFL sends letters to providers with what is allowed to be broadcast and the broadcasting stations have the right to accept or deny dependent on programming. For example, if your provider inquires with CBS or NBC to simulcast the game (if they are allowed two) and they both say “Sorry, the Jets SUCK” then no Jets game on TV. However, if the game IS sold out, the provider overrules ANYTHING the broadcasting station has to say and will show it.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Joe learned long ago not to trust Wikipedia.
Last night and this morning, Joe sent out emails and Twitter messages to many in the NFL media and the NFL offices including the NFL Network to confirm/deny the game will be farmed out to a local over-the-air station. As of 10:36 a.m. Joe has not received a reply from anyone.
Last night Joe contacted the Bucs and a spokesman told Joe he did not know.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:40 am
And for the record, bidding occurs between the stations the cable companies contacts and the NFL. Highest bidder earns the game.
Regarding your Jets comment, WPIX in NY carries the majority of the NFLN games for the Giants and the Jets.
April 20th, 2011 at 10:43 am
You seem to know a lot about this. How about providing some link to documents — not Wikipedia — so Joe can clear this up.
Or are you just grandstanding?
April 20th, 2011 at 10:47 am
Now this may be a way around things:
Verizon Wireless customers can get an NFL app that streams the NFL Network 24/7 including live game coverage. 🙂
April 20th, 2011 at 10:59 am
No not grandstanding. Just trying to “un-worry” the “worrisome”. Our links our intranet so there is nothing for me to send. Plus, I’m not going to risk my position over someone “trying to call me out.” However, the trib and sptimes have it in their articles.
We’ll be sending out correspondence in the next 30 days to our customers. If you want “documentation,” you can get it from them.
April 20th, 2011 at 11:20 am
Have to agree with mr. “doesn’t” b/c the same thing happened up in Jax before I transfered down here. WAWS won the rights to air the Jags game that was on NFLN. The game just has to be sold out.
April 20th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
“We send out these memos every NFL season to customers if they do not have ESPN/NFLN.”
Who the fuc* is “we”?
April 20th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
All of this is pointless really, Brighthouse should simply have the NFL channel and all this will they, won’t they, do they would be moot, well except it might not be a sellout in which case its still sort of moot.
I will tell you that the last Cowboys game in 09 (morris’s first game) was a sellout thanks to the Glaziers, as huge swaths of the stadium were empty seats…not as many as other games but by no means did Cowboy fan fill in the stadium.
Being later in the season maybe Cowboy fan will show up if his team is in a playoff race but maybe not.
April 21st, 2011 at 6:21 am
The reason TW/Brighthouse does not have NFL Network if because of the NFL’s greed not the cable company’s. If you have 100 million customers the NFL wants all 100 million to pay. If only 10 million of your customers want NFLN its not fair to make the other 90 million pay an increased rate for something they don’t care about.
April 21st, 2011 at 9:22 am
JT4ya:
You mean like about 30 percent of the channels Out House Networks currently has?
December 23rd, 2012 at 1:07 pm
I hooked my comutper to my 65″ flat screen for watch live football and now your software works just like my previous satellite dish service, except 100 times cheaper. Thank you!