said by jarthur31:Not true! The could get at least double that if they allowed cable companies to broadcast or even sell directly sell to consumers (via PC viewing).
Do you have any actual proof? Or are you just pulling numbers out of the air?
Allowing other companies rights would result in DirectTV only bidding at a fraction of what they pay now. The other providers also aren't going to submit bids in the range that DirecTV does now.
And for all providers, the cost for providing the more or less fixed number of games each week will be constant. But if they only have a portion of the total number of subscribers, the cost per subscriber also goes up. That means in the end either customers are going to pay more, or the cable companies are going to make less. Which do you think is going to happen?
There is 0 chance that the NFL is going to give up $700m/year in revenues, which is exactly what you are saying they are doing by not allowing multiple providers. I'll concede that they
might make more with multiple providers, but that also comes with additional headaches. Instead of 1 contract every couple of years that has to be renegotiated, you now are dealing with every MSO.
The NFL has also expressed concerns about protecting local networks and stations...the two things that matter more for TV rights. NFL:ST viewers don't count for Nelson ratings. The more people that subscribe to NFL:ST, the lower the Nelson ratings could be. This results in lower advertising revenues as advertising rates are set based on the ratings. Whether this is a red herring, I don't know. Out of market games aren't going to have a huge impact on ratings, and national games (Sunday & Monday nights) aren't available on NFL:ST either.