great article...thanks for the heads up...at least the good people of texas are on to the jones scam!

You're as much a shill for the cable companies as Jerry is for the NFL network.

It's called capitalism and competition. Cable companies aren't the poor helpless little victims you've made them out to be. They're multibillion dollar ventures themsleves. Jerry has the right to fight and scream and bully them, they have the right not to carry the NFL network.

Let the markets decide! I just moved and ordered satellite so I could get the NFL network. Otherwise, I probably would have chosen cable.

i think you need to look up the definition of shill.

actually, here are two definitions;
1. a person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating, as at a gambling house, auction, confidence game, etc.
2. a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.

as an actual customer who has paid for both services i don't fit the definition. from your comments it is also clear that you don't have a grasp on the concepts of capitalism and/or competition, either.

finally, perhaps you can point out the passage(s) in which the cable companies are portrayed as "hapless vicitms."

Sal admits he likes cable. Gotcha! ...I think

So once again the cable companies make a bad business decision and expect somebody to bail them out. I am charter member of Directv and its the best decision of my life. And not just because of the NFL Network.

The cable companies had the same opportunity to get NFL Sunday Ticket as Directv and they passed. Directv had the foresight to see this as a tremendous marketing differentiator and seized the opportunity... You snooze you lose...

How do I know that cable knows the error of its ways. When the Sunday Ticket contract came up for renewal the cable companies sued Directv to get the exclusivity removed when that failed they lobbied Congress to take the NFL's monolopy exemption away. Didn't see those little tidbits in your article.

Is it Directv's problem that you didn't have the foresight to make sure the property had a clear view of the southern sky? And don't mislead people its the same restriction regardless of whether or not you have high definition. Which I do and it blows away the cable High Def signal which is why all my neighbors come over here and 2 have made the switch to Directv.

And if you truly had Directv you know its has to pretty much rain cats and dogs before you might lose your signal..I've never lost my signal over a few raindrops...

yes, providing us with blog posts from free republic really is quite the investigative coup.

rather than post a link with a misleading summary, here is the actual text.

"Senator goes after NFL - Specter argues DirectTV's Sunday Ticket rights unfair
SI.com ^ | 7 DEC 2006 | AP


Posted on 12/07/2006 6:07:31 PM PST by MikefromOhio


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Football League's ability to negotiate exclusive sports packages is under fire from the outgoing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., twice said he would introduce legislation in the next session aimed at eliminating the league's freedom from antitrust laws.

Specter said the NFL should not use the exemption to negotiate exclusive programming packages such as DirectTV Inc.'s "Sunday Ticket," which allows viewers to watch teams outside their regional market.

"As I look at what the NFL is doing today with the NFL channel with the DirectTV ... a lot of people, including myself, would like to be able to have that ticket," Specter said.

But the 1961 law that gives the NFL this freedom should not apply to DirectTV because it is not "sponsored programming," said Stephen Ross, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University and chair of the school's sports law institute. He said the Pennsylvania senator could be using the threat of legislation to pressure the NFL to make changes voluntarily.

Access to out-of-market football games was one of many consumer fairness issues addressed during the hearing. Another hot topic was whether cable providers should be forced to share sports broadcasting rights with every service provider in an area."

your comments are as incoherent as would be expected from someone with extremely challenged reading comprehension. not only didn't you understand my post, you don't understand the post of the link that you provided.

as far as your comments with regard to making sure i had a clear view to the southern sky, i purchased my home before hi-def was available on directv...it's not like living in a trailer park. and directv's signal was unreliable in any kind of weather, rain or snow.

Don't go into a roid rage their Sal. Looks like others have picked up on the silliness of this particular rant as well. Better luck with your next topic.

I have some experience with satellite down here in oft-stormy Florida, and I can assure you that the signal tends to crap out every time a passing cloud even thinks about sweating out a little rain.

In short, satellite sucks. Of course, cable isn't exactly great either (the local cable company here apparently has an employment policy that requires them to hire only semi-literate high school drop-outs with speech impediments), but it's way, way better than the alternative.

