NFL Network Scam

We may be NFL fans who love the product. But that doesn't mean we have to agree to sit idly by while the NFL sucks money like a leach from the public at large.

In the past we have ripped the NFL Network for making egregious money grabs in their cable deals. This morning the WSJ gives us some hard data to back up our claims.

Estimated Annual Affiliate Revenue divided by average household viewers over a 24 hour period:

NFL Network $6,642
ESPN Classic $3,781
Fuse $2,920
Military Channl $655
Arts & Entrtmt $456
Comedy Central $306
Home & Garden $249
Source: SNL Kagan

Can you imagine what the NFL Network was trying to get from Comcast by putting it on the first tier? Every man, woman and child paying top dollar standard cable money for football programming that most (even us, the football hardcores) do not even watch? Finally we get to see the numbers in their gaudy excess- are we shocked that the NFL Network is the #1 overcharger per eyeball? Of course not!

"But what distorts the picture is the absence of correlation between the size of the fees paid to the individual cable channels and their audiences."

18 game seasons, egregious cable contracts, PSLs... the NFL is after growth THROUGH ANY MEANS and it has a bullseye on YOUR wallet. Hold on tight, here comes the smash and grab.