Cable Operators Score Points in Battle With N.F.L.

Richard Sandomir of the NY Times reported, It’s been
a long time since anyone viewed the National Football League as marginal in any
way. Market muscle and viewership explain why the N.F.L. gets more television
money than any other league and why the NFL Network was conceived as having
nearly limitless appeal.

Then came
Bernard J. Fried, a Time Warner customer who, like me, cannot get the NFL
Network. Fried is a New York State Supreme Court justice who, in a decision
that he wrote May 4 but did not release until Thursday, ruled that Comcast
could move the NFL Network from a broad digital cable service to a
much-less-viewed digital sports tier.