All I know Andy is that Comcast better either make the NFL Network available to it's regular subscribers, or be prepared to invest mucho dinero to upgrade its phone system and customer service staff.

Knowing football fans, they're going to get swamped with calls and complaints. I'm also going to guess more than a few switch to Sat TV.

Personally, I hate being forced to pay for all these channels and am glad Comcast is holding back.

Im told that at least $12.00 of our monthly cable bill goes to pay for the sports stations.

These football networks, then basketball, soccer, baseball all will add significant costs to the subscribers because Comcast refuses to go with an "alacarte" option, which would allow those who want them to pay for them.

I know I would gladly switch to satellite if they had an option to choose only the stations I wanted with a fair price for each.

Shawn — Thanks for your comments. You've got a nice idea here — allowing TV viewers to pay for channels they want.

But I doubt that will ever happen and we all have to deal with what's offered.

If you are unhappy with your cable provider, it might be worth it to speak with DirectTV. It can't hurt.

--Andy

The cable companies are criminals! Worse than the phone companies. I hope you are listening, TimeWarner and Comcast. The only way to avoid their systematic price gouging is to alternate between Satellite and Cable -- once their offers run out and you start getting hosed, sign up for an introductory offer from the other provider. Unfortunately, my new apartment building manager is a jerk and won't let me get satellite, so I'm stuck with TimeWarner who won't play ball with the NFL Network. We can all thank ESPN for the hose-down. ESPN signed ridiculous multi-year contracts with the cable providers years ago; and like the contracts of highly-paid athletes, all these back-loaded deals are crushing the backs of the providers. Passing the screw overs onto us! Yay! Go pats.

DV — You know what you're talking about!

I hope that they add ESPN Deportes in HD.

DV..
I believe one of the cable bills in the past makes it required that owners of multi-unit dwellings allow for the mounting of satellite antennas (as a way of allowing competitions).

You should contact Markey's office http://markey.house.gov/ to see if this is still true.. but I'm pretty sure it is.

In this case, however, the problem is not TimeWarner or Comcast. The national sports franchises hold the distributors hostage. They say "to get this station (which we know some of your subscribers want) you must pay us XX dollars per subscriber (all of em)." Then they throw ads and commentators out there telling fans to "contact your cable provider" to build up a false sense of demand. The sports franchisers see it as an easy revenue source, the distributors pass it on to the subscribers "we can't do anything about it," and we get stuck paying for things we don't want.

The only way to win is to break up the packages, or continue to switch (as you have recommended) from one system to another. If someone wants to watch 8 channels of college football, they should pay for it, just as someone who wants 8 channels of nickelodean should do so. Those who don't want the expensive channels should be able to opt-out.. not be forced to subsidize others.