Not exactly the best research done in this article, DirecTV has about 15.68 million US subscribers as of 3rd quarter 2007.

And the above referenced notes about Jerry Jones being a shill are laughable. Jerry Jones is a business owner plain and simple, his job is to make money off of his product. Why should he or the NFL sell their product to any pay tv operator, whether it be cable or satellite for one dollar below market value?

Answer-he should not, he and his associates should negotiate the best deal possible.

So Jerry Jones supports the NFL Network on Direct TV. Good for him. Cable sucks. Cable wants to make the NFL Network a premium channel you have to pay extra for. The NFL won't let that happen and I fully support the NFL position. When a new channel is available Direct TV just adds it to the base package no questions asked. Cable tries to figure out a why to charge you extra.

Sounds like Sal really enjoys paying more for cable. Keep up the good work Sal.

Here is what Commissioner Roger Goodell had to say!!

"We are working as hard as we can to get the NFL Network and all other cable systems on terms that don't involve charging our fans extra. None of the current distributors of NFL Network have raised their rates due to adding our channel to their system. Right now some big cable operators want to make the NFL Network a pay extra or Pay-Per-View option. That is not good for our fans or fair to our fans, and we are not agreeing to that as such.

"The problem we face is that those big cable operators treat independent programmers differently than the channels they own. It's not a level playing field. We are fighting to be treated like their own channels. That's what's best for our fans and what we want our fans to understand. We want these upcoming games starting Thursday night and everything else on the NFL Network, including our two college bowl games, available to all fans on terms that will be good for all involved, including the cable operators that are currently holding out."

What's the big deal...the cable companies are saying that cuostomer arn't complaning so why should we put the NFL network on our line up. I say correct, if the cable costomer don't care then the channel shouldn't be on cable. Cable shouldn't get the Network. What's the problem? Call your cable company or switch to Direct TV if you are a fan of football. As you said Sal - you don't care about watching the 49er - Bengals. I'm sure you don't care about watching the biggest NFC game in yrs (GB @ Dallas) either. As a football fan, I like watching all games including 49ers - Bengals. As a general rule - an NFL game is better then no game at all. Yeah! I'm questing your fanhood.

Personally I would rather listen to the games broadcast by Jim Gordon on the radio of an old pickup truck with a case of beer and a hound next to me - you can throw the cans into the back through the sliding window when you are done and they will rattle out on your way home, just hit enough bumps.

I think they are all money hungry grubs or capitalists which is what it is all about. The best advice is stick with your home team and buy a terrestrial HD receiver with an antenna, but you have to have a good shot at the broadcast signal, which may or may not be south or tree blocked depending on where you live in relation to signal origin.

For those of us who don't live near the "home team" - i.e. me - DIRECTV has us by the short hairs for NFL action. And oh yeah they tug on those short hairs to up charge you $100 for Sunday Ticket in HD. I swear the non-HD broadcasts are less quality then the non-HD broadcast on the networks or ESPN. Might be my cheap eyes "feeling" the effect of another tug on my pubes?

The NFL is huge draw and continues to experience huge growth in their market demand - how they manage it in the coming years will be interesting, as new competitors will continue to mount a challenge to capture some of the cheese.

Did you see that football stick in the ground last night in Pittsburgh? Like a wedge shot to a wet green from 100 yards out - except I would have hit the wrong green.

The NFL Network is fine for broadcasting extra content and replays. But restricting access to games to this silly unnecessary channel is disgusting. The NFL is sapping the fun out of the game by making it so blatantly obvious that they're just money-grubbing corporate greed-mongers.

Of course we all know that the NFL is run by disgusting greed-mongers, but they shouldn't throw it in the face of the fans by pulling a stunt like this. It makes the NFL less fun and will ultimately cost them money.

Let the regular networks have the games. And while you're at it, get rid of this Thursday game BS and move those games back to Sunday. A game like Cowboys/Packers should be commentated by Aikman or Madden.

The worst part of the Jones holding views "hostage" is we were tortured by Bryant Gumble. Bryant... you still sound like a morning news wanta be.